Giuliani Livid Over Bringing 9/11 Trials to NYC
FIT Students Busted For Drug Dealing Get Probation
Oreo The Dog Is Dead, Blame Game Is Not
House Cat Terrorizes Family In Dramatic Hostage Situation
Pregnant Woman And Two Men Shot In Clinton Hill Drive-By
After the NY Times reminded everyone that the MTA had only spent $30 million out of $600 million that it committed to upgrading subway security over the past few years (this was something that City Councilman John Liu had been outraged about back in March), New Yorkers wondered if the MTA was really concerned with subway security. Gothamist is totally pissed off about the MTA's feet dragging, but we can only assume that the $600 million was a made up number, since the MTA can barely get more money from the state to maintain its facilities. Anyway, the Times article pointed out that DC and Boston transit systems have "employed sensors to detect the presence of biochemical agents in their subway systems," while Houston has live closed circuit surveillance and Atlanta has upgraded its radios to connect with the police. But the big pee-your-pants quote was from a Rand Corporation (spooky already) counterterrorism expert, Brian M. Jenkins:
"Apart from Israel, there is no public that has been trained to be more vigilant than London's," he said, citing the Irish Republican Army's repeated attacks on the London Underground since the 1970's. "It didn't prevent the bombings this week, and that's the reality...The Mayor criticized the MTA's slowness, but also defended them, when he said something like (and forgive Gothamist, because we're mentally replaying this from the press conference footage we saw), "They can't spend $600 million from Friday to Sunday," which we didn't get because the MTA had the $600 million from at least 2002...and they had it earmarked in March 2003, when the Madrid trains were bombed. The Daily News looks at whether the MTA's policy to tell customers to "stay where they are" in the case of an emergency is helpful or dangerous, resetting back to a 1990 fire in the subways."The New York system is an old system and it does not facilitate surveillance," he said, noting the extensive columns, narrow passageways and wide design variations across the 468 stations.
And the MTA and Port Authority are shutting cellphone service in area tunnels, after fears that the London bombs were set off by cellphone. And authorities in London are slowly searching for bodies in the London Underground's tunnels.
add to stumble upon
add to reddit
tweet this
post to facebook
There was some analysis by "experts" a few years ago who said terrorists would not attack the NY subway system because it doesn't wreak enough havoc to the financial/social infrastructure to be worth it. So much for that theory.
I'm pretty much resigned to the fact that the old MTA will be hit at some point in the future, and will be simply a luck of the draw for me. What seems consistent so far is the timing - the WTC attacks commenced around 8:45-8:50am, the London attacks around 8:50am, the Madrid bombings 7:45am. Hopefully avoiding that lethal window reduces the chance of being a statistic.
Jen - Thanks for this post. The MTA is without a doubt one of NYC's sleazier agencies, and more people need to be aware of how little they are actually doing (with our money, no less). They're great at crying when they need more money, but genuinely unconcerned about safety, comfort, convenience, etc.
You are not alone in your outrage.
How much money would it cost to do away with the huge, nontransparent trash cans on the platforms? I think that might be a good start and it's LONG overdue. London and Paris have clear bags or no cans at all. Are we too big of slobs to handle the minor inconvenience?
Clear trash bags make some sense, but doing away with trash cans seems unwise to me. It's reducing overall safety (due to track fires and other problems from trash) in response to the threat of bombs. I don't think its at all clear that bombs are a bigger risk to subways riders or the system than fires.
Sure. Taking out the trash cans will surely foil a determind terrorist. I can picture it now...he runs up to where the trash can used to be with a bomb, and scratches his head in puzzlement. He calls his terrorist pals on his cellular phone and declares, "Erm...there's no trash can here! What am I gonna do? Call the whole operation off! Oh man, the boss is gonna be PISSED when he hears about this."