December 20, 2005
Charlie on MBTA. No One on the MTA
The MTA, the one of New York City fame, not of Scollay Under and JP-nickel-exit-fare fame, isn’t running today. Gothamist is liveblogging it. Today they’re all strike, strike, "how'd you get to work?", and more strike. The transit strike in 
NYC has stolen the headline spot for all national news outlets. Now NYC seems to be trying to cheat Boston out of our nickname “The Walking City” with Mayor Bloomberg himself walking across to Brooklyn Bridge to work this morning.
WBUR produced and nationally syndicated Here and Now (now with added New England focus) has teased the noon broadcast as looking at the MTA transit strike, and what it might mean if you’ve ordered your holiday gifts from a New York company. That's why Bostonist is worried, not for the ecomic reprocussions for those missing a day of work, getting fired for being late, and barely making it by as they're cleaning lobbies in the Upper West Side while living in Queens, it's if our Christmas gifts are going to be late in arrival. Go charge up your CharlieTicket and think how nice it is to have the T, even if it's 20 minutes late.
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just got back to southern vermont from nyc this evening ... have never missed a nyc subway strike... a true festival of the oppressed, as lenin used to say ... but the shopping: ... in one word: scary.
at high end places all over town... ghost-like.
walked from the lexington ave entrance to the 3rd ave exit of bloomies unmolested, unyelled at, no evil eyes, just lots of underoccupied salespeople .. . one of the cosmetics ladies tried offering me (old bald guy) samples .. funny but sad...
a truly high end home depot ($2000 bathroom sinks) on the east side was empty ... sirens blaring into the night ... people on the streets everywhere til past midnight ... and none of them was carrying a shopping bag ...
everybody just hunkering down to get from here to there ...
restaurants: got a table at a very trendy greek place without having to wait even a second, and the wait staff was, like, attentive - all over us...
tuesday worse than monday in terms of mood ... on monday, there was a certain level of courtesy, a sense of we're all pulling together in the same direction, that broke down on tuesday... cars cutting in front of cars, trucks cutting in front of cars, pedestrians cutting in front of trucks, lots of get the * out of my ways...
tuesday morning ... e.j.'s, a great breakfast place on the west side - empty, except for me and miriam and young mom with two darling daughters ... the lox cutter at zabar's shaking his head sadly with only one person in front of him at the counter ... actually had a chance to talk with him about how to freeze lox, a conversation you'd never have a chance to have in normal times...
starbuck's closed because the people who work there couldn't get in ...
at hickory ridge house, our southern vermont bed and breakfast 2 hours from boston, we're offering certain new yorkers with a nyc area code four nights for the price of three, just a chance to get out of town as the social fabric breaks down - good to january 31 - must reserve before the strike is declared "over" ... and b&b gift certificates, in case our new york friends can't get out to shop ... offer good for boston area codes, too