NYC Transit Strike: The best thing for bike shops
- Thread starter sanjuro
- Start date
HA - Sweet! Sucks it takes a strike to get people to friggin ride though.
i think its a good thing...get some of the fat people to see the light...
Why is everyone in that photo walking their bike instead of riding it?
90% of those bikes will be rusting in snowbanks as soon as the strike is overHeidi said:
Unfortunately, you're probably right. Maybe they'll be on E-bay thoughEcho said:90% of those bikes will be rusting in snowbanks as soon as the strike is over
I heard on NPR. The City will fine all employees who strike 2 days pay for every 1 day on strike.
Wouldn't bother me, because I ride a bike!
http://nytimes.com/2005/12/20/nyregion/nyregionspecial3/20cnd-strike.html?hp
M.T.A. and Union Remain Locked in Acrimonious Standoff
By JENNIFER STEINHAUER
Million of New Yorkers, shivering in their bike seats, walking at speedy clips and waving frantically at strange drivers, faced down the city's first transit strike in a quarter century today, as union officials and the state's transit authority, locked in an acrimonious standoff, battled their respective cases in court.
Confusion reigned throughout large swaths of the city, where drivers attempted to flout the police-enforced rule in Manhattan of four passengers to a vehicle before 11 a.m., extended, oddly, to taxi and livery drivers trying to make their way into Manhattan to pick up passengers.
At Jamaica Station in Queens, for instance, the station was packed with people lined up for blocks and blocks, trying to get into the station, where many trains coming from Long Island failed to stop simply because there was no room to accommodate new passengers.
In a few Manhattan neighborhoods - often 10 blocks from sprawling traffic jams - the city seemed in holiday mode, with few cars or pedestrians and an unimpeded view of the bright winter sky along Broadway, which is usually clogged with rush hour foot traffic. Empty taxis whizzed along the avenue, unhailed. A post office on the Upper West Side, where lines usually snake out the door at Christmas, had only a smattering of customers. The city's public schools started their day two hours late, with many classrooms left half empty.
Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg made his way across the Brooklyn Bridge toward City Hall early this morning, recalling, with far less drama, Mayor Edward I. Koch's triumphant march in 1980, when he joined New Yorkers flowing into Manhattan during the city's last transit strike. Mr. Bloomberg, by contrast, was surrounded by far more reporters and staff than actual commuters.
At a mid-afternoon news conference, Mr. Bloomberg said he didn't believe negotiations should resume until the transit employees go back to work. The union leaders, he said, "need to send their members back to work and stop hurting their fellow New Yorkers. Then and only then should they head back to the bargaining table."
He called the strike "selfish" and said the workers had "shamefully decided that they don't care about the people they work for."
Timothy Loftus, 38, voiced the frustration of New Yorkers who were both stunned by the strike - which came after weeks of acrimonious negotiations - and unprepared.
"It's extremely annoying," said Mr. Loftus, who works as a controller at a publishing house. "I had to get up at 5 a.m., I lost two hours of sleep, and I spent time yesterday coordinating to get people to work. For those of us who are not union members it's hard to sympathize. And what if I can't find a place to park."
Reeling from the loss of subways and buses, thousands of New Yorkers cued up for taxis, livery vans or buses provided by the companies were at times indistinguishable from those looking to hitch rides from forlorn drivers in search of enough passengers to get into the city.
Jae Kim, 29, of Paterson, N.J., was behind the wheel of his Honda Accord outside the Holland Tunnel, joined by two friends, all trying to get to their delivery jobs in lower Manhattan.
In a futile attempt to fool the checkpoint officers they piled their bulky winter coats in the back seat, hoping that the officers would think the mass was a fourth person. "It didn't work," Mr. Kim conceded. "We really need to get in and we can't wait until 11 but I don't think we have a choice."
A Starbucks on Water Street was locked at 9:15,. and a stack of newspapers lay outside the door, despite the fact that a sign in the window said that the store opened at 6.
"If it goes the full week," said Burt P. Flickinger III, a retail industry analyst, referring to the strike, "sales could be off 50 percent or more this week," which would translate to the loss of 5 to 10 percent of the entire year's profits. "In terms of lost operating income for New York-based retailers, it could be a quarter to half a billion dollars if they lose the entire week."
