East Side Access

I've walked through a lot of tunnels underneath Manhattan - rail, sewer, subway, aqueduct, and a few other assorted odds and ends. Even in the easy ones it's always at least a mild adventure - there's always the realization that you're not really supposed to be there.

This time however, it was much different. I got in three whole census tracts 120 feet below Manhattan by managing to tag along on an MIT engineering tour of the East Side Access tunnel - the one they're currently drilling from the LIRR railyards in Queens to Grand Central Terminal.

This project's benefits go well beyond just letting Long Islanders have a one-seat ride to the East Side. There's at least 5 other peripheral advantages that I can think of as well.

First, by decongesting the route to Penn Station, it will speed up LIRR trains going to the West Side as well.

Second, allowing more than one route into Manhattan from Long Island provides some much-needed redundancy to the LIRR routing. One of the two tunnels can be out-of-service for repairs or because of an emergency, and there's still a way to get to Manhattan from the LIRR.

Third, this will free up train slots at the currently at-capacity Penn Station, allowing Metro-North the possibility of running regular trains through the underutilized Riverside Park Tunnel into Penn Station as well as into Grand Central.

Fourth, the above new routing, combined with the new LIRR tunnel to Grand Central, will completely eliminate the "Manhattan Transfer," or people needing to get from Penn Station to Grand Central to continue their journey. Amtrak, NJ Transit, Metro North, and the LIRR will all have a one-station connector between any two train networks.

Fifth, the expanded options for suburban commuters will result in less taxi and subway congestion in Midtown (which ends up actually benefiting me, the non-suburban commuter) from less people needing to take cars and the subway from Grand Central to the West Side, or Penn Station to the East Side.

The tour itself was interesting, although heavy, heavy into the engineering aspect (you can read all about the various technical stuff here). The workers have three shifts each day (work is 24-7, weekdays, but usually off on weekends), which arrive via a small work train from Queens. We were scheduled to hitch a ride on this train from the vent shaft at 2nd Avenue, but since we were late ended up slogging down by foot to 50th and Park instead. That's where the interesting stuff is, including the TBM (Tunnel Boring Machine) responsible for actually making the tunnel. We got to climb in it a bit which was pretty fun.








If we had gone the other way (directly above), we would have gone through the lower level of the 63rd street tunnel, which was sunk for this particular project in the 1980s. The upper level is currently used by the F train, but the lower level is used only by the tunnel work train. Until they restarted this project, it was one of those great hidden yet accessible spaces, useful for all sorts or things - graffiti, raves, camping out, whatever. Of course, in these days of working sandhogs and emergency exit alarms, it's a bit tougher to get to.

One of the MTA workers along on the tour told me that the tunnel workers ask her about the graffiti in it, and that she wants to research and write an article about it for the MTA. It's not her fault, but it left a bad taste in my mouth. The MTA will not have anything to do with any outside filmmaker, journalist, or anyone else that even mentions the word "graffiti," much less wants to do a story that goes any deeper than "graffiti is bad." Doing a story on graffiti for internal use, while they still hold this policy, struck me as extremely hypocritical.

A lot of people have asked me how I got in on the tour, and how to hook it up. Talking with the Edward Kennedy (no, not that Edward Kennedy), the guy who conducted it, it seemed like about a once every month or two thing, was really focused on the engineering aspect, and was mostly set up through schools, with MTA employees getting to tag along if they were interested and knew who to ask. My best advice is to try and get a professor to set something up if you're in school, or find someone who is and tag along. Getting an elected official to write a letter for you asking to get in on the next tour might also work.

There's a lot of people who are interested in going, and the attitude behind not accommodating everyone seemed to be along the lines of "hey, we're trying to build one of the biggest engineering projects in the country here - we don't have time to double as a tourist site for everyone" which I can respect a lot more than the two other rationals I run into a lot - bullshit security excuses or a general disdain for the hoi polloi. You'd be amazed at how many bureaucrats feel a sense entitlement to the particular public works they're in charge of, and a sense of superiority in maintaining their exclusivity.

Better pictures than I have can be found here

Neighborhoods: Upper East Side, East Midtown. Tracts Walked: M110, M114.02, M112.03

Idiotarod 2009

EDIT: Here the video of running through Queensbridge

This was my first Idiotarod - we were the "Tourists from Tallahassee," bribing judges with Empire State Building tickets and fresh squeezed OJ screwdrivers. I was the crotchety old tour guide. The whole thing was loads of fun - I had been needing a day of doing something silly for no particular reason.

