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Usually blog Guest of a Guest entertains us with a look at night life and social news. But today, there's an account of how crappy it is to be a subway rider. And how crappy it is to be the subway rider who sees someone pee on the platform and poop on the train.
The West 4th Street station was where an old man was seen peeing into a cup (he later "flung the contents onto the tracks making a HUGE splash."). Then he boarded a train where he pooped on a newspaper.
Now, the stench of pee is something straphangers are familiar with, both on the platform and in trains. And sometimes one will see a poop in a station. But to witness it? Shudder. Would the MTA fine you if you decided to board a different cars if you saw this happening, even though rules prohibit passengers from "walking between subway cars"?
When an intrepid group of subway lovers broke the subway riding record in 2006, they made sure to use four restrooms in the subway system.
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This is great reading during Monday morning breakfast. You just made the rest of my week Jen. THx
The subways are now homeless shelters/psyche wards on rails.
"Would the MTA fine you if you decided to board a different cars if you saw this happening?"
I'd point out to my arresting officer that mangy, stinky, defecating bum in the other car and say "Would that count as just cause?"
Hell, it's gotten to a point where I get worried if a station doesn't smell like human waste.
I also saw a dude who first tried to get between cars, but couldn't as it was an F train. He then proceeded to piss on the floor.
Good times!
Last year, 7th Avenue escalator into Penn Station. A vagrant woman is at the bottom standing in front of it watching all the LIRR suits coming down. She squats and pisses right then and there. The suits do not even flinch. Amazing!!!!
This is news?
Futurama.
They only use that "no walking between the cars" rule as an alternative to racial profiling. I switch cars all the time and nobody has ever said a word to me. I also don't happen to be a young black or hispanic male or any other target profile.
That said, I have seen a mother take her kid to a corner of the N train at Stillwell Avenue (the beginning of a long trip to midtown) and have him pee. I suppose she didn't think it made much of a difference than sitting next to a kid with a full diaper, which happens all the time.
Yuck.
Dirty Money:
Last October, my wife and I were staying downtown for the weekend, near the financial district/south st. seaport.
It's about 8:00 PM and I needed some cash, so I see a Bank of America ATM down the block and head toward it.
It was one of the ATMs that requires you to use any bankcard to unlock the glass door and go inside the small closet-lock enclosure to use the ATM machine.
So I swipe my card, open the door, and begin to use the ATM machine when an unbearable stench wafts up my nostrils.
I quickly survey the tiny 4-foot by 4-foot glass enclosure and to my horror, there's a significant pile of human feces in the corner! You could tell that someone had squatted with their ass against the wall and pinched a loaf right there in the corner of the ATM vestibule, because there was a nice brown slider-stain on the wall from about 2 feet up leading all the way down to the stenchy pile of shit on the floor.
The person that left this generous gift obviously had an ATM card in order to gain access to this improvised shitting station...I doubt it was just some random bum-on-the-street who did this, but you never know...anyway..
My point is, when New Yorkers (or tourists) are resorting to using ATM vestibules as toilets, doesn't that clearly indicate the need for more and better public restrooms in and around the city? A-doy-now!
maybe he legitimately mistook the station for an outhouse, which is not a stretch in many cases.
Can you blame these people? THE MTA traps us on a subway without bathrooms on any trains or in any subway stations. What do you expect will happen? Yet another sign of the apathy that has infected NYC.
we need more public restrooms.
New York, where you're just as likely to step in human shit as dog shit.
mightyboognish: FYI, you can swipe pretty much any magnetic card to get into the ATM vesibules, CC's, student ID's, drivers licenses, etc.
I saw a guy remain sitting on the train, pull it out, and begin peeing all over the floor so that it trickled down the center and everyone had to move out of the way. It was foul.
mightyboognish, you can also get in once someone else opens the door either to get in or out.
jenchungsgrammar, really? good to know for when my freaking branch won't read my card to let me in to get my money. Thanks (not sarcastic).
"FYI, you can swipe pretty much any magnetic card to get into the ATM vesibules, CC's, student ID's, drivers licenses, etc."
You can also just walk in when someone else is walking out, without swiping any card at all.
jenchungsgrammar: Really, any kind of magnetic card will work? Had no idea. Gonna have to try that with an MTA card next time... heh.
