Before looking at the regular shift shots, I'd like to thank Bob who writes Taxitales, and Two Steps Back, for leaving me a link for a page with hundreds of pictures of old New York dating back more than a century ago, one guy on the Wired New York Forum posted all of them: New York in Black and White.
Some famous photographers names include Walker Evans, Alfred Stieglitz, Weegee, Berenice Abbott, et-cetera, et-cetera. The images really lead me to compare and contrast the different layouts of city streets, how our grid has or hasn't evolved to our traffic conditions today. Before the automobile people were more dependent on the trolley , the subway, and el. The streets were narrower and more bridges, for example, the Brooklyn Bridge, would have train cars as well as horses and then horse-less carriages. The bus depot once looked like a large diner, and was adjacent to Penn Station. Penn Station of course is now just a basement in Madison Square Garden. The Port Authority Bus Terminal is now at least 8 times the size of the Greyhound Bus Terminal, and west of Times Square. It also appears that traffic got bad in the mid-30's. It is extremely interesting stuff.
I suppose there were plenty of negatives too, where are the women? And why did the men always wear work clothes and bowler hats? Different times, different times. Also all that horse-manure lying around couldn't have been healthy.
around the webs I found some real interesting stuff:
Maps:
At 2nd Ave. Sagas, a blog dedicated towards New York City transit infrastructure, has a recent article about the Proposed Subway Expansion between 1929 and 1939. Back then, there were plans for an even larger subway system connecting every borough and covering more area all over the city with 100 miles of new track.
Films:
At EV Grieve, a blog centering / lamenting on the East Village, a post: Story of a City, where the author has found some old films about the city from the late 40's.
P.S. The whole idea that the largest subway system in the world may still have more potential to better serve its city, is extremely interesting to me, so interesting that I've wanted to create another blog to gather all the information I could about New York's transit infrastructure and map it out to see if we are really served better now than before. All I've got is a page with some links because I just haven't found the time. If you want to explore all the links I've got up on the blank page it's here: Tracing New York
who needs thugs? After this altercation with a politician, Colin Beavan, wrote this letter to Mr. Klein:
At this point, you brought your vehicle to an abrupt halt, not to avoid hitting me, but because you apparently needed to communicate something to me. You rolled down your window and said, "Get your hands off my car, you fucking asshole."
I said, "You were veering into me and going to crush me."
You said, "You better not touch other people's cars. You might find that touching other people's cars is more dangerous than traffic."
This gave me the impression that you were threatening me.
Citizens like this deserve deportation, but to be representing our state, I find this insulting to our entire country, let alone our state, that we can elect such bastards.
Tickets are one of the ultimate factors in driving with such regularity. With time and experience, a taxi driver eventually knows where every odd rule and regulation exists and when and where these specific rules are enforced. The streets are infected with signs prohibiting turns during specific times, on specific days, and even for specific vehicles. The difficulty lies in reading the specifics which are of course in small print. By the time one finally reads the entire sign they are already at the intersection.
My 3rd ticket of my big yellow driving career, was for making the left on 7th Avenue from 34th Street, where lefts were prohibited everyday except for buses, but I thought the sign said except Sunday. The officer told me the day was Saturday, I needed a calendar badly.
The police liked me a lot during my 1st year of driving big yellow:
In my first week I got a double ticket after picking up a passenger at the 7th Avenue entrance of Penn Station and trying to take her back uptown. Following the advice of taxi school, I wanted to take her to Madison Avenue as directly as possible, so I ever so carefully signaled with my arm, crossed all four or five lanes and made the left at 32nd Street, where the police have a daily ticketing party. I let my passenger out telling her she’d be better off taking another taxi. I got one ticket for improper lane change, and another for something similar, which totaled to five points. That left me with only 1 point left before my license would be suspended, A fine gift from the NYPD to congratulate me on becoming one of New York’s craziest. It took an awful long time for them to give me the tickets, and once that was done, I waited a little longer; I thought I should get my hack license back, and I was really worried that my license was confiscated or something. It turned out that these clever busy bees forgot to return my license to me. When I got my hack license returned I continued with my day slowly and safely, but not without a new debt to the City of New York of about 300 dollars.
By the grace of God and/or our traffic points system, and some legal help, I never did get my license suspended; despite getting more tickets. Here is how it works if you care to follow:
Within an 18 month span if you get 6 points on your license you will have your licenses suspended. The suspension lasts 6 months I believe, but if during a period of 18 months you get 10 points, your license will be revoked. If you are due for a license renewal during the same period in which your licenses are suspended, than you might as well surrender to the lords of taxi and say good riddance. On every ticket there is a box to check for guilty and one for not guilty, and on all but one I checked not guilty. The city then sets up a hearing date and notifies you to come down to Rector Street and testify at a certain time and day. Preceding the hearing, you can go down to Rector Street and postpone your date for later. During all of this stall time you are not gaining points on your license as you are innocent until proven guilty. The garage helped me push back my hearing dates even further, and so did a lawyer I hired. The lawyer fee is about 100 bucks per ticket, I know, I know, but we have to remember the points are the enemy, not the fees. The first hearing I attended was for that left turn, my argument was that I couldn’t see the sign due to the bus in front of me blocking the overhead sign. The hearing was quicker than my breakfast; I lost. After that case, I turned to the traffic lawyer who handled every ticket after. Unfortunately she only got one ticket dismissed: her specialty, the 32nd street turn, my 1st, or, 2nd ticket.
With careful management of postponing traffic hearings and taking defensive driving courses, I managed to always stay below the 6 point mark. Every 9 months you can take a defensive driving course, which will take 2 points off your point accruement, although they word it so that they don’t have to take those points off, but they do. The city didn’t let me off that easy though. Despite having an adequate license, I then got charged an assessment fee of around 300 dollars by the State, because my record, which doesn’t erase points, is at around 10 or 12.