The route was pretty good - from the East River waterfront on the Upper East Side, over the 59th Street Bridge to Long Island City, then north straight through the Queensbridge projects (that was fun - a couple hundred arty Hipsters dashing through the biggest housing project in New York) to the park by the river. Down Vernon to Hunters Point, then over the Pulaski Bridge into Greenpoint, finishing by the water at the northern end. Lots of pictures on Flickr. None I can find of our team yet though.

Neighborhoods: Long Island City, Upper East Side, Queensbridge, Hunters Point, Greenpoint. Census Tracts: M106.02, M110, Q25, Q37, Q1, Q7, B563, B565, B575

Lexington Avenue

As I've mentioned, I'm not big on pictures here for a lot of reasons, but if I've got a good one sometimes I'll throw it in. Here, you can see almost the entire route of this post, straight down Lexington from Hunter College to Gramercy Park.

I've done this walk a million times after getting out of class. Lex on the Upper East Side is pretty nondescript - townhouses on the side streets, the Armory, and assorted stores and restaurants. One you get south of 60th street it becomes a little more noteworthy - Bloomingdales, the Bloomberg Building (where I thought I has a hookup to go on the roof a few years ago), the Citigroup Center with St. Peter's Church under the corner and the metal detectors they put you through just to go in the shopping concourse. A bit further and you're past 42nd street, which holds the last big landmarks of the walk in the Chrysler Buildings and Grand Central Terminal, and into Murray Hill.

The these two landmarks also hold two of last few places interesting places I really want to visit that I haven't yet: FDR's old secret platform in the Grand Central Yards underneath the Waldorf-Astoria, and the Chrysler Buildings Eagles. FDR's secret platform is mostly just a matter of me being lazy - it's easy enough to get to. The eagles will probably be a little tougher. I've been up to the old Cloud Club in the Chrysler Building on the 67th floor, but never out on the 61st floor balconies. If anyone's reading this from the law firm up there, hook me up, won't you? And avert your eyes when I climb out onto the gargoyles. You gotta do what you gotta do. I promise I won't pull a Thor Axel Kapphjell

On 38th I pass the Cuban Mission to the UN - a police booth is on the corner. The corner is named "Esquina Brothers to the Rescue" - an anti-Castro emigrant group. It seems a little childish. I wonder if there's a proposal in the works now to rename the corner of 35th and 1st (where the Chinese Consulate is) the Dalai Lama corner.

I keep heading on down to the Indian restaurants in the lower 30s (no favorite, although in general a better place to go than East 6th street), and then through the nondescript 20s until I get to Gramercy Park, where I recently spent a morning pedaling around Ed Begley Jr. in a Pedicab - well, actually pedaling around the cameraman for the piece. Ed was nice enough, but didn't tip.

There's a guy sitting in there smoking a cigar, obviously enjoying being somewhere the common folks don't get to go. One night a few years ago I got frustrated with this kind of stuff, as I often do, and jumped the fence just to say I've been in there (the same night as this adventure). My other plan was always to stay at the Gramercy Hotel where you get the key, measure it, and cut another one later. But the recent remake of the shabby old place into a chichi boutique hotel (try reading this description without throwing up. And notice times the owner throws his name in there in a desperate attempt to try and make himself a celebrity) - has put that idea out of my current price range, as is buying one of the townhouses or becoming a member of the two private clubs. It also used to be open one day out of the year in May, but that's shelved as well. Rumor has it Christmas Eve it's still open for a couple hours.

Still, it's a lovely area, former home to Edwin Booth (a 19th century actor memoralized by a statue in Gramercy Park, and the guy who's brother shot Abe Lincoln), Washington Irving, Humphrey Bogart, John Barrymore, and John F. Kennedy. And the fence to the park is easy enough to jump, even if there's not really that much to see inside. As with most exclusive things, it's really only noteworthy for being exclusive.

Neighborhoods: Upper East Side, Midtown, Midtown East, Murray Hill, Kips Bay, Turtle Bay, Gramercy Park. Tracts Walked: M50, M68, M72, M80, M92, M100, M112.03, M114.02, M120