If I haven’t made this clear, I believe that this strike is too show how strong the transit workers union is, and how easily they can paralyze New York. In the list I have been complying of reasons to leave, this is the final straw. Why? New York’s going to be much more expensive which is damn near impossible but…If the transit workers get their way, it will be precedent for other unions to walk, and somehow I can’t see anybody wanting a teachers strike–but what woman union president was very pro-strike? This sucks. Bush will use it as an excuse to cheat New York even more.
We’re digging our own hole here. And we already have a very large one downtown that we have not recovered from. Stores downtown are closing for good. This is killing the city and any empathy or sympathy I had for transit workers is gone. People deserve to work–everybody not just people with cushioned city jobs–and many transit workers do.
It’s six thirty in the morning and lights have been going on for hours as people prepare to walk to work. Since it’s relatively quiet I can hear my wing’s elevator whirring, it really makes strange noises.
I should volunteer to give out hot chocolate, but I have a bronchial cold, and today’s high is supposed to be 33 degrees. As I have plans for tonight through Monday, I would like to be well.
I know, I know I haven’t been very social lately and I’m not in the most social of moods but I want to see all these people. Of course want might increase proportionately to the odds of not being able to keep all apointments; some have already been cancelled. Tonight was in Tribeca, not a far walk in good weather but not a walk I want to take in freezing weather.
Keep on thinking about all the store clerks and waiters/waitresses who are on their feet all day and have to walk many miles to work and back. It has to be near impossible if they don’t live within three miles. Three miles or 60 city blocks is a good walk. But it’s cold and here near the Hudson windy
Many people in Manhattan have cars but they either pay hundreds of dollars a month in parking garage fees, the tax is seventeen percent alone. Or they’re slaves to alternate side of the street parking.
My cable is out; my cable always go out during emergencies. Fortunately, Kinehorah, the computer cable is still working, and there’s always Starbucks but I have a feeling my Starbucks is going to be packed.
I wish I knew if the strike is going to still be on, on Saturday; I wouldn’t be frantically looking for gifts, and I would get tickets to see Rumor has it The premise is so cool; finding out that your grandmother is Mrs. Robinson and Shirley McClaine is perfect for the role. It would have been even more cool had Anne Bancroft played Mrs. Robinson, a cute movie pun, but….I know I will think of her when I watch it. Anne Bancroft was a great actress. The second Broadway play I saw was The Miracle Worker and she was incredible. It was also a great play for kids to watch. She and Mel Brooks did a movie about a Polish, I think, acting troop that was a laugh a second
I could get tickets to plays, probably easily, and might get one to see Mike Leigh’s new play with Jennifer Jason Leigh. I will as I will go to museums, and do touristy things but probably everybody else has the same idea, and I hope that this doesn’t dissuade tourists from coming in.
My Times came at 3:30 this morning. I guess he has to finish by five. Gawd I really have to remember to tip him this year. But now I have to go back to sleep as it really is a snow/minor sick day for me.
There was an article in The Times on Sunday on how artists can’t afford to live in NY anymore. They usually require space.
Writers require little space. Writers with families require more. Here’s a link to an article in Slate on how unnaffordable that is becoming. Actually it talks about reporters in specific who have other skills and could get better jobs
I really don’t think my Masters in Social Work translates to much money anywhere. And yes I get very angry at the MTA employees who do make more money, have better benefits.
I resent the superiority of a union that couldn’t wait until after New Years or better until spring. It used to be a dangerous job; it’s not anymore.
I resent how Social Workers are supposed to work in sub-par conditions, retire at 65, if lucky because their salaries are too low to make retirement comfortable. People begin screaming when babies are found dead or abused. It’s always the social worker’s fault. Tried finding salary scales for city workers. Little difficult–and it’s a great website.
If they get what they want the next union to go out will be the teachers union who want to cut back retirement age to 55. Yes teaching is important, yes people sacrifice but damn, so do other people. Sorry to be so hung up on this. But it’s okay for me to make little money because my profession has a funny name “social work,” but not okay for anybody else?
We have never recovered from 9/11 and at this rate never will.
Oh let me go before I lose the five remaining people who still like me
Good luck. Living in France, strikes are a regular occurrence. But near Christmas, well what a pain. Shopping chaos will be increased no doubt, or maybe not. Maybe the tourist shoppers will be stuck in their hotels and cabs wondering how to get around without the subway.
-Fruey
I think people forget how much the city relys on public transportation. I really hope that this is resolved soon… and that Bloomberg figures out that fines will not work!
Get well. I can’t think of a worse thing for the holidays than a cranky and sick Pia…
I wasn’t meaning to be smart about the strike on my blog, I have an overly sarcastic personality. So many people have to walk to work, and that completely sucks. If you can’t afford a cab, what do you do? If you can’t miss work, what do you do? If you have to go to the doc/hospital/emergency, then what? It totally sucks. I just think people don’t agree with the strikers. Plus, I worked a LOT through Katrina, thought the passing out coffee/cocoa thing was funny. I’d take some free cocoa though, especially on a cold day!
I sure hope you’re getting around up there and staying warm, Pia. I’m sure you know where to find some good old fashioned chicken noodle soup for your sniffles. I hope you feel better and I wish you all the best for the holidays.
Yes, stay in and get well soon, Pia.
You thinking about the waiters and waitresses sounds like something I would think.
Alternate side? That reminds me of a…
Get well soon, Pia. I have a cough, which I think is kind of like a bronchial cold. Sympathies.
NY public schoolteachers I’ve known have at times worked without a contract for over a year to avoid stiking. That said, I have complete sympathy for this strike–and I am one of the ones who has had to walk miles to and from work in sub-freezing temperatures this week.
Striking is the only bargaining chip union workers have, and it’s criminal that the MTA pushed them to do it this week. I’m freelance, with only the most cursory health insurance (which I pay for myself) and a tiny retirement account; this makes me pro-union even MORE, not less. Every worker in this country, union or not, should have what the subway workers want. Would YOU like to work in the subway? Would YOU like to teach in a NYC public school? I thought not. You, “Pia Savage,” well know what it’s like to work caring for the public, for little money (consider pop stars earn, if we want to discuss fair compensation).
You are able to blog because you live off your family’s investments, as you have written earlier, so I’m compelled to call you on your opinions, and your hand-wringing about the “hole downtown.” It’s not so much of a hole anymore, have you left your “big deal” apartment building and ridden the subway down there lately?
Shoshona, I think that was a pretty unconstructive approach to the argument.
If you want to make comparisons, people in other parts of this country and lots of other countries work a lot harder for a lot less.
Workers are free to strike whenever they want and the people affected are free to sympathize or not sympathize.
I sympathize with New Yorkers who had to walk to work at ungodly hours. And, I also sympathize with workers who must strike to get what they consider fair compensation.
Fortunately, the strike is over now and everyone can get back to normal.
I have always had to rely on public transportation as my eyesight won’t permit me to drive. The people that I feel the most compassion for are the single, working mothers who have to wait on the bus to take their cranky children to day care, in the cold, at the crack of dawn; before going to work themselves.
And, I realize how important a social worker’s job is.
For one thing, I know that there will always be work for social workers.