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— Christopher Schuetze

There’s an earnest elephant on 14th Street, a flock of foreboding blackbirds on Canal, and ogling eyes all over Chambers.

They are a few of the mosaics, sculptures and figures that distinguish New York City’s 468 stations.

The MTA’s Arts for Transit program has brought in artists to brighten up the public transit system’s underground hubs since the 1980s. Lower Manhattan is home to some of the most unique pieces in the citywide subway collection. From the whimsical, bronze figurines in the 14th Street station to the stop motion movie in the tunnel to Manhattan, the works bring color to the stations’ tiled walls. Here are a few of the best works from the subterranean collection.

– Simone Sebastian

Brooklyn comedian Tom Sibley talks to NYCTracks.com about his popular, but controversial, blog Subway Douchery.

The site exposes riders who violate the subway courtesy code. Sibley’s iPhone has captured people clipping their toenails, dropping food on the train floor, and even lounging shoeless across the train benches.

For many New Yorkers, it has become an outlet for their public transit frustrations. But some take issue with the site, calling it an invasion of subway riders’ privacy.

Ipods, MP3 players, cellphones and other portable music devices allow straphangers to have their own personal soundtrack while riding on the subway. Do you ever wonder what your fellow commuter is listening to? The NYCTracks.com team caught up with a few commuters to see what they were listening to.

-Walter Smith-Randolph

As part of the recently announced cuts to services, the MTA will be completely eliminating the last two local bus lines to connect the city’s most populous borough with its most popular one (at least for tourists). The B51 and B39 lines, which run over the Manhattan and Williamsburg bridges, respectively, are scheduled to make their last runs on June 25, 2010.  Some 900 commuters a day will be affected just by the closure of the B51 alone, some more than others.  The buses on the lines provide transportation to a relatively large number of disabled and elderly passengers who can’t or won’t use the subway to move between boroughs.  Guest reporter Chika Moses talks to affected commuters and union officials.

— Christopher F. Schuetze

A woman 32 weeks pregnant was fined $75 for moving between cars on a No. 1 train stopped at a Times Square station earlier this month. She told the New York Post that she was looking for a seat on a jam-packed train during her afternoon commute. Her story begged the question: why is a pregnant woman looking for a seat?

NYCTracks.com braved the crowds of the Times Square evening commute to find out who subway riders will and won’t stand up for. Do young children get precedence overly elderly train riders? What about pregnant women? Do they get the seat instead of the guy carrying two fists full of shopping bags? And should a young man give his seat up to a woman in heels at the end of the work day?

Almost everyone we talked to said they regularly stood up for fellow subway riders in need. But those needy travelers tell a different story. When they board the train, suddenly everyone is sleeping. Hmmmm….

– Simone Sebastian

Thirty years ago, New York’s public transit system was overloaded with deteriorating infrastructure and crime. The transit agency fished itself out of crisis by doubling its debt to pay for improvements, according to The New York Times.

Though the source of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s woes are different today, the fundamental problem – a lack of money – is the same. And like in the 1980s, the agency is facing pressure to avoid funding its cost overruns with higher fares.

Could issuing more debt be the answer to the MTA’s problems today? The funding problem is more operational than capital, this time. But, speaking to NYCTracks.com last week, AmNY transit reporter Heather Haddon said taking on new debt is one possibility.

Public transit “advocates that I’ve talked to, say they’ve never seen dire straits like this,” Haddon said. “Looking back at history when the MTA has been in a really bad situation, it’s been a time when they’ve taken on more debt, which could happen this time around.”

Nearly one of every six dollars the MTA spends goes toward paying down its outstanding debt. And that number has been on the rise. Debt will cost the MTA nearly $2 billion this year, according to its 2010 budget.

“A crowded train is no excuse for an improper touch. Don’t stand for it or feel ashamed, or be afraid to speak up. Report it to an MTA employee or police officer.”

We are all familiar with the statement from the subway poster, flier or frequent train announcement – it’s the echo of the 2008 MTA campaign.

But with the announced cuts of 450 station agents in stations across the city, risk of sexual harassment, may rise soon.

On a recent NYC Tracks poll, 57 percent surveyed said they had felt uncomfortable or harassed on the train before.

We wanted to find out how many commuters have experience sexual harassment on the train, platform or station in the past year.

Since more commuters will have no one to turn to due to expected cuts, we thought it’s worth finding out, what was the annual rate compared to 2007, when 10 percent commuters said they have experienced sexual harassment on the train.

