The Subway Motorman

I think that this strike is a sham, a testament to pride and to power and will devastate the city. This was the first normal holiday season in four years. Most New Yorkers get a three percent a year raise; most New Yorkers feel underpaid and underappreciated. Very few people retire at 55 anymore. They should understand and accept that. But no they would rather make a city that’s just getting back on its feet poorer. They don’t even seem to care about the million dollar a day fine. That’s how important money is to them. Sorry but I think it’s sick. Just realized why Lucia is in favor of the strike, her father was one of the first Hispanic bus drivers.

My maintaince has gone up 55% in the past four years; my health insurance has gone up almost 70%. My income has been halved. I hope that the chance I have taken will pay off; but I didn’t expect my investment income to go down so dramatically. Not complaining at all; understand that most people would kill to be able to say that, and trust me I appreciate it.

If the strike goes on I plan to look at store windows, something I haven’t done in years because I can’t stand either the crowds or the cars winding their way down Fifth as if in a funeral caravan with cabs and buses taking up even more room.

I don’t like crowds; New York’s the only major city people come to during the holiday weeks. I might complain but New York’s been through a lot. Each person who lived here then and still lives here as shown incredible strength. This is one hell of a nervy union. If you know me you know that I’m a Licensed Social Worker. Two years of grad school, and social workers who do fight in the trenches, don’t do at all as well. Gawd the transit workers are going to have to pay part of their health insurance. How sad.

Yes the MTA did something rotten but the people of New York shouldn’t be paying. And damn it, this is one important week to our economy. The transit union couldn’t care less about the people they serve. And that’s a shame because it shows so blatantly how we have learned nothing, zilch, zero, since 9/11.

In the summer of 1991, my building on East 63rd Street was a mess as was the city. One night a subway motorman on the line I took went bersek, drove the train faster than fast and killed a few people.

He also screwed up the entire subway system. The first morning it took me three hours to get to work; normally it was 30 minutes door to door. When I got to work my supervisor who was only by the book when it came to time wanted to dock me though I had never been late before. Fortunately before I could say anything, the office secretary, who was by the book about everything and in love with him, looked at him in shock:
“You can’t dock her. She’s always early. It was the subway delay you were talking about earlier.”

The motorman screwed up the entire system for awhile.

My supervisor thought that he was a Republican David Letterman, and would do a monologue every morning that I called “The Walker report,” because it was the world according to Rick Walker and very funny. After lunch I was frequently asked to redo his routine my way. Walker cracked up also. My only other newly discovered talent was doing a 30 second character sketch of somebody in the office, and people would guess who it was.

For some reason Social Security was very good for developing my creative side.

There’s much more to the motorman story but I’m very tired as I stayed up very late watching strike news. When I woke up this morning my cable was out on both TV’s. It took seven minutes to get through to the rep; much shorter than I thought:
“Good morning Time Warner Cable. Ask about our new three premium station special.”
“Do I care about your special today.” Hey I woke up tired and hadn’t had coffee.
“I have to say that or I will be fired.”
“I know. Sorry….”

It turned out to be a block problem and is now solved.