Rants

Fare Increases Adding Up to a Grumpy Ride to Work

Food Prices in New York in Biggest Leap in 14 Years

I hate cold weather. I live in a 70 year-old building in Manhattan. I have no thermostat, just central steam heat that comes through radiators over which I have no control. The heat is either on, or it's not. I don't know whether the super turns on the boiler at regular intervals or whether it's on a timer. If the apartment gets too hot, I can open a window. If it's too cold, I am out of luck.

The rent is almost $1,000 a month.

It was 10 degrees outside yesterday morning. I have spent the last two nights sleeping fully clothed under a down comforter.

For some reason the air conditioning in the men's room where I work is on full blast. I guess they don't want you to stay very long.

The 7:42 A train was six minutes late this morning, so we had about twice as many people as usual. Two stops later, no one else could get on, though they sure tried, holding doors open, trying to squeeze in, delaying us even further. I think we spent at least five minutes at 145th Street with people fighting -- literally -- to get on. We went through that again at 125th, even though the conductor pleaded over the loudspeakers for waiting passengers to let people off the train and patiently wait for the next train if there was no more room. For someone like me who suffers from crowd anxiety, being closed up in a train for 30 minutes packed so tightly that you have people pressed up against you on every side is not a great start to the day.

In a month subway riders get to pay 8.6% more a month for this pleasure. In exchange for this increase, we receive reduced service.