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Are lack of public restrooms a problem in big cities in other countries? How does NYC rank with, say, cities in Japan, China, France, England, etc.?
#18
when i visited beijing last year, there was a public bathroom every 3-4 blocks with a dedicated janitor.
korea and japan has self-cleaning public toilets on the streets which you can use for a small fee.
despite all that, i saw lots of people peeing in the streets at night. I think it's more fun to just pee out in the open! weeeee!
not sure if a metrocard will work because its set up a bit differently, but hey, try it in the name of science!
I've heard that the police/MTA codephrase for this incident is, "creating an unsanitary condition."
Other major cities have public restrooms that cost about a dollar, and are fully attended (or at least monitored regularly). I'd gladly pay to pee.
[18] - The subways in Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka all have restrooms and they are pretty clean. I never had a problem. The trains and stations were a lot cleaner too. You just have to make concession for the traditional Japanese toilet system that is mostly just a hole in the floor that you squat over. (I guess for those who squat in trains and ATM vestibules, they would have no problem...)
when you gotta go, you gotta go?
isn't it amazing how much human poo smells when it hits open air and not submerged in water?
saw a guy outside an OTB doing the press ass against wall, crap and leave brown smear.
A few months ago there was a diagram in Good Magazine about the number of public restrooms per capita in cities worldwide. I can't seem to locate this diagram online, but at the time the number of public toilets per capita in NYC was infinite, as we had zero. Now we have one i believe, at Madison Square Park? 1 toilet per 8 million. grrreeeeat.
if there's one good thing about the ubiquitousness of Starbucks, it's plenty of places to pee! and Barnes & noble.
My brother was at the 42nd street train station during rush hour and he saw a crowd of people coming out of a car. He looked inside and there was a hobo taking a dump in a cup.
Its great comparing other cities subway toilets and how clean they are compared to NYC's. But there are two problems. Bathroom upkeep & the PEOPLE.
Generally, New Yorkers are DIRTY compared to those in Tokyo and South Korea. Beijing can be dirty too but they have the people to clean their bathrooms. The MTA can't (and wont) pay for Bathroom extra bathrooms AND extra employees to keep them clean. I'm sorry but we're stuck in a rut when it comes to Bathroom Cleanliness.
I've been to the Bathroom at Jamaica Station off the E Train and I almost passed out at the stench of piss. Its that bad, and I don't see it ever changing. Its not the MTA's priority.
I once saw a homeless man poop on a sheet of newspaper on the 2/3 platform in Borough Hall Station around 8pm. Hey, at least he was able to dispose of the waste into a garbage can.
Two years ago, soon after the Atlantic Avenue station was rehabed, I went to use the new restroom.
It was pretty new alright, but by the time I got there the aroma of human waste permeated every molecule of oxygen in the air. It was hot, humid, stinky and there was someone sleeping in the toilet closet.
The MTA is too cheap, lazy or both to build new bathrooms, maintain the ones they have, and most of all, clear out the goddamn bums.
It all just boils down to my everlasting hatred of the MTA.
the 80s are baaaack!
Things like this make it hard to insist you live in the greatest city in the world.
Things like this make it hard to insist you live in the greatest city in the world.
only in the greatest city in the world can you be entertained with a free scat show.
Maybe the "change" in this city will scare some of the hipster transplants back to Ohio or wherever they came from. There's always a silver lining.
In general, many New Yorkers, given the opportunity, will foul any public space they can if it's not meticulously guarded. Subway and railroad cars are pigsties. Railroad cuts (check the Bay Ridge LIRR branch and even the well-traveled Port Washington branch in Flushing) are dumps. Coney Island Creek, the Gowanus Canal and other bodies of water are toxic waste sites.
The LIRR has promised to rebuild the lavatories at Penn Station. Good luck keeping them even passably non-vomit inducing.
It's the people...
www.forgotten-ny.com
The Penn Station LIRR bathrooms are nasty but a far sight better than any on the subways, however, avoid them at all costs after 11pm on Fridays and Saturday Nights.
Yea, its the people all right.
nyc does need alot of bathrooms.
they seem to think the riders should be like their workers.
my friend who works for the mta pees right on the bus. cause thats what they were "taught" to do lol.
the grand central restroom is usually pretty nice
When u gotta go ,go!
I think he had a cancerous disease issue which
is very sad.