Subways are for sleeping: NYC Transit survival thread

Be careful with just your permit though -- periodically mc/scooter "safety" checkpoints are set up around the city and they'll impound your scooter if they catch you without a mc license (they also check for inspection sticker and current plate registration sticker). I often got pulled over on 2nd Ave just south of the Queensboro Bridge.

― early rejecter, Tuesday, May 31, 2016 5:09 PM (1 month ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Funnily enough I got pulled over at a random motorcycle checkpoint crossing from the Bronx into Manhattan maybe 10 days after I got the bike, and I had neither my license NOR an inspection at that point and they let me go! No mention of either. I can only assume I was not who they were looking for.

there's a very good kosher uzbek place called taste of samarkand around 62nd dr, in a strip with some peruvian and thai joints. a few blocks south there's an array of impressively wood-paneled bars and restaurants that i haven't been back to check out yet. my wife (and her dad) grew up going to eddie's sweet shop a few blocks east of woodhaven.

i make no claims to expertise in that neighborhood--you found anything good over there?

i have long wanted to go to andre's hungarian bakery but haven't made it yet

RIP L train

Andre's bakery is right by where I live, like two blocks walk. They have great rugelach, which is one of my favorite things. A little further west on QB there's Ben's Best, a semi-famous kosher deli with good pastrami, and a nice Russian supermarket called Net Cost. There's also now a good coffee place with decent food called Roast'N'Co right by where Andre's is. Not worth a trek but good coffee if you're in the area already.

Eddie's Sweet Shop is neat for a visit just to take in the olde-fashioned-ness of it, but I don't actually think their ice cream is all that good - too sweet. And the service tends to be really bad. I haven't tried a lot of places specifically on Woodhaven. Generally I'm a bit down on the food options in Forest Hills. There was a really good Lebanese place on Metropolitan called Wafa's and it closed. We had what was for a while Queens's only Michelin-starred restaurant, Danny Brown, and that closed too. There's good turkish on Metropolitan called Taci's, and there's a very good Italian place called La Vigna -- on the conservative end but very high quality.

We love Nick's Pizza, which is closer to the Kew Gardens end. We eat a lot at Bareburger because we have little kids and it's the easiest decent place to go with them.

My bf lives in Glendale, roughly, and we struggle to find good local restaurants. Everywhere we go, even when choosing a spot based on good reviews, turns out to be kind of crappy. I need to take this thread's advice more (also we probably need to leave Glendale to eat).

Have you done Zum Stammtisch? Never been but it's sort of a destination. Glendale also has the Finback Brewery which I've wanted to try. Their beer was at the Tennis Stadium and it was really good.

Generally I find there's a kind of online review inflation in the area. Our friends in the area always say "is it good or Forest Hills good?" Anyway we should probably take this to the Queens thread

I wonder what (if any) effect the L shutdown will have on rent/real estate prices in wburg

Hard to imagine it won't be significant.

Okay moving to Queens thread!

I also just want more people to post in that thread, and to hear more about Glendale, which I haven't explored much

I dread the effect of the L shutdown on my J/M neighborhood, the gentrification-oriented development has hardly been mild as it is, feel like this will really open the floodgates.

fwiw slight decline in Williamsburg rents over last year, it looks like, though not dramatic:

http://www.mns.com/brooklyn_rental_market_report

but I guess considering that a one-year lease starting today would still end before the construction begins, that's not too surprising.

M is going to get partially shut down too isn't it?

yeah from myrtle/bway on

def wondering what this will do to bed stuy rents. can only imagine that things will speed up there now due to j/z and a/c access.

East Flatbush here I come :(

do you figure, io, that you will keep hopscotching til you die on the Boardwalk at age 98?

(if you quit smoking)

I honestly have no idea. My income has not risen proportionately to rents and I just had my annual review and they're not raising me to $20k more than currently so...if my LLs were to raise rent to the level they COULD if they wanted, I would be out.

Random guy on a way too overcrowded car in rush hour tried to pick a fight with me, then went on a long rant about shooting someone, eventually took off his shoe to kill a fly with it
Its a helluva town

City that never sleeps iirc

better yet, add a smile! courtesy is contagious -- make it a better ride for everyone

perhaps that was the "earlier incident" that caused my train to run at slower speeds

useful link when you have one bar

http://www.ismytrainfucked.com/

thanks for that

has Cuomo shut the trains for the non-storm yet?

https://catapult.co/stories/the-accidental-city

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/mta-creating-1-300-subway-signs-return-w-train-article-1.2844946

Why doesn't the guy who plays sax on the stairs at 8th Ave - 14th St ever ever get any better? It's been years and he still sounds like total garbage

Ha! There's a few of those guys that I wonder about. Dreadlocked bassist at West 4th comes to mind.

Beatles guy in the 14th St. 6th/7th Ave. tunnel is also way up there.

Even if this kid literally only plays his horn when he's there in the station, no one should be able to put in that much time and still have such a shitty embouchure and such clunky fingers

It makes me miss free jazz space alien sax guy

The Freakonomics guys' 10,000 hours thesis keeps falling part due to evidence

hahaha lol roffle etc. Came to say I wish had those kinds of hours to practice.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/15/nyregion/second-avenue-subway-opening.html

hey guys guess what the 2nd ave line might get delayed

Shock!

sad!

God in heaven. 14th Street tunnel Beatles guy has been displaced (I pray temporarily) by a bearded man playing the BAGPIPES. This is exactly as horribly-suited to the acoustic situation, long uphill hike, and captive audience as you might imagine.

disgusting savage at 14th st (A/C/E) tonight freestyling/scatting on 'hallelujah'

I am just thrilled that the bagpipe guy was a one-day thing. Since his disappearance, Beatles guy has I think been reaching for slightly deeper cuts. Heard ''I Need You'' the other day. He's still lousy, but at least he is enthusiastic and not playing the bagpipes.

haha i encountered bagpipes man at w 4th st last week.

https://i.reddituploads.com/15bea0cd02e34a4886dea337b3d04d46?fit=max&h=1536&w=1536&s=0745df3b502b05ab5b193557b7d56979

there's nothing up there I go to anymore.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BOVWtJzg6dq/

Sadly, over the course of construction, the MTA scrapped some fancy features, including glass platform walls with sliding doors that would have increased energy efficiency and prevented people from throwing trash on the tracks (or jumping onto them).

absolute trash

Popped into my head today: a song performed by some platform acoustic guitar dude, possibly as far back as ten years ago. I suspect if I actually heard it, I would find it to be pretty intolerable coffee-shop earnest-folk jam dude stuff, but in my brain as it resonates it's sounding very hooky. All I can remember: "Cause you know it's a sin, halfway down and halfway out." Not much to go on and presumably I will never hear or find this song again. Kinda content with the version in my head which is sounding more and more Kurt Vile-esque than it ever did in reality. Sorta like Little Pete and "Summerbaby" on The Adventures of Pete and Pete. Ho hum.

Longest commute ever

B train appeared at carroll gardens this morning

not as impressive as if it were an E, but still