It’s done, and thank goodness. Now it comes down to getting all the MTA workers back to their jobs and getting the system up and running. I saw an MTA transport van running down Court Street at about 4 p.m. with its emergency lights flashing, hopefully on its way to the Smith and 9th Streets subway station or some other vital location.
As for the transit workers, I know they work hard in tough conditions, and I wish them the best. Let’s hope that the MTA and the TWU can now strike a deal that everyone feels okay about, because they do have to keep working together.
Meanwhile, this whole affair has demonstrated once again both how fragile and how resilient this city is. We saw the same thing on 9/11 and during the blackout of 2003. New Yorkers pull together in a crisis, and we go on with our lives and continue to make this place the greatest city in the world. But each crisis also reveals just how much chaos can be created by a substantial disruption of New York City’s infrastructure. Mayor Bloomberg estimated that the strike cost the city’s economy $400 million a day, and it affected millions of lives.
Are we ready for something bigger?