So How Did You Get There?

oiseau

Man, what a day. I ended up riding over the brooklyn bridge with the cars. It was the only way to ride over that bridge, other wise you had to walk it. I yelled at Marty to get some bike lane police and then turned around because my derailer cable broke and Bicycle Station was open real early and fixed it quickly amazingly because I was about to give up. Then I rode back to the Brooklyn Bridge and rode with the cars. Fug it. I hope more of you bicyclists out there take the car lanes. The more of us, the better. Walking a bike over the bridge is not right. This is the time when bicyclists should really come out and say "Look! This is the best form of transit in this city. Give us some more respect from now on!"

Then I found some abandoned pregnant cat on Dean and couldn't take it to the animal shelter, not that that is a good thing, but at least it's warm, but with the traffic and all I just gave it some food.

And you?

oh, and if any of you took the Manhattan bridge, were you able to ride over it?

dan.h

Well, i really shouldnt complain because I work in downtown Brooklyn. I started out with my car, and ended up putting it right back where I started from. I then got on a bike and rode that in a suit. Not so fun.

alafairnadia

my ride fell through - he couldn't get out of the gridlock in sheepshead bay. so I was going to work from home and thought I'd convinced my boss that it was a good idea, but she said I should come in and also told me I'd be reimbursed. so I went back to flatbush and took a yellow cab with a stranger. it was ok. kinda stressful and weird to be out at that time of day in bklyn.

now I have to figure out how to get me and my suitcase to newark tomorrow for a 5:30 p.m. flight.

muteflute

Subject: Re: So How Did You Get There?

Oiseau wrote: Man, what a day. I ended up riding over the brooklyn bridge with the cars. It was the only way to ride over that bridge, other wise you had to walk it. I yelled at Marty to get some bike lane police and then turned around because my derailer cable broke and Bicycle Station was open real early and fixed it quickly amazingly because I was about to give up. Then I rode back to the Brooklyn Bridge and rode with the cars. Fug it. I hope more of you bicyclists out there take the car lanes. The more of us, the better. Walking a bike over the bridge is not right. This is the time when bicyclists should really come out and say "Look! This is the best form of transit in this city. Give us some more respect from now on!"

wow, props, man. I would be biking with you, except I am not in the city. If the strike's still on when I return, expect to see me there on a too-small, stickered-up Univega fixed-gear, hauling ass in traffic with ya.

quig

The Manhattan Bridge bike lane was mostly empty.

metulj

quig wrote: The Manhattan Bridge bike lane was mostly empty.

What's the best route to access it from our side of Flatbush?

quig

Quote Steveo:

I find Smith/Jay a bit gnarly.

Here's the route I like to take from Park Slope to the Manhattan Bridge (via Prospect Hts.) (Carlton to DeKalb to Ashland Pl./Navy to Sands)

Big long URL deleted

(or http://tinyurl.com/a65za )

Also, there's a couple of other bike routes on my Gmap Pedometer NYC bike route page here: http://www.panix.com/~steveo/bike_routes/

Actually Ms. Quig rode over the Meanhattan Bridge, I rode over the Brooklyn Bridge. My Route: Underhill-Dean-Brooklyn Bridge Blvd

escap

I just walked from 68th and Broadway to Fort Greene.


Ugh, I'm exhausted. Time to guzzle down a six pack and pass out.

pitu

I got a blister walking home, and I think I have shin splints...
but I still support the TWU, baby!

My pal rode her bike early. Easy traffic over the Manhattan Bridge bike lane, and a sail up 6th Ave - lined with orange cones. For once the NYPD is making it easier for bikers!

My Minnesotan works in Brooklyn, and tells me I better start wearing Smart Wool socks. I can also recommend silk long johns, which fit nicely under business attire, and don't overheat you during the day.

Super weird, around 6p I saw an MTA bus - B103 express to Canarsie - that appeared to be in service. WTF??

escap

How can you support the TWU? Even if you think their contract demands are just how does that justify an illegal strike? Isn't that like saying that if you have a dispute with your neighbor, and you're "right", that it's okay to smash in their windows?
Isn't it critical to resolve disputes via legal means? Isn't that what separates us from the Yemens and Sierra Leones of the world?

escap

No offense to Yemen or Sierra Leone, btw.

muteflute

I don't understand this constant reiteration of "illegal." As of last century, it was illegal to organize at all. Earlier in the century, it was illegal to strike, even if you were organized. Hell, if we always trumpeted legality, african-americans wouldn't be allowed to vote, we wouldn't be in Iraq, all kinds of terrible things... (and just in case peeps are about to jump down my throat, I am not IN ANY WAY equating the two...just trying to bring a bit of levity...)

