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In the wake of the horrific subway shoving death of 40-year-old Upper West Sider Michelle Go last week in Times Square, The Post spent three days surveying the troubled transit system, where crimes have soared by 30% this year compared with the first three weeks of 2021 .
Traveling roughly 100 miles along 12 different lines, and scouring dozens of individual stations in the Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan and Queens, a team of journalists led by reporter Kerry J. Byrne and photographer J.C. Rice witnessed the decay and depravity — and kept a diary of the grim scenes that have become the norm in the world’s largest transportation system.
TUESDAY, Jan. 18
Penn Station, Manhattan – 11:04 a.m.
A man struggles down a near-empty 1 local platform talking to himself, dragging shopping bags of belongings behind him. The Post witnesses people who appear homeless at almost every station.
West 4th Street Station, Manhattan – 12:05 p.m.
A man sleeps on an otherwise largely empty A train as it stops on its way downtown. The entire platform smelled of feces, urine, alcohol and cigarette smoke.
2 train at Flatbush Avenue-Brooklyn College Station, Brooklyn – 5:01 p.m.
A cleaning crew in Brooklyn’s Little Haiti neighborhood clean around a sleeping man using his backpack as a pillow.
The cleaning crew sits on the platform with bright yellow mop buckets and plastic bottles of Neutral Q, a commercial disinfectant, and board the trains as they reach the last stop on the line. In one case, the crew cleans for only a few seconds, then jump back on the platform when the conductor announces the train is about to head back uptown.
We do not see other cleaning crews vigilantly standing by in a similar fashion at the terminal platforms of other subway lines.
125th Street Station (4, 5, 6), Manhattan – 9:26 p.m.
A man taunts a trio of transit cops in the mezzanine above the East Harlem platforms.
“Suck my d–k!” the man yells, before quickly reaching into the right pocket of his pants, setting off fears of the worst.
He pulls out a small wad of cash and waves it in the face of one of the cops. “See this? Bank! I work in a bank bro!” the man yelled. Five young men jump the turnstile while the heated situation unfolds.
The cops exit the station and let the man walk.
125th Street Station, Manhattan – 9:28 p.m.
A troubled man in a filthy gray sweat suit, so dirty it looks covered in oil, stumbles awkwardly around the platform begging for money.
WEDNESDAY, Jan. 19
42nd Street/Port Authority Station, Manhattan – 8:40 a.m.
Jairo Cardenas has run Alpha Shoe Repair in the station’s main passageway for 30 years. Business has never been worse, he says. He welcomed up to 90 customers daily before the pandemic, now only 9 to 12 people per day.
Homeless have made a habit of stealing his umbrellas, including his entire stash one day last year. The MTA has given him a major break: he pays only 25% of his pre-COVID rent. He won’t say how much.
“We need people to return to their office jobs,” Cardenas said.
Grand Central, Manhattan – 9:06 a.m.
Heather Cole, playing violin on the passageway to the 4-5-6 platform, says she’s been victimized during the pandemic by homeless men masturbating in front of her — the pervs taking revolting advantage of the reduced foot traffic.
“One man left me $5 when he was done,” said the musician. “Then he asked me for $3 back.”
Jackson Heights-Roosevelt Avenue, Queens – 11:50 a.m.
A person snoozes on a wheelchair buried beneath blankets as a train rolls past headed for Manhattan.
A young Asian couple boards another R train minutes later after expressing their concerns about safety on the rails.
“We ride the subway a lot less because of the hate crimes,” said Chinese-American Elvis Li, with his friend Ashley Xu, both 21 and from Queens. “I feel like other races view Asians as more docile, that they’re less likely to stand up for themselves. We feel like we’re being bullied, the elderly especially. We need to take action.”
42nd Street/Port Authority Station, Manhattan – 1:41 p.m.
Two plainclothes cops approach a homeless man who is carrying a broom and wearing a hospital gown under his jacket. The homeless man walks away northbound up the station tunnel after a brief discussion with the officers.
The cops, who identified themselves as NYPD after the encounter, approached another vagrant a few moments later. They quietly escorted him out of the station and into the Port Authority Terminal.
There is a strong police presence at many stations, including five on duty Tuesday night at Atlantic Avenue-Barclays Center Station in Brooklyn (not a game night); and nine stationed at Flushing Main Street in Queens Wednesday morning.
Officers appeared in various stages of engagement throughout the subway system: some staring into their phone or chatting with colleagues standing by MetroCard machines, others actively approaching distressed individuals on the platforms.
Herald Square Station, Manhattan – 2:28 p.m.
Two cops check in on a homeless man who seconds earlier was sleeping sitting up on a bench near two other vagrants. The man declined assistance from the officers, who then asked him to clean up the debris he had sprawled out on the two seats next to him: MetroCards, loose change and a cigarette lighter, among other personal bric-a-brac.
191st Street Station, Manhattan – 3:25 p.m.
A NYPD officer patrolling the 191st Street Station platform steps on the 1 train to inspect a car before it heads downtown.
“We’ve had more cops [in the subways] for a while,” another officer at the station says. “Not looking for homeless. For drugs.”
At least 10 teens skip turnstiles at the station in front of a pair of officers, who did not pursue the fare jumpers.
NYPD has issued 3,505 Transportation Adjudication Board summonses this year, through Jan. 16, about the same number as last year (3,467), when 1 million fewer people rode the subways each day, according to MTA data.
Rockefeller Center Station, Manhattan – 4:29 p.m.
An Asian woman waits for a train to her uptown destination at the top of the steps because she’s too terrified to stand down on the platform in the wake of the death of Michelle Go.
“I’m safe from someone pushing me onto the tracks, but I’m not safe from somebody pushing me down the stairs,” says the woman.
34th Street/Herald Square, Manhattan – 4:43 p.m.
Post editor and columnist Steve Cuozzo spies eight officers standing around the mezzanine level, near the 35th Street exit, chatting. But he sees no cops on the platform, where they are really needed.
NYPD reports that 1,000 additional cops have been working the subway system since Jan. 6.
THURSDAY, Jan. 20
West 4th Street Station, Manhattan – 12:35 p.m
A man named Jim staggers around the BDFM platform swigging from a gallon jug of Black & White Scotch. “Yo. New York. New York City,” he announces, after raising his bottle in the air, then stumbles down the platform.
MD Islam, who runs the kiosks on the platform, reopened in October for the first time since closing in March 2020. He’s so dismayed by the chaos and the lack of normal passenger traffic that he may close again.
“No business. No sales. No safety. It’s very very bad,” he said.
Another man nearby sleeps on the same platform amid a pile of trash.
Myrtle Avenue Station, Brooklyn – 3: 13 p.m
A desperate man picks up a McDonald’s bag after somebody had discarded it near the top of the steps of the filthy elevated train platform floor. He sticks his fingers in the bag searching for food, then rips it open and licks the crumbs off his fingertips.
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