August 11, 2006
Rain Makes Curtain Call at Subway Stations
Because it looks to be a truly glorious day today, Gothamist would like to take a few moments to comment about last night's sudden torrential rain. Rain is good - it washes away dog poop on the sidewalk, leaving it fresh and clean to be soiled all over again. But it's not good at some subway stations, when it becomes like a water park ride. Reader Sacha sent us the photograph at top of Penn Station that illustrates the issue. At Columbus Circle's uptown 1 platform, we'd say that 40-50% of platform was huge puddles and pouring rain so everyone was crowded in other places - we took the photograph below at rush hour! It's unclear whether the MTA can do anything besides try to continue its usual maintenance (which they didn't during the 2004 Hurricane Frances subway flooding) and, yes, the MTA's hydraulics are already very overworked, but we're dreamers that there would be some other drainage option.
And for those of you who wait at outdoor subway platforms - how do those coverings hold up? Oh, and some unrelated-to-the-rain water leak caused cell phone outages in Queens, which included passengers at JFK and LaGuardia.
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The problem is that the MTA's hydraulic system is built out of leftover parts from the construction of the Panama canal.
The fact that it even still works is a miracle.
here's a shot of the waterfall down the court square steps.
Perhaps this is the MTA's way of keeping the riders cool for the summer.
I had the urgent need to visit the Apple store on 5th last night (about to buy a new Mac), so I headed out at the beginning of the storm. Sometimes you just have the urge to visit an Apple store that can't be stopped... anyway, I was travelling on a bus to the B/D at 125th, and there was a river flowing over the C/B line. A raging river. It was cool being in the glass box at the Apple store while it was raining, though. As long as you don't slide down the wet glass stairs...
That is some photo from the Penn Station stop. Kudos...
On the bright side, the people on the Penn Station platform got a free preview of what the WTC memorial waterfall will be like.
Typical. After shutting Gothamist completely down for most of a day, they still have problems with the submission system. A second message on a different topic within five minutes is "too many messages submitted." Um, Jake, you do know that most blogs don't limit people like this. After all, what are we supposed to do, come back every 30 minutes just to post another comment? Not to mention occasionally, somebody has to make a quick correction right after posting. Movable Type is easily the buggiest blog software out there. Either that, or you really need to sit down with tech support and hash out Gothamist's problems if they're of your own making.
I recall a photo some time ago of a huge ball of human(?) hair growing from beneath some subway stairs. Think of how many of these remain hidden....now think of the water steeping these makeshift "teabags" to shower us with nasty essence. MMMMM!
I must give a shout-out to my normally depressing subway stop, Church Avenue (Q/B end) for having a completely dry platform amidst the storm last night. Of course, all the streets around there were flooded.
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I haven't gotten anything done today. I feel like a fog, but what can I say? I've just been letting everything wash over me lately, not that it matters. Shrug.
I've just been staying at home not getting anything done. I've basically been doing nothing worth mentioning. My life's been pretty unremarkable these days. Eh.