Sometimes the law is not paramount. Breaking the law because you believe the law is unjust is a part of democracy, also. We love civil disobedience sometimes, but when it inconveniences us, by god, get rid of it! It's f*cking ANARCHY! Like AFRICA!

escap

Interesting theory. So how about I beat you senseless and steal all your money because I think it's the right thing to do? Is that okay?

If that's okay in your book, please let me know where you live so I can avoid going anywhere near you.

The comparison with unjust laws doesn't hold water, either. Like I said, this law may be unjust, and the union may be "right", but hurting innocent people to promote your cause isn't right no matter how you spin it. Even horrible laws like the ones you mentioned don't justify taking out your rage on innocent people. How many people will lose their jobs, lose their housing, be unable to get medical assistance, or suffer some other tragedy as a result of this strike, and how is it their fault? I absolutely defy you to explain how it is the fault of any of those people.[/b][/i]

metulj

escap wrote:
Isn't it critical to resolve disputes via legal means?

The Taylor law is an unconstitutional attack on freedom of speech and assembly and it would be a privilege to break that law.

escap

The law that prevents the MTA from sending assassins after the union leaders also seems unconstitutional to me. I recommend they break that one. The law preventing people from exploding nuclear warheads in the middle of Times Square seems rather unconstitutional too. Let's break that one.

metulj

escap wrote: The law that prevents the MTA from sending assassins after the union leaders also seems unconstitutional to me. I recommend they break that one. The law preventing people from exploding nuclear warheads in the middle of Times Square seems rather unconstitutional too. Let's break that one.

The law that prevented Rosa Parks from sitting at the front of the bus was unconstitutional so she broke it.

escap

Point taken. There's a fine line between obeying the law and being a sheep, and we all have to answer to our own consciences.

However, there's a huge, gigantic, whopping difference between a hero like Rosa Parks and the thugs in the TWU--SHE DID NOT HURT ANYONE ELSE IN HER ACT OF PROTEST!!!!!!! Don't you get it?

muteflute

escap wrote: The law that prevents the MTA from sending assassins after the union leaders also seems unconstitutional to me. I recommend they break that one. The law preventing people from exploding nuclear warheads in the middle of Times Square seems rather unconstitutional too. Let's break that one.

You are right, respect for the law is paramount. However. If you believe that workers have the right to organize, assemble, and strike, if need be, then this seems like civil disobedience. If not, then its anarchy. And they are paying for it, as you know. A whole lot of money. As recompense, if you will, for your pain. However, there is NO CONCEIVABLE right for me to kill you, take your property, or nuke NYC, and therefore your comparisons are asinine, at best. My apologies for the strict wording, but seriously...

metulj

escap wrote: SHE DID NOT HURT ANYONE ELSE IN HER ACT OF PROTEST!!!!!!!

There are a lot of white segregationists who would dispute that claim.

carnivore

metulj wrote: [quote=escap]SHE DID NOT HURT ANYONE ELSE IN HER ACT OF PROTEST!!!!!!!

There are a lot of white segregationists who would dispute that claim.
I also bet all the other passengers on that bus were "hurt" in the same sense that we all are by the transit strike (i.e. inconvenienced by their bus not being in service).

alafairnadia

metulj wrote: [quote=escap]
Isn't it critical to resolve disputes via legal means?

The Taylor law is an unconstitutional attack on freedom of speech and assembly and it would be a privilege to break that law.

amusingly enough, I was at dinner tonight with a few lawyers and we were discussing this. constitutionally, it's pretty sound. we all could pretty much make the appropriate arguments for public safety, especially in light of what was going on at penn and grand central. I've been in those stations at rush hour, when they're full, and they're freakishly full. for them to be so full that the authorities felt the need to shut the doors and tell people to come back in an hour is horrifying.
I've also seen a ton of fender benders today. I wonder what the final tally of folks who died because of their changed routines due to this strike will be.

also, totally unrelated, are taxis supposed to turn on their meters or not?

alafairnadia

escap wrote: How can you support the TWU? Even if you think their contract demands are just how does that justify an illegal strike? Isn't that like saying that if you have a dispute with your neighbor, and you're "right", that it's okay to smash in their windows?

