Salon.com > Subway

New York’s most persecuted subway artist?

Sun, 19 May 2013 19:00:00 +0000

A few months ago, on a February evening in Grand Central, Brooklyn-based artist Enrico Miguel Thomas carried his drawing board a few paces away from where he had been set up, illustrating from a counter — leaving behind a bag full of markers and a folded-up easel. After a brief moment of gathering the necessary detail on his subject, a process he characterizes as having taken no longer than five minutes, he turned to find a swarm of police officers gathering near his bags, which were less than ten feet away. After approaching the officers, claiming the bags, and identifying himself as an artist, the MTA police insisted on “clearing” his property with a K-9 bomb-sniffing dog.

Fast food walkout planned in Chicago

Wed, 24 Apr 2013 01:45:00 +0000

Demanding a hefty raise and a fair chance to form a union, workers in Chicago’s growing fast food and retail sectors plan to walk off the job Wednesday morning. The one-day walkout begins at 5:30 a.m. Central Time, and organizers expect 500 workers from a dozen chains to participate. The work stoppage follows similar strikes by New York City fast food workers and by Wal-Mart retail employees across the country, and marks the latest escalation in the struggle between an embattled labor movement and two industries that increasingly dominate and define the new economy.

“At the end of the day,” Macy’s employee Krystal Maxie-Collins told Salon, “it feels like I’ve done all of this to help everyone else, to help the store, help the managers, help the customers, but it doesn’t feel like anyone is looking out for me.” Maxie-Collins, a mother of four who works part-time for the state minimum wage of $8.25 plus a commission, said she had initially been hesitant about the strike because of the risk of retaliation. But “what we are fighting for, the reason for doing it, kind of overrode the fear of doing it.” “Usually the things that are worth it,” she added, “you have to sacrifice for.”

Water main breaks, flooding Lower Manhattan subways

Fri, 01 Feb 2013 19:35:00 +0000

A 36-inch water main has ruptured at 23rd and Broadway in Manhattan's Flatiron District. The main, nearly hundred years old, broke around 10:45 a.m. Crews have turned the water source off and are still working on repairs, leaving parts of Lower Manhattan with little to no water pressure:

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CBS reports that the following subway lines are disrupted until further notice:

As a result, there are no N and Q trains between the DeKalb Avenue station and the 57th Street-7th Avenue station in both directions. There are also no R trains between the Queens Plaza station and the Whitehall Street station in both directions.

The MTA said R trains are running on the F line between the 36th Street station in Queens and the 34th Street-Herald Square station, then run on the D line in both directions between the 34th Street-Herald Square station and the DeKalb Avenue station.

The MTA has released a video of the break at the 23rd Street subway station:

More anti-Muslim ads go up in New York City subways

Wed, 09 Jan 2013 14:08:00 +0000

NEW YORK — The group that equated Muslim radicals with savages in advertisements last year has put up another set of provocative ads in dozens of New York City subway stations.

The American Freedom Defense Initiative purchased space next to 228 clocks in 39 stations for ads with an image of the burning World Trade Center and a quote attributed to the Quran saying: "Soon shall we cast terror into the hearts of the unbelievers."

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority said the ads went up Monday and will run for a month.

The same group paid for ads to be displayed in 10 stations in September. Those ads implied enemies of Israel are "savages."

The MTA also sold space last year to competing advertisements that urged tolerance.

Death by brown skin

Mon, 31 Dec 2012 14:24:00 +0000

Sunando Sen, a 46-year-old Indian immigrant, recently opened a small copying and printing business in New York City’s Upper West Side with his hard-earned savings. Described by friends as “very educated” and “so quiet, so gentle, so nice,” Sen’s American dream ended in tragedy last Thursday when Erika Menendez fatally pushed him in front of an oncoming subway train.

Menendez admitted the hate crime, explaining she “pushed a Muslim off the train tracks because I hate Hindus and Muslims ever since 2001 when they put down the twin towers I’ve been beating them up."

Never mind that Sen was raised Hindu and the 9-11 terrorist attacks were coordinated by 19 foreign hijackers primarily from Saudi Arabia.

