The New York City Subway. Sometimes, it's an acceptable way to travel. Sometimes, it's a tolerable way to travel. And some times more, it's a disgusting way to travel. The other night, I had seen (and smelled) a new low in New York City Transit.
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In the picture above you'll note several people sleeping in the subway car. II presume that they had the usual wintertime garden variety body odor, given the way people at the far end of the car are dressed. This means that these riders smelled, but not bad enough to vacate the car at the next stop. New York has always had a problem with the homeless on its subways, but most of the time, people are able to live and let live. It's hard enough for a healthy person to find work which pays enough to put a roof over one's head. But for the unlucky in our society, it's almost impossible, as there are not enough safe spaces in the shelters to go around.
I don't want to delve into the problems with NYC's homeless shelters in this entry. They are a mix of people down on their luck, where mentally ill people are mixed in with garden variety poor people who just need a place to stay the night. But I do want to talk about the subways, a place where some of the dregs of society tend to go for relative comfort.
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Several years ago, when I regularly commuted on the subway, I saw a derilict relieve himself at Times Square. Knowing how filthy the bathrooms are at that station, a man would want to relieve himself elsewhere. And in this case, the homeless person did. Thankfully, he was at the far end of the station, and easy to avoid.