while I agree with you in that I am upset about the strike, I just want to point out that there is a significant difference between illegal criminal acts and civil acts that result in liability, including fines. you can make a vague analogy if the workers on strike are found in contempt, and then it depends on the quasi-criminality of that contempt - is it purely a civil fine, or could the person(s) be jailed for their continued violation? further, I sincerely doubt any court is going to find 30,000 people in contempt and throw them in jail. so the criminal argument is out the window. and the analogy to vandalism is out the window.
(sorry for the xpost of this, guys - he made this 'point' over on ft. greene - but sometimes I get sick of this. thank goodness I'm not a lawyer in this state.)

oiseau

Striking for the right to retire at 55 does not seem realistic. They have a good deal, they should get back to work.

escap

Carnivore wrote: [quote=metulj][quote=escap]SHE DID NOT HURT ANYONE ELSE IN HER ACT OF PROTEST!!!!!!!

There are a lot of white segregationists who would dispute that claim.
I also bet all the other passengers on that bus were "hurt" in the same sense that we all are by the transit strike (i.e. inconvenienced by their bus not being in service).

Yeah, yeah, I get it, and I knew someone would make these points. But I'm really shocked at the incredibly callous attitude you have towards breaking the law and hurting millions of people. Do you have no concept of what society would be like if we all just broke the law when we thought it was wrong, or if we wanted to gain an extra couple bucks? Can you not admit that's a pretty dangerous idea to treat so lightly?

Finally, for all the white segregationists might have whined, there's no comparison. Gimme a break. We're talking a couple inconvenienced racists on one bus vs millions of people, tens of thousands of whom may be seriously harmed by this. And I would add that every article I've read so far as emphasized that it's mostly the poor, the little people, who are getting screwed. Goldman Sachs will surely be able to ride this out.

rah

alafairnadia wrote:
now I have to figure out how to get me and my suitcase to newark tomorrow for a 5:30 p.m. flight.

LIRR shuttle from Flatbush to Jamaica to NYC Penn Station
NJ Transit from NYC Penn to Newark Airport
Airtrain

Cab to World Train Center
PATH from World Trade Center to Newark Penn Station
NJ Transit from Newark Penn Station to Newark Airport
AirTrain

Ugh. Neither of these are fun options. I have a friend flying out tomorrow and was trying to help her figure out how to get to Newark. Good luck alafairnadia.

apollonia666

alafairnadia wrote: so I went back to flatbush and took a yellow cab with a stranger.

Were there many cabs on Flatbush? One of my coworkers and I are going to try to get in to the office tomorrow and I'm wondering whether that might be a good option.

Anyone have suggestions for good places around here to try to flag a cab?

vanilla

..and what about after you cross the bridge, can one get a cab once one gets into manhattan proper?!

emily

I got a lift with the wonderful 11238 and her husband (and a few other passengers). It was pretty smooth sailing, and I easily hailed a cab to take me from her parking garage (ca. 38th and 3rd) to my office near Columbus Circle. But bear in mind that this was at 6:45, just by the exit of the Queens Midtown tunnel. I got the impression, from the number of empty cabs, that they were allowing them to pass the checkpoints empty. Also, the cab was indeed charging $10 per zone.

YMMV, of course.

candicissima

I took the LIRR from Flatbush about 8:40 and from there to Jamaica was totally smooth sailing.

But what they make you do once you get there is retarded. You have to leave the station, go across the street, and follow the barracades to the end of the block, where you go through the checkpoint, double back twice, get your ticket punched, go up an escalator, and then get on the train that was two platforms away from where you got off.

Flatbush to Jamaica -- 20 mins
Walking to the other platform -- 10 mins
Jamaica to Penn Station -- 35 mins

:evil:

emily

Do you have the sense, Candicissima, that the LIRR have their act together a bit more today? I'm leaving via Amtrak this afternoon and I booked my ticket for really early because I was so paranoid about the mob scene at Penn Station last night. Seems like they really weren't prepared for the number of Bkln and Queens commuters that would try to use their trains.

candicissima

EmilyM wrote: Do you have the sense, Candicissima, that the LIRR have their act together a bit more today? I'm leaving via Amtrak this afternoon and I booked my ticket for really early because I was so paranoid about the mob scene at Penn Station last night. Seems like they really weren't prepared for the number of Bkln and Queens commuters that would try to use their trains.

Definitely. I didn't even see a line at Flatbush. But like I was saying, Jamaica's a bit of a pain, but it went well enough considering. Going back through Penn Station has the potential to be a madhouse, but I'm only doing a half day today and hopefully I can beat the rush.