An unbalanced, paranoid mind marinated in our oversaturated Islamophobic environment is numb to such cultural specifics and susceptible to conflate anyone appearing “Muslimy” as the “enemy.”

Woman charged with hate crime over subway shove death

Sun, 30 Dec 2012 14:19:00 +0000

NEW YORK (AP) -- A woman who told police she shoved a man to his death off a subway platform into the path of a train because she has hated Muslims since Sept. 11 and thought he was one was charged Saturday with murder as a hate crime, prosecutors said.

Erika Menendez was charged in the death of Sunando Sen, who was crushed by a 7 train in Queens on Thursday night, the second time this month a commuter has died in such a nightmarish fashion.

Menendez, 31, was awaiting arraignment on the charge Saturday evening, Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown said. She could face 25 years to life in prison if convicted. She was in custody and couldn't be reached for comment, and it was unclear if she had an attorney.

Menendez, who was arrested after a tip by a passer-by who saw her on a street and thought she looked like the woman in a surveillance video released by police, admitted shoving Sen, who was pushed from behind, authorities said.

"I pushed a Muslim off the train tracks because I hate Hindus and Muslims ever since 2001 when they put down the twin towers I've been beating them up," Menendez told police, according to the district attorney's office.

Man charged for deadly subway push

Wed, 05 Dec 2012 20:59:00 +0000

NEW YORK (AP) -- A homeless man was arrested Wednesday in the death of a subway rider who was pushed onto the tracks and photographed just before a train struck him.

Naeem Davis, 30, was taken into custody for questioning Tuesday after security video showed a man fitting the suspect's description working with street vendors near Rockefeller Center. Police said Davis made statements implicating himself in Ki-Suck Han's death.

Davis was arrested on a second-degree murder charge. He was in custody, and it wasn't immediately clear if he had a lawyer. It also wasn't clear when he would appear in court. He has several prior arrests in New York and Pennsylvania on mostly minor charges including drug possession.

Witnesses told investigators they saw a man talking to himself Monday afternoon before he approached the 58-year-old Han of Queens at the Times Square station, got into an altercation with him and pushed him into the train's path.

The New York Post published a photo on its front page Tuesday of Han with his head turned toward the train, his arms reaching up but unable to climb off the tracks in time. It was shot by freelance photographer R. Umar Abbasi, who was waiting to catch a train.

Video: MTA workers restore subway line

Wed, 07 Nov 2012 19:06:00 +0000

Alongside a host of striking photos detailing Sandy's destruction on New York's transit systems, the MTA has also put out some interesting video footage. This video (which is worth watching only from a little after the one minute mark), shows workers in the L-train tunnels this week, working to get the line back in service. Most subway services have been restored since the entire system's suspension when Sandy hit:

Subway creaks back into service

Thu, 01 Nov 2012 12:51:00 +0000

NEW YORK (AP) -- New York tried to resume its normal frenetic pace Thursday, getting back much of its vital subway system after a crippling storm, but was l slowed by gridlocked traffic.

Commuters lined up at Penn Station to board uptown trains at 6 a.m. Technology worker Ronnie Abraham was on one of them, hoping to get home to Harlem, a trip that is 20 minutes by train and 2 1/2 hours by bus.

"It's the lifeline of the city," Abraham said. "It can't get much better than this."

Ray Dunn, a paramedic, was trying to get work in the Bronx for the first time since the storm barreled up the East Coast, killing more than 70 people, devastating coastal communities and leaving millions without power from New Jersey to the West Virginia mountains.

"There's no way to get to work unless you drive," said Dunn, who doesn't own a car.

After reopening its airports, theaters and stock exchange, city officials hoped the subways would ease the gridlock that had paralyzed the city, forcing cars and pedestrians to inch through crowded streets without working stoplights. But television footage Thursday showed heavy traffic crawling into Manhattan, as police turned away cars that carried fewer than three people - a rule meant to ease the congestion that paralyzed the city earlier this week.

New York subway making gradual comeback

Wed, 31 Oct 2012 17:36:00 +0000

This Halloween, the growling, screeching monster that is New York's subway will start to rise again, beginning a gradual recovery from Frankenstorm's devastation. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced Wednesday that the MTA is testing subway service this afternoon, and 14 out of the city's 23 lines are expected to start running again on Thursday. Trains will not run below midtown in Manhattan, where power remains cut off following an explosion at a Con Ed substation on Monday night when Sandy hit.

