Rolling, Rolling, Rolling
I miss being able to ride the M train all the way in on my commute, since it let me have a seat for more of a ride and goes on the elevated line, offering scenery, until it gets to the city. It always added a little more time, but using it seems indefensible now that the route using it would take me all the way downtown, then further uptown than I should go, then a bit downtown again, then have me walk three big blocks to get to my building. This would be M to F to C or E.
The fastest and most obvious route is the one I take now: M to L to 1 or 9. In the morning, switching to the L at Myrtle/Wyckoff is somewhat dangerous given the crowds and the big gap between train and platform. The L is actually quick once a train arrives, but subjectively it seems to take forever. It’s hard to get a seat too. I make the switch to 1 or 9 through the 6th Avenue station, where the walk to that line is through a long corridor with a steep hill and an awful busker who’s there three days out of five and can’t sing on-key. He also favors REM’s “Losing My Religion.” With how often he plays it, you’d think he’d get better at it. But once I’m on 1 or 9, it’s two stops to my station, and my building is right across the street. In the afternoon, 6th Avenue station has a greasy French fry reek from a local McDonald’s. Unless you’ve worked fast food (or walked through this station in the afternoons), you don’t know how bad French fry funk can be. Getting up to the M at Myrtle/Wyckoff requires a lot of stair-climbing, which I try to think of as cardio-vascular exercise instead of torture, then go up to the exposed M section. The wind’s nice during the summer, but if I’m still working this job in the winter I may switch to the longer trip of M/F/CorE just so I won’t be waiting in the freezing wind in the dark evenings.
Working on the West Side, even downtown, I’m worried about how the convention will affect my commute. The 1 & 9 and C & E all go through Penn Station. Officials all claim that train service won’t be affected, but they’re also claiming that having all the streets around the convention areas closed to cars and that checking every pedestrian’s ID and demanding paperwork that shows that they have a right to be there won’t affect our lives much either. I remain skeptical. I’m not alone in that, since many businesses have decided to remain closed on those days, ask employees to work from home, or put employees up in local hotels. Since we’re downtown, we’ll probably be open and coming in.
I wonder if WPC will be. My old workplace is eight blocks away from Penn Station/Madison Square Garden.
The fastest and most obvious route is the one I take now: M to L to 1 or 9. In the morning, switching to the L at Myrtle/Wyckoff is somewhat dangerous given the crowds and the big gap between train and platform. The L is actually quick once a train arrives, but subjectively it seems to take forever. It’s hard to get a seat too. I make the switch to 1 or 9 through the 6th Avenue station, where the walk to that line is through a long corridor with a steep hill and an awful busker who’s there three days out of five and can’t sing on-key. He also favors REM’s “Losing My Religion.” With how often he plays it, you’d think he’d get better at it. But once I’m on 1 or 9, it’s two stops to my station, and my building is right across the street. In the afternoon, 6th Avenue station has a greasy French fry reek from a local McDonald’s. Unless you’ve worked fast food (or walked through this station in the afternoons), you don’t know how bad French fry funk can be. Getting up to the M at Myrtle/Wyckoff requires a lot of stair-climbing, which I try to think of as cardio-vascular exercise instead of torture, then go up to the exposed M section. The wind’s nice during the summer, but if I’m still working this job in the winter I may switch to the longer trip of M/F/CorE just so I won’t be waiting in the freezing wind in the dark evenings.
Working on the West Side, even downtown, I’m worried about how the convention will affect my commute. The 1 & 9 and C & E all go through Penn Station. Officials all claim that train service won’t be affected, but they’re also claiming that having all the streets around the convention areas closed to cars and that checking every pedestrian’s ID and demanding paperwork that shows that they have a right to be there won’t affect our lives much either. I remain skeptical. I’m not alone in that, since many businesses have decided to remain closed on those days, ask employees to work from home, or put employees up in local hotels. Since we’re downtown, we’ll probably be open and coming in.
I wonder if WPC will be. My old workplace is eight blocks away from Penn Station/Madison Square Garden.