Transit Strike in New York: What's your plan?

Do you mean TRANSIT?

I think transist is a typographical error.

My plan is to walk. I figure it will take about an hour and a half to get from my apartment (on the Upper West Side) to my office (on Houston Street). I don't like the idea, but I don't know what other options I have, since no-one I know in the city has a car (and walking will probably be faster than driving, anyway), and I haven't been on a bicycle in over 30 years, so I'd probably be a danger to society if I tried to ride a bike now.

I walked to work during the transit strike in 1980, but I was working in midtown then, so the walk was a lot shorter (and I was a lot younger). Also, that strike was in April, so the weather was better for walking. I assume the fact that the contract now expires in December is the result of the MTA having made a concession on that point in some subsequent contract re-negotiation. Whoever agreed to that concession should have his head examined, since it's hard to imagine a worse time for a strike than the week before Christmas. The lost revenue from Christmas shopping that doesn't get done, and holiday parties that have to be cancelled, would be a tremendous hit for a NYC economy that's in bad enough shape already.

I know this is serious stuff and I hope Mayor Blumberg (spelling?) will be able to divert the strike, but it made me think of poor Semantha from "Sex and the City" and how she's going to make it from bedroom to bedroom...

Actually, Lightwizard, if any politician is going to be able to avert a strike, it will have to be Gov. Pataki, not Mayor Bloomberg. As the New York Times points out in an article in today's issue, there's a "common misimpression that the system [i.e., the MTA] answers to City Hall", but, "In reality, it is Gov. George E. Pataki who has near-total control of the system". The article also says that governors usually try not to get involved with issues involving the transit system because "the news they generate is usually bad: accidents, fare increases, equipment failures and strikes", but that Pataki may have no choice in this case. Whether his involvement will help or not is anyone's guess (the Times article also points out that the transit workers' union endorsed Pataki's opponent in this year's election).

You can read the Times article at:

http://www.nytimes.com/2002/12/10/nyregion/10PATA.html

Sic Gloria on the Transit Authority.
In my excitement of posting my first poll, I didn't use the spellcheck.....
Thanks for your replies, Bree, I appreciate the history, I wasn't here for the last strike.
These guys are talking seriously about going out, and it couldn't be a worst time for this city's economy. What are they thinking? Recovering from a week long strike could take more than a year and as you know we have already had a very bad year here.
The challenge now is to find ways to work. Let's see, if I launch myself off the top of the building next door while using my James Bond wingset, can I get enough altitude to coast down the Hudson and land at Port Authority?? Hmmmm.

Joe
PS I just used spellcheck and the only word I misspelt was........
Spellcheck.

I haven't worked in the city for years, but now my son does -- at the NYSE. They've taken rooms for all the floor brokers, but the 'little people' are on their own. They will have buses at Penn Station and Grand Central in the a.m., but in the afternoon they have to go it on their own. And, though bonuses were supposed to be distributed via direct deposit tomorrow, my son's company has decided to wait till 'sometime' next week and issue actual checks and one must be there on the day they are handed out or one won't get a check.