I was on the borderline of that suspension though for my 1st full year or 2, and it was that fear that finally taught me how to avoid getting tickets. While my license was due for renewal, some computer (or person) at the Department of Motor Vehicles didn't take the 2 points off and rendered my drivers license suspended for a few days before I straightened that out.
There are many lessons on how to drive big yellow in New York City, here are 4 key points to remember:
-Avoid Penn-Station, particularly the main entrance at 7th Avenue.
When dropping off passengers and approaching the station from 6th Avenue, first ask if they’d prefer getting dropped off at 31st Street as it may be faster.
If they’d rather get dropped off right in front, then take 33rd Street, but when it becomes clear that it would be faster for your fare to walk to the station, ask them if they are in a hurry, and advise them it’d be faster for them to walk from there.
When approaching on 7th Avenue from the north, turn the meter off when you pass the taxi line, then after passing the main entrance, pull to the curbside after the intersection. If you are stuck in traffic and your passengers are rushing to get out, tell them you will let them off after the light, and that you don’t want to get a ticket for dropping off in the middle of the street.
-Avoid Grand Central Station; make your drop-offs quick and your pick-ups quicker, and safe of course.
Do not pick-up fares when you are within sight of the taxi line unless you are at the front of the taxi line itself.
-At intersections, be weary of pedestrians while turning, this is a quick ticket for an unsympathetic officer.
The police with the badges and the guns are the ones that give you tickets.
The traffic police, who help traffic flow at congested intersections, actually encourage aggressive driving, and view cabbies as role models for other drivers. Traffic police want traffic to flow, while the officers tend to slow it down.
-There are 20,000 police officers in New York City, while there are probably 10, maybe 20 Taxi and Limousine Commission officers. Therefore your priority should be to follow the rules of the road. The T&LC’s laws are less important.
You'd have to see it to believe it, so I'm glad I took picture after my shift. Somebody chopped the back of their Geo off and replaced it with a coffee stand!
I only saw it once, I guess it drives, very slowly I assume, slower than a normal Geo.
So, you're either sick of your Crown Victoria's appetite for gas, or you're irritated by the loss of space in your new compact economy car. Am I right?
Did you know, that the Ford Crown Victoria taxis of NYC have 9 inches more length than the standard model Crown Vic? Why can't we get a little stretch in our compacts? By the way, that stretchy freak Prius still gets 50 miles to the gallon. What! I still can't get 15 mpgs on my best days.
Heading back home from a family vacation around 1996.
Winter of 2000 from Williamsburg, Brooklyn
From Castle Clinton, Battery Park, around 1999.
Visit the King of New York Hacks, for a more in depth look back as he walks through his old stomping grounds.
Also visit Jeremiah's Vanishing New York, as it examines how our city went into overdrive with consumerism and real estate tycoonery once our towers went missing.
I may write something here, but honestly I still don't have much to say about it.
After that mid shift blog post on Saturday things didn't go as smoothly as I thought. There were positives, it was the middle of the day, or late morning, so not too many people were sleepy anymore, though there was a couple from Germany who flagged me down and went a few blocks in the Lower East Side, they seemed kinda out of it, a bit tipsy like they were coming off booze or other drugs, and that was strange being it was then approaching mid-day; they behaved themselves. Also, it wasn't raining buckets anymore so I didn't have to deal with floods.
Still it just didn't work out financially as well as I'd hoped. I felt that there was a pretty good amount of demand for taxis, but it just wasn't extremely profitable for some odd reason. There were a few hours with nobody though, and that isn't good when you have such a high premium for the lease and the gas.
The real cap on the day though was when I pulled up across from the Downtown Marriot. There was no line, so I figured I'd wait. I pulled to the side of 12th Avenue, a.k.a. The West Side Highway, when another empty taxi pulled up next to me and stops right there! The nerve, as if he couldn't wait behind me! And he was unnecessarily blocking a somewhat functional lane! Infuriating!
If I had a cooler head I would have brought it to his attention that I too was waiting for a fare, I assumed he knew this already. I mean why the hell would I be there? I dunno, maybe I was waiting for the bus, in my taxicab, yeah.
I didn't want any confrontation and my shift had only 45 minutes left, so I pulled out in front of him over the curb and out to head back to the garage and call it a day. Only my tire didn't withstand my rage, I never saw a tire so flat before, damn I killed it!! So I had to wait for my friendly attendant at the garage to drive over and bail me out again with a tire change, how agonizing, and embarrassing.
And that's how my shift ended. I believe I was driving the same cab 3 weeks ago when I tackled a big glass bottle with that same tire. The bottle shattered into a thousand chunks, exploding so loudly it echoed through the whole block. The chunks of glass flew up and then came down upon the car like a biblical plague. It was astonishing that 3 weeks ago the tire didn't deflate, but this time the damaged tire couldn't take anymore punishment. When I got my 1st flat about a year ago I documented a little more: here.
Like so many weekends this summer, the Sunday felt like a cake walk in comparison.
BTW, the West Indian parade I told you about on Saturday was actually on Monday, sorry for that misinformation.
An acronym for Down Under the Manhattan Bridge, but from the lower roadway of the bridge a few buildings grow over the bridge as well.
Williamsburg, Brooklyn
Midtown
Pre-parade, mint condition in a beautiful pearl white and aqua blue with a grey flame.
Upper East Side
The whole department was grouped at various locations.
Mott Haven, The Bronx
On their way to the parade
Harlem
Greenwich Village
This is one of many small memorials to the World Trade Center collapse. I believe it was put together with the elementary school down the street and a do it your self pottery painting place next door , now closed.
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