C Train Blues

Back to the harsh reality of City life.

The subway line that runs to our neighborhood in Brooklyn is no longer running after a fire was started, allegedly by a homeless person, on Sunday afternoon. In order to get to work I now have to walk about 10 - 15 minutes to my old neighborhood to catch a different train. The MTA has reported that they don't expect to have the C line running for 3 - 5 years.

How can this be so? How can one individual gain access to such a critical area of the subway system that one fire wipes out an entire line? How can the MTA, who charges $2 per ride, tell more than a half million people that they will have no transportation for 3 to 5 years? What does this do for my property value? The people of Prospect Heights, Clinton Hill, Bedford-Stuyvesant, East New York, etc. are stranded on the island. Is it possible the MTA and the City doesn't care so much because these neighborhoods are historically under-developed and lower income? If this were the 4/5 or 6 trains running to Wall Street and along Lexington Avenue would the MTA timeline be any different?

Who can answer these questions for us? Mike Bloomberg? Is he even aware that people live in these neighborhoods? I don't know. I haven't heard him address the issue as of yet. Where is Al Sharpton to stand up for our civil liberties? Don't we all have equal rights to access to transportation to get to and from our jobs? I am fortunate that I can walk the distance to the next nearest train. What about the older folks who rely on that train to get to their doctor's office or to their volunteer jobs and can't walk that far - especially in the cold?

I have no answers.

Oh yeah - I just got a notice from the NYC Dept. of Finance...they are raising my property taxes for the next fiscal year. I love NY.