Subways are for sleeping: NYC Transit survival thread

Combined with a New York transit exceptionalism that Second Avenue Sagas often points out... where whatever idea gets proposed, no matter how many other systems have it, it'll never work in New York, usually because the population here is comprised largely of destructive maniacs who will smash anything useful to pieces with chains and crowbars, and then become homeless and go to sleep (heaven forfend). No other city on the planet has any similar constellation of problems.

We must not let them sleep. Dear god no.

why does it take 7 hours to get to gowanus from union square

i sorta wish i had a car tbh

booming post doctor

At the moment I am wishing there was a bus running down the west side hway to gwich village

I'm sure I've complained about it before ITT, but it's still galling how hard it is to get anywhere other than Midtown Manhattan or the handful of Queens neighborhoods on my subway line from where I live, especially to Brooklyn neighborhoods that are like 10 mins drive away.

yeah and going into the city just to change trains and head right back out is very draining somehow

One of my pipe dream ideas is to make the M a loop -- it doesn't seem like you'd have to add that much tunnel to get from the Middle Village stop to the Forest Hills stop. Then you'd have easier access from eastern queens to Williamsburg/Bushwick. Not sure if there's a logical place for a stop in between those two points -- I think a lot of it is graveyards and single-family houses.

An M stop inside one of those necropolises would fucking rule

i live on the bushwick end of the M and fantasize about that weekly--i would love to loop around to elmhurst/jackson heights/etc. as it stands one can train to middle village and take a bus, there's some cool stuff on woodhaven blvd!

what do you like on woodhaven blvd, incidentally?

Be careful with just your permit though -- periodically mc/scooter "safety" checkpoints are set up around the city and they'll impound your scooter if they catch you without a mc license (they also check for inspection sticker and current plate registration sticker). I often got pulled over on 2nd Ave just south of the Queensboro Bridge.

― early rejecter, Tuesday, May 31, 2016 5:09 PM (1 month ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Funnily enough I got pulled over at a random motorcycle checkpoint crossing from the Bronx into Manhattan maybe 10 days after I got the bike, and I had neither my license NOR an inspection at that point and they let me go! No mention of either. I can only assume I was not who they were looking for.

there's a very good kosher uzbek place called taste of samarkand around 62nd dr, in a strip with some peruvian and thai joints. a few blocks south there's an array of impressively wood-paneled bars and restaurants that i haven't been back to check out yet. my wife (and her dad) grew up going to eddie's sweet shop a few blocks east of woodhaven.

i make no claims to expertise in that neighborhood--you found anything good over there?

i have long wanted to go to andre's hungarian bakery but haven't made it yet

RIP L train

Andre's bakery is right by where I live, like two blocks walk. They have great rugelach, which is one of my favorite things. A little further west on QB there's Ben's Best, a semi-famous kosher deli with good pastrami, and a nice Russian supermarket called Net Cost. There's also now a good coffee place with decent food called Roast'N'Co right by where Andre's is. Not worth a trek but good coffee if you're in the area already.

Eddie's Sweet Shop is neat for a visit just to take in the olde-fashioned-ness of it, but I don't actually think their ice cream is all that good - too sweet. And the service tends to be really bad. I haven't tried a lot of places specifically on Woodhaven. Generally I'm a bit down on the food options in Forest Hills. There was a really good Lebanese place on Metropolitan called Wafa's and it closed. We had what was for a while Queens's only Michelin-starred restaurant, Danny Brown, and that closed too. There's good turkish on Metropolitan called Taci's, and there's a very good Italian place called La Vigna -- on the conservative end but very high quality.

We love Nick's Pizza, which is closer to the Kew Gardens end. We eat a lot at Bareburger because we have little kids and it's the easiest decent place to go with them.

My bf lives in Glendale, roughly, and we struggle to find good local restaurants. Everywhere we go, even when choosing a spot based on good reviews, turns out to be kind of crappy. I need to take this thread's advice more (also we probably need to leave Glendale to eat).

Have you done Zum Stammtisch? Never been but it's sort of a destination. Glendale also has the Finback Brewery which I've wanted to try. Their beer was at the Tennis Stadium and it was really good.

Generally I find there's a kind of online review inflation in the area. Our friends in the area always say "is it good or Forest Hills good?" Anyway we should probably take this to the Queens thread

I wonder what (if any) effect the L shutdown will have on rent/real estate prices in wburg

Hard to imagine it won't be significant.

Okay moving to Queens thread!

I also just want more people to post in that thread, and to hear more about Glendale, which I haven't explored much

I dread the effect of the L shutdown on my J/M neighborhood, the gentrification-oriented development has hardly been mild as it is, feel like this will really open the floodgates.

fwiw slight decline in Williamsburg rents over last year, it looks like, though not dramatic:

http://www.mns.com/brooklyn_rental_market_report

but I guess considering that a one-year lease starting today would still end before the construction begins, that's not too surprising.

M is going to get partially shut down too isn't it?

yeah from myrtle/bway on

def wondering what this will do to bed stuy rents. can only imagine that things will speed up there now due to j/z and a/c access.

East Flatbush here I come :(

do you figure, io, that you will keep hopscotching til you die on the Boardwalk at age 98?

(if you quit smoking)

I honestly have no idea. My income has not risen proportionately to rents and I just had my annual review and they're not raising me to $20k more than currently so...if my LLs were to raise rent to the level they COULD if they wanted, I would be out.

Random guy on a way too overcrowded car in rush hour tried to pick a fight with me, then went on a long rant about shooting someone, eventually took off his shoe to kill a fly with it
Its a helluva town

City that never sleeps iirc

better yet, add a smile! courtesy is contagious -- make it a better ride for everyone

perhaps that was the "earlier incident" that caused my train to run at slower speeds

useful link when you have one bar

http://www.ismytrainfucked.com/

thanks for that

has Cuomo shut the trains for the non-storm yet?

https://catapult.co/stories/the-accidental-city

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/mta-creating-1-300-subway-signs-return-w-train-article-1.2844946

Why doesn't the guy who plays sax on the stairs at 8th Ave - 14th St ever ever get any better? It's been years and he still sounds like total garbage

Ha! There's a few of those guys that I wonder about. Dreadlocked bassist at West 4th comes to mind.

Beatles guy in the 14th St. 6th/7th Ave. tunnel is also way up there.

Even if this kid literally only plays his horn when he's there in the station, no one should be able to put in that much time and still have such a shitty embouchure and such clunky fingers

It makes me miss free jazz space alien sax guy

The Freakonomics guys' 10,000 hours thesis keeps falling part due to evidence

hahaha lol roffle etc. Came to say I wish had those kinds of hours to practice.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/15/nyregion/second-avenue-subway-opening.html

hey guys guess what the 2nd ave line might get delayed

Shock!