Just Another Day on the Subway

This is what I mean about being so used to the strange or bizarre in the city that you don't notice it even when it is sitting across from you on the subway. These are 5 cent deposit cans tied to a tray busing cart that itself is mounted with a tall metal rack. The owner of all this was asleep behind the pile. What's amazing is that to get here, he must have dragged it all down at least two flights of stairs, through a turnstile and onto a subway car. I was headed uptown with two friends when I saw it. We sat across from him even though there were plenty of seats at the other end of the car. When we got off at 125th Street, I stopped to take this photo and my friends asked me what I was doing. They hadn't given it much notice and wondered why I would be interested in it.

Woman Cab Jumps Blogger Twice in One Day

I got cab jumped by the same woman twice in one afternoon. What is cab jumping? It is when you are standing on the corner hailing a taxi and someone steps in front of you up the block and picks off the cab that you thought you were going to get. People see you waiting and slyly walk up the sidewalk ahead of you to grab the next taxi that comes along, just as is happening in this photo. Both of these guys slipped out in front of the woman even though she was clearly there first. Sometimes it's unintentional, but usually it's blatant.

It happened to me yesterday when I was standing at 114th Street and Broadway at the Farmers' Market in front of Columbia U. I had too many bags to manage on the bus, so I took a position on the downtown side of Broadway and waited for a taxi. As is typical, several had just passed and now there were none. A couple of minutes, though, and one came over the hill at 116th Street in my direction. Just as it crossed 115th Street, a woman stepped from between two cars in the middle of the block and raised her hand. The cab, my cab stopped and she nonchalantly hopped in. It is so annoying when this happens, but what are you going to do. About a minute later another cab pulled up so I grabbed it.

Not so fast. Before I could pick up my many bags and go for the trunk, this second taxi darted across the intersection to the the opposite corner. I was, like, what the f---? I turned around to see the same woman who had snatched my cab up the street getting into this cab. For whatever reason, she had dumped the first cab and was now pinching another one from me. I was angrier at the driver than her, though. I noted his license number, 8C73, and began mentally composing a nasty complaint to be emailed to the TLC. Finally, a third cab came and I hurried in.

The city wants taxi drivers to put in GPS systems and offer credit card service which will cost them each a bundle to install and maintain for the convenience of their mostly ungrateful customers. A lot of cabbies are striking in protest. By the time I got home, my Russian driver and I talked about how bad an idea this is because it's a tough living. We had a couple of laughs about his tip and I forgot about my complaint to the TLC.