As part of the centennial celebration of NYC subways, the MTA brought back the Ms. Subways competition, which had been Miss Subways and dormant since 1976, and crowned Caroline Sanchez-Bernat, an actress from Morningside Heights, the new Ms. Subways. The Post says Sanchez-Bernat takes the C train, and part of her duties will include riding the special centennial train at City Hall Station with Mayor Bloomberg and Governor Pataki tomorrow as well as being on MTA posters, which Gothamist expects New Yorkers to lovingly deface. The new Ms. Subways contest was sponsored by the NY Post, and the finalists are very NY, representing the multi-culti fabric of our city. Entrants had to answer the questions "Why are you proud to be a New Yorker?", "Why do you think that you deserve to be Ms. Subway 2004?", and "Why is the subway important to you?" Gothamist read Sanchez-Bernat's mini-essays and we liked why the subway was important to her:
...I can rely on it to get me safely to work in the morning and home at night. It's also my favorite place to people watch. Where else can you see fifteen different ethnicities represented on one subway car? The more I ride the subway the more I learn about what it is to be a New Yorker...
Oh, Gothamist is kinda teary-eyed over that! We're appreciative of the "I Love NY" and "I Love The Subways" aspect of Ms. Subways, but in terms of competition, it's not America's Next Top Model.
The NY Times also has a look at the Ms. Subway competition and history, chatting with finalists and Miss Subways past. Did you know that Ellen of Ellen's Stardust Diner in Midtown was a Miss Subways? New Yorkish on the revival of the contest.
Photograph of Caroline Sanchez-Bernat by Bebeto Matthews for AP
