Neighborhood Threat

Around 9am this morning, I got on the G train at Greenpoint Ave. It was a normal G train ride, complete with the middle-aged Hispanic gentleman who looks like a Sha-Na-Na extra, and graces us all by singing along out loud to whatever is on his iPod (usually Earth, Wind and Fire). Luckily, he gets off at Flushing Ave.

However, today he was the lucky one, because once the train got to Myrtle-Willoughby, we were held in the station. And held at the station. And held at the station.

Until we finally heard the air of the brakes and were told, "Due to a stalled train at Hoyt-Schermerhorn, this train will be going to Bedford-Nostrand, which will be our last stop. To get into Manhattan, take the train back towards Queens, get off at Metropolitan Ave., and transfer to the L train."

Say WHAT?

We got to Bedford-Nostrand, and since I used to work properties in Bed-Stuy, knew that it wasn't that far from Fulton Street, where I can get the A or the C. I ask the police officer on the corner which direction I should walk in, just to be sure. He points me in a direction, I start walking, and turn around because I *know* I'm going the wrong way.

I walk back, and ask him again. He says, yes, it's the other way, but it's too far to walk. He tells me I should go up there and get a bus. I don't want to get on a bus unless I know exactly where it's going, and some buses are slower than walking.

As I'm expressing my frustration, which the cop shrugs off as, "Whatever," an older woman with a Jamaican accent touches me on the arm and suggests I get the B44, one block away, which will take me where I want to go. I ask if I can't walk, and she says that it really is a bit of a walk.

I find the B44, and the large group of former G train riders. I get on the bus and grab a seat. Everyone else, who just asked the MTA employee in the station, as well as the police officer on the corner, where they should go, feels the need to get on the bus and ask where the bus goes and how they can get to downtown Brooklyn. Instead of the bus driver telling them, "Get on the bus, it goes to the A train," he tells them to go get a bus on another corner. Luckily, the neighborhood residents weren't having any of this. "Why are you giving them incorrect information? Just get on the bus, it goes to the A train," they berate the driver, loudly.

I realize it is confusing and disorienting to get off the train in a neighborhood you don't know, and have to get on a bus you're not sure about, but when multiple people who are 1) trying to be helpful (unlike the police and the MTA) and 2) are clearly authoritative when it comes to the neighborhood (unlike the police and the MTA), guess what? YOU SHOULD LISTEN TO THEM.

These folks then proceeded to have a cow when they got off the bus in front of the non-Manhattan bound entrance. Instead of deducing, like I did, that this wasn't the entrance and let's look across the street WHERE EVERYBODY ELSE IS WALKING TO, they proceeded to start yelling loudly that this wasn't the subway stop.

Did the MTA give people free transfers because they had to get off the G? Of course not. The MTA clerk in the booth at Bedford-Nostrand acted like they didn't know what they were talking about, Nothing Is Wrong With The Trains, and they weren't much more knowledgeable at Nostrand Ave.

When is the MTA going to stop treating the G like the train no one takes any more?

Posted by clr at 08:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The G train gets a bad rap. It is far more useful than people will give it credit for - that, or everyone bitching about it hasn't been in NYC long enough to develop creative subway riding skills - Not sure which. People refuse to even entertain living in Greenpoint because of the G train, insisting on immediate proximity to the L train - which to me is far more of a nightmare. At least I'm not waiting three trains in the morning before I can squeeze myself onto one.

Earlier this year, when I was working at 50th and Madison, I would take the G to Court Square and transfer to the E or the V, which left me three blocks from work. (When the weather was nice, I would take the B61 to the first stop after the Pulaski Bridge and get on the 7 at Vernon-Jackson, get off at GCT, and then walk uptown. In my opinion, the B61-7 train connection is the most under-rated connection in Brooklyn. I would say "don't tell anybody" but it doesn't matter. People are too myopic.

I work in Tribeca and take the G train to the IND at Hoyt-Schermerhorn and get off at Canal St. It's a cross-platform transfer and I have a seat for most of my commute. Most people in this area would walk or take the bus to the L at Bedford, squeeze onto a train, and then make the lengthy connection at 8th Avenue, and not even consider the G.

But, this was supposed to be a bitch about the G. Tonight we took in one of the free River to River shows downtown, and then got on the IND at Chambers St. When we got on the G at Hoyt-Schermerhorn, the conductor informed us that the next stop would be Bedford-Nostrand. It ran all stops from Bedford-Nostrand to Metropolitan Ave. - where we were then informed the next stop would be 21st St. in Queens! There was no service notice posted, nor any indication by the conductor that this was a skip-stop train, nor any reason given for the skip-stop. There's no express track, so I'm really not sure what purpose this served. The MTA couldn't pull that crap with any mainline train in Manhattan, but they have to realize the G is no longer a poor country cousin.

Who remembers when it was the GG (and the LL)?

Posted by clr at 09:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)