Photo: At the Base

The last time I was in New York City, there was a World Trade Center. I had the opportunity to go up to the observation deck, but I didn't take it; I figured there would be another one someday. Instead, I got this photo of myself taken at the base of the towers - this was in June 1999, back when the future still looked as bright as the sunlight that bathed The Sphere in the background.

People and things can change a lot in ten years or more.

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Photo: Brooklyn, British Columbia

Vancouver is the core of Hollywood North, but New Westminster plays host to the entertainment industry every once in a while itself. I stumbled into one of their setups, entirely by accident, this weekend while I was on my way to the grocery store. If you've never been to New West, Front Street is kind of an odd street - it's very easy to get into the "out of sight, out of mind" issue, as it's not only downhill from Columbia Street, it's also underneath the Downtown Parkade. It's called Antique Alley, and it's dominated by antique, surplus, and furniture stores.

Except this weekend. At first I didn't notice anything off at all with the stores that all had bilingual English and Hebrew (or perhaps it's actually Yiddish) signage. Nor did anything seem odd about the sudden profusion of tailor shops and kosher bakeries; it had been a little while since I'd last been down to Front Street, and I was pleased that empty storefronts were filling up. It wasn't until I saw a sign for the New York Lottery in a "new convenience store" that I really realized.

So, this weekend, Front Street was turned into a slice of Brooklyn - Borough Park, to be specific, thanks to the subway sign they installed on the stairs up to the parkade. Filming happened yesterday, and I have no pictures of the set fully developed because there were plenty of dudes around with radios who I'm sure would have been rather cross had I just started going around with my camera.

I don't know what movie it is, though. If anyone does, I'd be interested in hearing.


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This means that you are free to Share (to copy, distribute and transmit the work) and to Remix (to adapt the work) under the following conditions: Attribution (you must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author or licensor, but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work), Noncommercial (you may not use this work for commercial purposes), and Share Alike (if you alter, transform, or build upon this work, you may distribute the resulting work only under the same or similar license to this one).

PDP #262: Toronto City, New York

As TV Tropes says, the City With No Name is often Toronto. Just as frequently, though, Toronto is standing in for some more well known, but less conveniently filmable, city - in the last year alone it's been Detroit, St. Louis, and Geneva in Warehouse 13. Still, when the film crews come in, it's a fair guess that they're remaking a slice of New York City.

On Thursday evening, the crews got to work on the southwest entrance of King subway station, redressing it into the New York City Subway's Fulton Street Station as part of the background for Alphas, a crime thriller pilot for NBC. By Friday, when I took this photo, the transformation was complete. I have to admit, it looks authentic - but then it's been nearly ten years since I've seen a New York City Subway station with my own eyes. Perhaps to a New Yorker, this is obviously wrong.

I mean, disregarding the streetcar behind it.

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PDP #214: Lower Manhattan, 1999

It's been a long time since I've been to New York City. Considering that it operates the king of subway systems in North America, recently I've been thinking of heading that way again after an eleven-year absence. I took a few pictures the last time I was there, such as this one from the ferry en route to (or returning from; I can't remember anymore) Liberty Island, in June of 1999. Just one more photo that can never be taken again.

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A Short Circuit in the Electric Sewer

In a lot of cities, rapid transit isn't - at least, with my experience and expectations created by the Toronto Transit Commission's operations, that's how it often seems to me. On Toronto's three subway lines and the Scarborough RT, trains run so close together that if one's pulling out right as you hit the platform, you'll only have to wait 5-6 minutes for the next one. It's not often, in my experience, that the scheduling seriously breaks down. What I've come to realize is that this is unusual, as far as North American cities go. Though the rapid transit systems in Montreal, Chicago, and Los Angeles beat out Toronto in some respects, in my opinion none of them stand above the TTC in terms of this dedication to timely service.

The recent TTC fare increase is, in its way, emblematic of that. Adam Giambrone has stood firm against the prospect of service cuts to make up the budget hole, and in so doing, the TTC is one of the few major transit systems on the continent that's taken that option off the table. In New York City, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority is staring into a budgetary abyss, stemming from a $200-million shortfall in a recently-enacted transit payroll tax as well as reduced support from the New York state government. Yesterday the New York Times reported the shortfall as $383-million in spite of a 25-cent fare increase in May, a far more sobering amount than the expected $106-million gap the TTC hiked its fares to fill.

Ultimately, as it turns out, an extra twenty-five cents per ride doesn't seem to have been enough to stabilize the system, and the MTA has been forced to slash service in order to stay afloat. Two entire subway lines, the W and Z, will be cancelled - unlike in Toronto, where "line" and "track" are synonymous, in New York multiple subway lines can use the same track - while off-peak service would be reduced and discounted student fares would be eliminated. Its version of Wheel-Trans would be cut to the absolute minimum. The budget which would force these cancellations hasn't been passed yet - it goes before the MTA board tomorrow for approval - but this isn't the first time I've heard tidings of budget armageddon coming out of Manhattan, and the MTA only has so many saving throws against recession.

Cutting service is, fundamentally, a short-term solution that creates long-term problems. The usefulness of an urban transit system comes not just from its length but from its capacity for connections. One subway line may feed multiple bus routes, and the passengers that transfer off those buses filter through the system according to their individual needs. Service cuts inevitably break these connections, and the echo of a scissors' snip will be magnified as it resounds across the system. A frequent transit rider whose bus route is cancelled or chopped into an inconvenient schedule may well find it easier, if not cheaper, to drive and find their own route on their own merits.

A certain level of complexity is necessary, I think, for a truly functional and reliable transit system. Sufficient service grants the system a robustness that would allow it to weather damage and continue functioning. For example, I feel that the Downtown Relief Line should be a far more immediate project for the TTC than the current Transit City system. Not only would the new subway line spur new ridership, by extending higher-order transit service to areas of the city that currently lack it, it would give the system resiliency. A DRL that reached north to Eglinton Avenue would have been invaluable last month, when an accidental tunnel breach shut down a four-station section of track that left tens of thousands of commuters in the cold.

While it may be necessary in the short term, a transit agency cutting service in order to survive runs the risk of cannibalizing itself - service cuts decrease the connections of the system, which drive potential passengers away, and if enough are driven away farebox revenue is insufficient to sustain the system, which in the absence of government assistance necessitates further fare increases or service cuts - in much the same way as the protagonist of Stephen King's Survivor Type. Though I hope that the MTA can come out of this pit as soon as possible, I'm thankful that the TTC is so far refusing to consider the kind of drastic measures that could lead to another lost decade for transit in Toronto.