Results tagged “travisruse”

Forget about that tired, old, tourist coveted F Train t-shirt, AnimalNY reports that the MTA has some brand spankin' new tees that are much more aesthetically pleasing; an "edgy line of t-shirts featuring the photography of Travis Ruse, a well known, photo documenting commuter," (will more local photobloggers be getting some MTA love in the future?). There are three styles, titled: lamplight, platform and skyline (pictured). Pay 24 bucks now so you won't have to pay 3 later.

Port Authority 9:45am, by Travis Ruse.

F-Train, 7th Ave, 6:50pm, by Travis Ruse.

-- From Tenement.org, a cool map of NYC Projects.

A new book claims that Al Qaeda was 45 days away from attacking the NYC subway system with cyanide gas, but then, for an unknown reason, decided not to. Um, phew? The One Percent Doctrine by Ron Suskind is being excerpted in Time magazine this week, and yesterday, Time teased the excerpt with a "web exclusive" (Ali is an Al Qaeda operative/nformant to the U.S.; Ayeri is "Yusuf al Ayeri, "bin Laden's top operative on the Arabian peninsula"; Zawahiri is Ayman Zawahiri, Bin Laden's deputy):

Ali revealed that Ayeri had visited Ayman Zawahiri in January 2003, to inform him of a plot to attack the New York City subway system using cyanide gas. Several mubtakkars were to be placed in subway cars and other strategic locations. This was not simply a proposal; the plot was well under way. In fact, zero-hour was only 45 days away. But then, for reasons still debated by U.S. intelligence officials, Zawahiri called off the attack. "Ali did not know the precise explanation why. He just knew that Zawahiri had called them off."

Yesterday, the NYPD told the media, "We were aware of the plot and took the appropriate precautions," but didn't elaborate further. The NY Times has a quote from an official briefed at the time of the supposed threat:

"This is a simple cyanide thing, two chemicals mixed together, and it releases cyanide gas," he said. "They'd be lucky if they killed everybody on one car — you can do that with a 9-millimeter pistol." He added, "None of it has been confirmed in three years, who these guys were, whether they in fact had a weapon, or whether they were able to put together a weapon, whether that weapon has been defined and what it would cause or whether they were even in New York."

The chemicals would have been put in beer cans and the like, which makes us wonder if the MTA has heavier-duty Roomba type cleaners to sweep the subway cars. Remember when Mayor Bloomberg freaked out the city about a possible terror threat, right before mayoral debates? And do we thank Zawahiri for calling things off?

The 2006 Photobloggies nominees were announced this week, and a bunch of New York City sites are in the running!

Street photography is generally thought to have come about in the late 1950's, right here in New York, when a new generation of photographers (Robert Frank and William Klein) changed the nature of documentary photography. Now, through June, you can check out New York street photography from the 1960's and 70's - at the New York Public Library. From the NYPL's site:

- And some people do get to bear arms in the subway

We were admiring this shot of the JMZ station at Chambers Street on Travis Ruse's site, and it got us thinking: is there any other station in the system that tops this in terms of sheer craptasticosity? Behold the layers of rust, chipped paint, and rat droppings on the disused platforms. Admire the Jacob's Ladder style staircases that lead to nowhere. We defy you to find a station that is worse off than this one.

Some good news for photobloggers and fans of street photography: a Manhattan judge has ruled photographer Philip-Lorca diCorcia was well within his rights to sell copies of this photograph of an Orthodox gentleman. The shot was taken as part of diCorcia's "Heads" project, which involved shooting pictures using a concealed camera. The Post reports:

The fact is, nothing much is going on. Just a lot of people trudging to work, and the whole city waiting for the announcement that the strike is over. That hasn't stopped New York's intrepid community of photographers from trying to find some interesting shots, though. So far, we've seen three or four classic types emerge: the train station entrance with police tape, tpeople walking on the Brooklyn Bridge, empty avenues closed to all but emergency vehicles, and amusing signage (like the example above, by Brainware3000 on Flickr.) We'll be compiling a list of photo galleries all day, so be sure to send yours in or link it in the comments:

Congratulations to Travis Ruse, whose Express Train photoblog is celebrating its one year anniversary. We read Travis's site every day-- it's an amazing window into life in the city, and a must-see for train-buffs around the world. Travis writes:

• The Braunstein search becomes more and more made for the tabloids: now he may have a bomb.
• A crazy lady attacked three people on the subway yesterday.
• Hillary Clinton went to Staten Island yesterday, with Ellen Degeneres.

A month after they were proposed, the MTA is adopting a new set of rules of conduct that will see fines being handed out for things like drinking (non-alcoholic beverages) in a subway car, putting your feet on a seat, and riding between subway cars. And you can't ride your bicycle, wear you Rollerblades or be atop a skateboard, either. The MTA says that police officers, who we have been seeing in droves at subway stations lately, will be "reasonable" when asking people why they are changing subway cars; the NY Times has this quote that proves why moving between cars is important:

Mark Page, the city's budget director, who represents Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg on the board, observed: "It is, from time to time, convenient to absent oneself from a car or from a particular group of people."

Continue reading "New Subway Rules of Conduct Adopted"

Looking for something to do this Friday? Well, why not start off the night with some photoblogs! Friday evening at 7 is the 4th installment of the ever popular New York City Photobloggers talk at the Apple Store. The evening's speakers are Jenene Chesbrough, Raul Gutierrez, Nontajit "Go" Lertworachon, Jay Parkinson (aka Gothamist Health), Travis Ruse, Eliot Shepard, and Keith Kin Yan.

require traffic lights to properly line up and no delivery trucks in the way for drives to be quick and easy. And forget about the parking. Anyway, Gothamist loves races like this; when the Acela service started, we loved the race from Washington DC taking a plane, Acela and car. One day, we hope to launch a pedestrian only race, where people must travel through loads of Eurotrash tourists in SoHo, manage the countless dog poo piles on the Upper West Side, and drunken hipsters on the Lower East Side.

Though the MTA has been a bit of a pain lately, Gothamist loves the subways and even enjoys our commute (when we have stuff to read, when we don't have to unduly transfer extra times, when we aren't pressed up against the population of Rhode Island in a train car). Travis Ruse has put together a photoblog of his commute, Express Train, to capture his Park Slope-Grand Central journeys.