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Surprise, surprise! The City Council put together a team of investigators to inspect the cleanliness of the subways, and found that they are stinking nasty! And what's more, the worst stations just happen to be in the poorest neighborhoods and/or the Bronx. No one is really that shocked, maybe just slightly surprised. The NY Times' Sewell Chan points out that the City Council's survey and the survey from the NYC Transit Riders Council had generally similar results - terrible stations in the Bronx - but each study had a different list of worst stations (all in the Bronx). The worst station, per the City Council, is the East 149th Street stop, while the NYC Transit Riders found the Moshulu stop on the 4 to be the worst. Look, net net, the subways are gross. Here's the most oft-quoted part of the study.
"Subway riders...encounter papers and bottles obstructing stairways, platforms littered with food, pungent odors and track beds cluttered with sludge and debris. In one case, investigators even found human waste."Hey, investigators, welcome to our world! Pungent doesn't even begin to describe some odors, and the human waste is not only seen at times - it's usually something we smell! The only poo Gothamist wants to see in our subway journeys is the Pooh bear Winnie. The MTA says they want to clean stations, but just don't have enough money. Well, how's about using some of that West Side Railyards cash when the time comes?
Tien Mao on poo in the station and the Straphangers on dirtiest subway cars.
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The human waste smell is particularly noxious at Canal St. basically throughout the whole station, but WORST on the uptown 6 train platform area. Inhaling this stuff has gotta be a public health hazard (or slipping on it for that matter, as slime covers a lot of Canal St. platforms). Gross.
That’s what you get when you elect a Council where the majority of its members usually take the cab or drive to work. Most of the horrible realities we encounter they don't know about at all.
So then studies that are obvious to us are commissioned. But I think of it as a 411 session for our disconnected City Council Members.
And no, we surely don't need any more of Winnie the Pooh.
The downtown manhattan stations are actually surprisingly clean to me. I've never seen any poo in the subway system and even the sidewalks are much better than the old days. Maybe the city should follow gothamist's lead and initiate a public relation campaign that celebrates the occasional public poo that would feature a loveable poo character in a top hat and walking stick, sort of like mr. peanut. Maybe hire the guys that did that new york theme song to write a NYC public poo song.
Is the NYC Public Poo similar to Mr. Hankey the Christmas Poo?
Friday afternoon, 5:15pm, uptown C train platform @ 23rd Street, August 2004. The homeless man standing a few feet away from me gives me a near-toothless smile and compliments my skirt. I say "thank you" as he starts to undo his pants, squats, and POOPS ON THE SUBWAY PLATFORM.
I love NY.
Hahaha. Pooh!
At any rate, did the City Council really need to put together an investigation to find out this information? Christ. They really are out of touch.