#16 - Public Luxury

The subway comes every two minutes, all the time.

It’s clean, odorless, and there’s always enough room to sit. There’s even a nice hook or space to place your bags (since everyone in New York always has a minimum of two), a USB plug by your seat, wi-fi no matter where you are, and every station is easily accessible by everyone.

You never end up in a hot car. There’s always garbage, recycling, and compost bins at your station. There are no ads, just public art, and every train car features a different artist.

The trains run zero-emission. They go much faster between stations which cuts commute times in half. There is no Sunday schedule. MTA workers are incredibly well-paid and have all the benefits they could ever ask for.

There are incredibly well-stocked mini convenience stores within the stations that always have gum, headphones, chargers, and a refillable water bottle station. Vending machines that have warm drinks in the winter, and things that you would actually love to eat for lunch like soups, fresh fruit, hummus and veg trays, fresh sandwiches made that morning.

Kid cars and student-specific trains. Bike racks.

No cops.

And it’s always free to ride.

I was recently introduced to the concept of investing in public luxury infrastructure and now I’ve become fully obsessed with it.

Cities, in particular, should be made for people, not cars. Now when I look around New York it’s all I see, and I hate it.

If we invested in properly luxurious public benefit infrastructure, we could feasibly ban cars from the city altogether. Imagine if only delivery trucks, buses, and bikes were allowed on the island of manhattan. The buses fly due to the lack of traffic, there’s always a bus coming in the next five minutes, and it drops you closer to your house than you can usually park your car anyway. If all of that was true, you would take the bus home from Trader Joe’s every time. If I didn’t have to walk up 100 stairs on my way home, I wouldn't have to get my cat litter delivered — and all that it would require is an elevator at both stations. Which they should both have anyway because people with mobility aids and strollers should have equal access to public transportation!!

Please please please give me back the tram that used to run from Queens to Brooklyn until GM bought it in the ’50s and then removed it overnight which forced everyone to buy fucking cars from GM and forever made it a pain in the ass to get to Gowanus.

One city bus can transport the equivalent amount of people as a mile of traffic.

Manhattan is not that big.

One mile is a lot of potential.

And the thing is, most New Yorkers take the subway already! We deal with the half-broken system we have! Train commuters from New Jersey easily outnumber the number of drivers. New York is one of the last major cities in the world to not impose emissions or congestion tax on drivers coming into the city.

You can sit in traffic in your luxury car, alone, losing as much time as the person in the old Honda behind you, or we can invest in creating infrastructure that benefits everyone. It would allow everyone to have more time, and time is the true luxury at stake.

We have the tech and ability to make all of this possible, and community is a concept that so easily illuminates class consciousness.

We deserve a world that is designed for us. With green spaces, and clean energy that offsets ConEd bills. There should be public internet with no barrier of access, and it should be better than any of the private monopolized options we currently have access to. It is so deeply embarrassing that anywhere in New York City is considered a food desert when there are nine Whole Foods within the 22 square miles of Manhattan.

Some of my best memories of feeling connected to this city happened on the train. The mariachi band singing Feliz Navidad every morning on my way to work during December was a highlight of my year and one thing I actually do miss about having a daily commute in this city. Falling in love for one-stop with a stranger you’re making fun eye contact with, silently bonding over avoiding a seat with an unknown substance, helping a tourist family get off at the right stop (top tip: if you’re a tourist in New York, you can in fact get on a train and loudly ask if you’re heading the right direction, not only will multiple people give you an answer, they will then monitor the stops for you and give you a warning the stop before so you can prepare). Public transportation gives us temporary little communities to exist within, and wouldn’t it be lovely if that time was enjoyable, luxurious, and something we could actually look forward to together?

Also, Penn Station should have places to sit. It’s absolutely fuck nuts that one of the busiest train stations in this country removed ANY SEATING in an attempt to make it harder for currently unhoused people to have a clean and warm place to rest. Now, everyone, families, people who use mobility aids, the elderly, are all forced to stand while they wait for their trains. It’s actually incredibly inhumane and something I think should cause a lot of shame in those who purposefully make the city even more hostile to its most vulnerable populations.

People who live in cities care about each other. It’s part of the imaginary contract we all sign. It’s the ‘we’re literally on top of each other, so don’t be an asshole’ clause.

I love this city and I think it could be an incredible leader in green innovation. There is no reason that we cannot tax the shit out of the rich who leave their expensive apartments unoccupied to fund all of this btw. There is no reason that the Subway should be inaccessible to anyone. There is no reason that all of the major skyscrapers do not have solar panels in order to generate enough energy for the entire city.

«Liz Lemon voice» We can do it! We can have it all!

It’s never too late to reverse mistakes of the past and embolden ourselves with the hope of a lovelier future. Outdoor spaces are more important to us than ever before, and there is no limit to what we can design. But we have to create things that benefit the majority. Because the $500/month members-only SoHo dog park is my villain origin story and I will not rest until every park in this city is not only easily accessible to the public but somewhere that people love to spend time. (We already have two of the best parks in the world! This city already understands the importance of creating spaces for humans to connect & thrive!!)

New York, I love you, and I think an even better future is possible.