Screw You, TWU

So here we are. New Yorkers, five and a half hours into the first TWU strike in twenty-five years. I assume that in the very near future I'll have much more to say about this. There will probably be ENDLESS horror stories about three and four hour commutes in the sub-zero windchill. But I haven't left my apartment yet, so I still posses the luxury of optimism.

For those of you who do not live in New York, allow me to lay out for you exactly what we're facing.

The island of Manhattan is long, and narrow. It is over 200 blocks North to South, and smack in the middle lies Central Park. Crossing town, above, below, or through the park on any normal day is a total nightmare. On the west side a little below 50th St you start to hit Times Square, which is exactly the freak show it appears to be on television. The pedestrian traffic through midtown is disastrous, even when it's not Christmas week, even when 7million people are using the busses and subways instead of (or combined with) walking. So while the distance ACROSS the island is nothing compared to the distance up or down it, the challenge of a cross-town commute is nothing to underestimate. On foot, or in a car.

I live on 151st St on the West side of town. My office is on 47th St on the East side of town. Out of my apartment window is the Hudson River. Out of my office window is the East River. They are an entire city apart.

Now that the TWU has decided to walk out, and it could potentially take days for a court injunction to force them back to work, there are two ways I can attempt to get to my office (where, might I add, I am still expected to be). I could walk...or take a cab. For New Yorkers who live in the boroughs, (Queens, Bronx, Brooklyn) there are shuttles and busses running into the city from specified check points. For those of us in Manhattan-- no such luck. Apparently, no one is supposed to live above 100th St for this very reason. I didn't get the memo.

Aside from the fact that it's currently 22 degrees outside, far less when considering the wind-chill, I'm going to refer to my earlier diagramming of the city. I live A HUNDRED BLOCKS FROM WORK on the OTHER side of town. Are you kidding me? I could leave now, on foot, and I would make it there eventually. Probably in time for work tomorrow. If I don't freeze to death on the way. (Fine- I'm being dramatic. Leave me alone.)

The cab option would be good, if the city hadn't zoned off all of the streets below 96th. I could get a cab up here, but upon hitting the 96th and Broadway check-point, would be forced to either pick up three strangers to meet the HOV minimum passenger requirements, or get booted onto the sidewalk and forced to ride with a total stranger the rest of the way. At 11am, the requirements are lifted, and one passenger at a time is permitted into the southern half of the city, and across the bridges from the boroughs. Though the drivers are still not permitted to cross town at any point, so at least a half hour walk awaits me at some point in the commute. Cab fare for a hundred blocks will be approximately $20 each way, which comes out of my own pocket.

The TWU is walking the streets in complaint of $45k salaries with pensions and retirement at the age of 55. I refuse to BEGIN commenting on the reasons that this pisses me off...but right now, one important reason comes to mind. I'm paying them to NOT take me to work, to pay to drag myself there to make less money than they do.

I have to go now. I've got a three hour walk ahead of me. Screw you, TWU. Screw you.