Many New Yorkers took the freezing temperatures and their alterative mode of transport in stride. Keith Bergen, an accountant from Dyker Heights, Brooklyn, took a car service to the Brooklyn side of the Brooklyn Bridge, and then began his walk to midtown. "You do what you have to do to get to work," said Mr. Bergen, who is 30." I did it during the blackout, so it's not so bad." He will not, however, be using the two-foot express if the strike lasts. "I'll get a carpool or something," he said.
http://nytimes.com/2005/12/20/nyregion/nyregionspecial3/20cnd-strike.html?hp
M.T.A. and Union Remain Locked in Acrimonious Standoff
By JENNIFER STEINHAUER
Million of New Yorkers, shivering in their bike seats, walking at speedy clips and waving frantically at strange drivers, faced down the city's first transit strike in a quarter century today, as union officials and the state's transit authority, locked in an acrimonious standoff, battled their respective cases in court.
Confusion reigned throughout large swaths of the city, where drivers attempted to flout the police-enforced rule in Manhattan of four passengers to a vehicle before 11 a.m., extended, oddly, to taxi and livery drivers trying to make their way into Manhattan to pick up passengers.
At Jamaica Station in Queens, for instance, the station was packed with people lined up for blocks and blocks, trying to get into the station, where many trains coming from Long Island failed to stop simply because there was no room to accommodate new passengers.
In a few Manhattan neighborhoods - often 10 blocks from sprawling traffic jams - the city seemed in holiday mode, with few cars or pedestrians and an unimpeded view of the bright winter sky along Broadway, which is usually clogged with rush hour foot traffic. Empty taxis whizzed along the avenue, unhailed. A post office on the Upper West Side, where lines usually snake out the door at Christmas, had only a smattering of customers. The city's public schools started their day two hours late, with many classrooms left half empty.
Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg made his way across the Brooklyn Bridge toward City Hall early this morning, recalling, with far less drama, Mayor Edward I. Koch's triumphant march in 1980, when he joined New Yorkers flowing into Manhattan during the city's last transit strike. Mr. Bloomberg, by contrast, was surrounded by far more reporters and staff than actual commuters.
At a mid-afternoon news conference, Mr. Bloomberg said he didn't believe negotiations should resume until the transit employees go back to work. The union leaders, he said, "need to send their members back to work and stop hurting their fellow New Yorkers. Then and only then should they head back to the bargaining table."
He called the strike "selfish" and said the workers had "shamefully decided that they don't care about the people they work for."
Timothy Loftus, 38, voiced the frustration of New Yorkers who were both stunned by the strike - which came after weeks of acrimonious negotiations - and unprepared.
"It's extremely annoying," said Mr. Loftus, who works as a controller at a publishing house. "I had to get up at 5 a.m., I lost two hours of sleep, and I spent time yesterday coordinating to get people to work. For those of us who are not union members it's hard to sympathize. And what if I can't find a place to park."
Reeling from the loss of subways and buses, thousands of New Yorkers cued up for taxis, livery vans or buses provided by the companies were at times indistinguishable from those looking to hitch rides from forlorn drivers in search of enough passengers to get into the city.
Jae Kim, 29, of Paterson, N.J., was behind the wheel of his Honda Accord outside the Holland Tunnel, joined by two friends, all trying to get to their delivery jobs in lower Manhattan.
In a futile attempt to fool the checkpoint officers they piled their bulky winter coats in the back seat, hoping that the officers would think the mass was a fourth person. "It didn't work," Mr. Kim conceded. "We really need to get in and we can't wait until 11 but I don't think we have a choice."
A Starbucks on Water Street was locked at 9:15,. and a stack of newspapers lay outside the door, despite the fact that a sign in the window said that the store opened at 6.
"If it goes the full week," said Burt P. Flickinger III, a retail industry analyst, referring to the strike, "sales could be off 50 percent or more this week," which would translate to the loss of 5 to 10 percent of the entire year's profits. "In terms of lost operating income for New York-based retailers, it could be a quarter to half a billion dollars if they lose the entire week."
Many New Yorkers took the freezing temperatures and their alterative mode of transport in stride. Keith Bergen, an accountant from Dyker Heights, Brooklyn, took a car service to the Brooklyn side of the Brooklyn Bridge, and then began his walk to midtown. "You do what you have to do to get to work," said Mr. Bergen, who is 30." I did it during the blackout, so it's not so bad." He will not, however, be using the two-foot express if the strike lasts. "I'll get a carpool or something," he said.