Category: Bums

Bums, homeless, drunks, etc

Predicting the Heat’s-A-Coming

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I’m to lazy to go and look up the temperatures from last May, but I feel like we’re getting off easy this year temperature wise. I have a feeling these relatively mild weeks are going to quickly come back and bite us in the ass.

I’m predicting that we get our first sustained heat not this week but next week.  This week will be the last week of the nice mild weather.   I’m just going on a hunch that next week is going to be the official beginning of the balls hot weather.

Of course, I have absolutely no scientific data to back that up.  It’s just a feeling.

As with everything on the subway, I get really jumpy when things go too well for too long.

Being able to leave home without a jacket and not sweat my ass off on the platform is delightful.  But I’m used to only being able to do that for a few days a year.

Now, remember SUBWAYblogger’s three day theory.  It takes a full three days for the temperature underground to totally catch up to the outside temp.  One day of 98 degree weather won’t do anything down below.  We need three back to back days in the mid eighties for it to become totally unbearable underground.

I’m really not looking forward to the heat in the subway this year, not that I would any year.  This year particularly though.  There’s a really distinct smell of urine ripening at my stop that just gets worse by the day.  I can only imagine what the heat is going to bring.

There’s clearly some homeless guy that keeps making a daily deposit there because there’s no way that one quick piss could be persistent this long.  That ammonia smell is getting pretty ridiculous.  It’s almost to the point where you can taste it.  I’m considering walking all the way to the other end of the platform from now on.

Anyway, mark my words.  Heat’s a comin’.

Subway Cheapskate Makes Out on Leftover Fare

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Stack of Metrocards

Turns out it’s not just the homeless guys that pick up the tossed Metrocards to try and to use the leftover values.

The Post reports that Georgette DiFini, an F line resident of Brooklyn, regularly picks up discarded Metrocards.  She claims that roughly 40% of all tossed cards have at least some money left on them.  Not enough for a ride though.

You might be asking yourself how on earth would anyone be left with anything less than a whole dollar on their Metrocard.  Well, it’s that tricky 15% bonus you get on any fare purchase over $7.00.  If you get a $7 card, you’re going to get bonused $1.05.  That damn $0.05 is going to carry over.

The MTA says simply refill your card to use the leftover bonus.  So in this case, you’d have to add another $0.95 to cover the remaining balance of a $2.00 fare.  It’s like the MTA is getting their ideas from the crack dealer’s handbook.  Get just a little taste extra to keep them coming back.  The $1.05 isn’t worth a damn thing.  They’ll need to spend another $0.95 to be able to use it.

Anyway, this woman finds these cards everyday. How many you ask?  Try around 45 a day!

The then takes her loot up to the tokenbooth to rollover the balance onto her card.  She’s making about $10 a week she says.

Not a bad idea if you don’t mind fighting the bums for their finds.

What happens to all the “change” that never gets used?  The MTA keeps it of course.  That change adds up to about $4 million a year.  That’s a $4 million donation New Yorkers make to the MTA a few cents at a time.

MTA Police Officer Let’s Bum Skip Fare

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I saw it with my own eyes.  My jaw dropped to the ground.

I’m sure you’ve seen a homeless person with a stack of used MetroCards standing at a turnstile swiping away in hopes to find a card with a ride still left on it.  I do applaud them for trying to be legal about getting in the subway.  Have to hand it to them there.

However, today I saw an MTA cop just let a guy in because he was tired of seeing the guy swipe (not the guy pictured above). 

It wasn’t even that busy.  The cop said, “You know what, just stop.  Come through.”  

With that, he opened the emergency door and let the guy through.

An act of kindness, perhaps.  However, if anyone else did that, he’d take pleasure in writing them a summons.  

The bottom line was he was just tired of hearing that high pitch ring of the cards being denied.

PHOTO CREDIT

Top 10 Subway Bullsh*t

subwayblogger25 Comments
  1. Heat (or lack of AC): Can’t we poke some holes in the ceiling of the train lines to allow more ventilation?  Is it that hard to do?  And I’m sure there’s a way to do it and keep the rain out at the same time.
  2. Security: Well, there isn’t any.  Random cops sometimes standing around talking to each other is security?
  3. Lack of Cameras: When I get mugged (it’s only a matter of time), I want it caught on film.  All you privacy freaks, get over it.  Your face on camera while you wait for the train is not an invasion of your privacy.  Cameras in the bathrooms, maybe.  But since there are hardly any bathrooms, it’s not a problem.
  4. Lack of Wireless Service:  Honestly?  It’s almost 2009.  Get on the stick.
  5. MetroCard: The MetroCard was a good idea up until 1999.  Now it’s time for something better.  A pocket EZPass?  Swipe your cellphone?
  6. Giving Money to Panhandlers: If everyone stopped giving money to the bums on the train that claim “their papers got lost” and “they got mugged at the shelter” and “that apologize for the interruption,” they would stop begging on the train.  They simply would go somewhere else to make a buck.  I’ve seen the same 3 or 4 bums pitching the same exact story for years now.
  7. Strollers: Nuff Said.
  8. MTA: Pretty much everyone in charge over there.  Especially the ones in charge of the books.
  9. Electronic Message Boards: Nuff Said.
  10. Bitching About Our Bitching: If you have a problem with our bitching, that’s ok.  We’d love to hear about it, but SUBWAYblogger is here to stay.
Now it is time for you to add #11, 12, 13, etc!  Post away in the comments.  Get the list going.  Tell a friend.  Check the little box under the submit button to find out when other people reply.