Limited commuter rail service on Metro-North and the Long Island Railroad will resume at 2pm Wednesday on Metro-North and the Long Island Railroad. Keep up to date on which trains are running here.

Journalist arrested for defacing anti-Islam ad

Wed, 26 Sep 2012 15:23:00 +0000

Egyptian-American writer and activist Mona Eltahawy was arrested in New York Tuesday morning for defacing one of the anti-Islam subway ads that went up in 10 stations this week.

The controversial pro-Israel ads, sponsored by Islamophobic blogger Pamela Geller, equate Muslims with "savages." As Salon noted yesterday, anonymous New Yorkers have already made a point of defacing a number of the posters around the city.

A pink coat-clad Eltahawy, who had two arms broken by Egyptian police when covering a protest in Cairo last year, began spraying the offending poster with hot pink spray paint. As she did, another women carrying a camera accosted her and stood in front of the poster, decrying Eltahawy for undermining freedom of expression.

"This is freedom of expression," retorted Eltahawy, as she continued to spray the ad, even while the other woman -- later identified as Pamela Geller supporter Pamel Hall -- placed her body in front of the poster to protect it.

Extra NYPD reportedly protect anti-Islam ads

Tue, 25 Sep 2012 17:44:00 +0000

The New York Post reported Tuesday that the NYPD has increased its presence in ten subway stations, where controversial anti-Islam ads were posted Monday.

The ads, funded by professional Islamophobe Pam Gellar and her group The American Defense Freedom Initiative, were permitted to go up by a federal judge despite opposition from the Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA).

The Post reports that "the NYPD quietly increased its presence at the stations with the ads," although NYPD spokesperson Paul Browne denied the claims. He told the Post that there had been no changes in security or staffing because of the posters.

Increased security or no, a number of the ads have already been defaced by anonymous New Yorkers. Metro New York reports that large stickers bearing the work "Racist" have been pasted over the posters, which suggest that Israel's opposition in the Middle East are "savages."

Anti-Islam ‘savage’ ad set for subway

Fri, 21 Sep 2012 11:34:00 +0000

NEW YORK (AP) — A provocative ad that equates Muslim radicals with savages is set to go up in the city's subway system as violent protests over an anti-Islamic film ridiculing the Prophet Muhammad sweep over much of the Muslim world.

A conservative blogger who once headed a campaign against an Islamic center near the Sept. 11 terror attack site won a court order to post the ad in 10 subway stations next Monday. The ad reads, "In any war between the civilized man and the savage, support the civilized man. Support Israel. Defeat Jihad."

The ad was plastered on San Francisco city buses in recent weeks, prompting some artists to deface the ads and remove some of the words, including "Jihad," or holy war. The blogger, Pamela Geller, said she filed suit Thursday in the nation's capital to post the ad in Washington's transit system after officials declined to put up the ad in light of the uproar in the Middle East over the anti-Islam film.

Abdul Yasar, a New York subway rider who considers himself an observant Muslim, said Geller's ad was insensitive in an unsettling climate for Muslims.

"If you don't want to see what happened in Libya and Egypt after the video — maybe not so strong here in America — you shouldn't put this up," Yasar said.

New York’s forgotten tunnels

Sat, 04 Aug 2012 14:00:00 +0000

With backpack slung behind, headlamp set in place and gloves on hand, Steve Duncan heads down a set of subway stairs. He makes his way to an abandoned station, under a manhole and beyond the city lights of a bridge. His words of warning: “Don’t hit the third rail, don’t get run over by trains, watch for motion detectors and don’t be seen.”

Duncan calls himself an urban explorer. The 33-year-old Maryland native has lived in New York City since 1996, barring two years spent studying in Los Angeles. He is currently a student at City University of New York Graduate Center, working on a Ph.D. in Urban Studies, a discipline he knows as “Sewerology.” Duncan is also a researcher with CUNY’s Institute for Sustainable Cities and a freelance photographer.