The local paper for the Upper East Side
WEEK OF JUNE SEEING GREEN < P.16
22-28 2017
On the subway, June 2017. Photo: Andy Atzert, via flickr
NOTES FROM THE UNDERGROUND SUBWAY WOES As the MTA misery index reaches new highs, anguished straphangers take to Twitter — but #Don’tWorrySupervisionIsAware. A day in the life of subway tweets. BY DOUGLAS FEIDEN
It reads like the descent into the nine circles of hell in Dante’s Inferno. Actually, it may be more harrowing. It’s a day in the life of the New York City subway told in narrative form. There are hundreds of co-authors. They chronicle the subterranean torments they endure. And their work is as searing and visceral as any Florentine poet’s epic of sinful and wicked ways. The medium? Twitter, of course. The handle? @NYCTSubway. The date? June 15, one day after Mayor Bill de Blasio left his SUV cocoon and ventured into the subway system for the first time in two months. The methodology? Simple: We read roughly 375 tweets covering the 24-hour period. Half were posted by anguished straphangers,
half by unruffled MTA staffers who gamely minimized the horrors, offering rote reassurances that “supervision” had been notified. “The downtown 6/uptown BDFM elevator 329 at Broadway/Lafayette has a puddle of urine inside,” wrote @OneHotProcessor, whose real name is Sara Tabor, sled hockey player and novice ukuleleist. The boilerplate response from @ NYCTSubway: “Thanks for bringing this to our attention, supervision has been made aware.” Five miles away, @CiaranGBoyle – “husband, father, American” – was encountering a grotesquerie of his own, tweeting, “Can someone power wash/clean the 110th st station 2&3 train, it’s always filthy and stinks of excrement.” “Regrets for any unpleasant conditions, we’ve made supervision aware of this matter,” the MTA wrote back. Meanwhile, a Q/B escalator was out all day; as @NateFeder, product manager and CPA, posted, “That’s 100+ steps for a non-able person to walk up. When will it be fixed?” A reasonable question. No rea-
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The city’s health commissioner, Dr. Mary Bassett, seated at table and speaking, addressed a community meeting about an outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease in Lenox Hill. Photo: Bryse Ciallella
LEGIONNAIRES’ SICKENS 7, KILLS 1 HEALTH Outbreak in Lenox Hill that began about June 5 appears to have ebbed, health official says BY BRYSE CIALLELLA
City health officials believe one of the Lenox Hill neighborhood’s 116 cooling towers is the likely source for an outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease that has killed one person and sickened six others since June 5. All six people sickened either live or work in the neighborhood, as was the person who died, officials said. “There have been no new cases in the last five days,” the city’s health commissioner, Dr. Mary Bassett, said Monday night during a community meeting that addressed the outbreak. “For us in the health department, that
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is heartening but it’s too soon to tell you not to be vigilant.” City health officials urged those who live or work in the Lenox Hill area to be alert for symptoms of infection. “Right now, the most important thing we can do personally, is be alert to the symptoms, we want to get the message out about seeking care early. … Symptoms include fever, cough, headache, muscle aches – flu-like symptoms,” Bassett said. Legionnaires’ disease is a serious lung infection, which is caused by inhaling water droplets or aerosolized mist containing Legionella bacteria, which propagates in warm water. The Health Department tested all 116 cooling towers within a half-kilometer radius of where all seven persons living or working were infected, a department official said. Testing was concluded Friday, June 16, and samples were sent to public and private laboratories. Culture results are
expected by the end of the month, the department said in a press release. Health care providers have been alerted to the outbreak. The department also ordered several building owners to increase the use of bacteria-killing biocides or to take other measures to mitigate bacteria growth. Bassett assuaged concerns from some who attended the meeting, at the Lenox Hill Neighborhood House on East 70th Street, who expressed concern about tap water. “Shower, bath, wash your hands,
CONTINUED ON PAGE 15 Jewish women and girls light up the world by lighting the Shabbat candles every Friday evening 18 minutes before sunset. Friday, June 23rd – 8:13pm. For more information visit www.chabaduppereastside.com
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