The Crazies are Active

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I’ve experienced an unprecedented amount of encounters with crazy bums this week.  Like, a LOT of encounters.  Almost every time I ride the train.

A few of the highlights.

The Crazy Bum Couple. I’m standing on the platform one afternoon this week waiting for my train.  I hear a loud fight half in English, half Spanish.  Turn around, and there’s a homeless couple yelling at each other about the direction the train is going to run (uptown or downtown).  It was the uptown side.  They were also oddly short people.

Anyway, the guy has a purple bandage around his arm at the elbow.  When I noticed it again, I saw that his elbow was broken.  The joint totally did not line up at all.  This purple bandage was the equivelant of an ace bandage, but there was a huge bump below where it ended the size of a baseball.  It was his elbow.  There’s no way it was in the socket.

Of course, they got right in the same car I did where the discussion continued.  It was also interlaced with him screaming about how he wasn’t going to effing move out of the doorway when people tried to get on and off.

The Pundit. Yesterday, there was a guy waiting on the platform having a very detailed discussion about the qualifications for being President of the USA.  He was very up to date on current events.  I thought he was talking to someone on the phone with a bluetooth or something.  Turns out…nope.  He was talking to himself.

He also got on the same car as me where the “debate” continued about how many rights do Americans really need.  Does new technology really help us?  Did anyone really ask for the microwave to be invented?  This discussion was at full volume as if he were talking to everyone on that end of the train.   Not at all angry, and he actually made some good points.  Unfortunately, he was just talking to himself.

How did I know he was crazy?  He had a pair of black nylon stockings tied around his mouth like a surgeon’s mask.

I Fought with a Bum Today

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Sort of.  Also, it turns out you can’t blog about it on your Blackberry while you are in the process of screaming at a scrawny bum.

Anyway, this morning it was raining pretty hard as we all know.  On my train, there was an open window that obviously had water leak down it and formed a puddle in one of the seats.

Unfortunately, I found myself standing directly in front of that seat.  I didn’t want the seat, but saw the open space.  So I spent much of the ride trying to explain to old ladies that they couldn’t sit there because of the puddle, as they pushed me out of the way.

About half way to my stop, a skinny a-hole homeless guy got on the train screaming .  F-this and F-that. Screaming at random people to get the f out of his way.  What are they looking at.  Then telling women he could see down their tops.  A real specimen.

Little eagle-eye spotted the open seat and squirmed his way though the packed train car where I (and others around me) said the seat’s wet.  Note:  I’m standing almost close enough for my shins to touch the front edge of the seat, that’s how packed the train is.  I’m at mid car, near the middle doors.  The wet seat is one spot in from the end of the bench.

So he comes in from my left and reaches down to the seat and brushes the puddle of water off the seat onto the front of my pants!  Like a big, fast wiping action to flick the water off.  He only got about half of the water off the seat when he started to spin around to sit down.

At first I was in shock, but then I said, “Are you fucking kidding me?”

I will leave the rest to your imagination.  I don’t want to go into any details, but he was not on board the train when we left the next station.

I have a fairly high tollerance for these guys because clearly they have mental problems.  However, when you are saying things like he said and splashing water on me, it really gets to the point where action needs to be taken.

Striking Similarity or Pink Copycat

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You Be the Judge…

Fat People:

Subway Gal and Here
SUBWAYblogger and Here

Homeless:
Subway Gal
SUBWAYblogger and Bums Category

Sleeping on Subway:
Subway Gal
SUBWAYblogger

Emergency Exits
Subway Gal
SUBWAYblogger

Pee
Subway Gal
SUBWAYblogger

Fare Increase, Same Crappy Service
Subway Gal
SUBWAYblogger

Heat and Air Conditioning
Subway Gal
SUBWAYblogger and Here (same headline) and Here

I mean, I’m just sayin’.  🙂

Are people being pissy more than normal?

subwayblogger8 Comments

I feel like I am running into the most bitchy people on the subway lately.  I mean this week!

There seem to be an especially high number of moody bitches causing problems on the train.  For what ever reason, it has still be crowded in the morning even though many schools are off this week.  So I don’k know what the deal is, but the trains are more crowded than ever this week.

On that note, people think if they cause a scene, somehow it is going to make things move quicker.

Have you noticed anything?

Dead or Alive

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Contributed by a SUBWAYblogger reader Leslie S.: 

I was on my way to DTW for Yanira Castro’s installation piece, when I almost tripped on who I thought was on ordinary subway vagrant on the steps leading outside to the NE corner of 14th street at 6th avenue. (at the F stop)  I quickly realized that this man, bum or not, was not breathing and there was a small mass of people beginning to collect around the station. Mostly, people were as frozen as the man was.

I asked if anyone had a mirror, if the police had been called, had anytime tried to do CPR. No one really said anything, other than “he fell.” What worried me was that perhaps no one tried to help him immediately for fear he was homeless.

After about 5 minutes, the police and medics began pouring in and shoving people out of the way. No one in the crowd was of much help. Even the station agent who identified the man as a security agent who worked in the neighborhood, (and who presumably called 911) didn’t seem particularly concerned, or rather, there was a blatant lack of urgency or panic in his manner. CPR was performed for about 10 minutes but to no avail. A few minutes later, more support arrived to carry him away.

I am unsure as to his status and can only assume he did not make it, but have not heard anything on any local news outlet, so am wondering if anyone has written in about this or if anyone has heard anything about tragic incident.

I do hope he is alive.