Well, your guess is as good as ours.

It turns out that the problem starts even earlier.

Sexual Harassment on Public Transportation from Dana Rapoport on Vimeo.

“Unfortunately not much data available on sexual offenses committed in the mass transit system. This is in due in part to the NYPD not capturing or reporting on crimes at the misdemeanor level,” said Raquel Namuche, community organizer for New Yorkers for Safe Transit.

The NYFST, along with Right Rides and HollabackNYC, are raising awareness on harassment and assaults in public transportation in New York City.

RightRides is another initiative that fights transit-related harassment. It offers women, LGBTQ a free, safe, late night ride home on Friday in up to 45 NYC neighborhoods across four NYC boroughs.

“Catch that jerk with your videophone or do journalistic style feature on Street Harassment and we’ll post it!,” says HollabackNYC, an organization that encourages New Yorkers to send pictures of street/transportation harassers, as one of the ways to empower women commuters.

“We probably get 2-3 stories a week.  Over the past year or so, we’ve seen a rise in transit-related stories and the stories have become increasingly more violent. Stories of groping and public masturbation are the norm, not the exception anymore,” said Emily May, Co-founder of Hollaback, as another indication of commuters’ distress through emails and pictures submitted to their blog.

“Understaffed subway system makes it hard to report these crimes. By the time victims have found an MTA worker or police officer, their perpetrator is 7 stops away.”

Last November, in a joint hearing titled “Sexual Harassment and Assault on New York City Subways” put together by the committees on women’s issues, transportation, and public safety, Chief James P. Hall of the NYC Police Department’s Transit Bureau stated that 587 “sex offenses” were reported in 2009 – information that is not otherwise released to the public, delivered to NYC Tracks by NYFST.

Chief Hall emphasized that the department believes the number of reported offenses to be only a fraction of the number of unreported offenses.

412 people were arrested for sex offenses in the subway so far this year.

Beyond the different actions and programs, the three organizations are also working with Council member Jessica Lappin to who introduced a bill that would require the NYPD to collect data on complaints of sexual harassment on the subway system (inappropriate touching, public masturbation, etc.)

“We’re hoping to push for legislation and policy that would reclassify these crimes so that sexual harassment data can be captured and perpetrators can be further held accountable for their actions,” said Namuche.

The MTA Police Department did not get back to messages left by NYC Tracks.

The Metropolitan Transit Authority has many issues to take care of, but in addition to the latest spike in violence we witnessed in the last weeks, sexual harassment might be just as big threat and risk to commuters at rush hour and off peak hours. It’s not that it’s not as severe – we just don’t know the scope of it.

Citizen reporting and community volunteering to raise awareness, are the first steps to help fill the void of hundreds of missing subway agents.

— Dana Rapoport

AND NOW, FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT…

On a recent trip to Santo Domingo we explored one the world’s newest and most modern subway systems.  The Dominican Republic’s capital’s newest ride was completed in 2008, despite the millions it costs (its hard to obtain the exact figure).  This in a country of great poverty and staggering wealth inequality.  Rumor has it that the nation’s president, Leonel Fernández, who spent his formative years in Washington Heights, was inspired by our very own MTA.

A short visit to a brand new subway system in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.

— Christopher F. Schuetze

The cash-strapped MTA rejected a month-long ad campaign – and a potential $25,000 to $50,000 in revenue – last week, calling the ads too obscene for public trains.

The posters, created by the Working Families Party, criticized the MTA and Mayor Bloomberg for allowing the agency’s financial problems to be passed on to riders, in the form of service cuts and rumored fare increases.

That controversy, partnered with unused ad displays on trains, fuel questions about how well the transit agency is capitalizing on potential advertising revenue. Cash from posters and signs hasn’t kept up with ballooning expenses, according to MTA budgets.

Ad payments are categorized with miscellaneous revenue sources in the MTA budget, making it difficult to know exactly how much money comes from advertising. However, the “other revenue” category – which is largely composed of ad sales – is budgeted to fall by 6 percent this year.

(“Other revenue” also includes property leasing, trademark licensing and equipment sales.)

If the 2010 budget stands, the MTA’s expenses will have risen 41 percent since 2005. Revenue from taxes and government subsidies will have risen at least that much.

But “other revenue” will have increased by just 26 percent.

The transit agency has tried to expand advertising dollars, but those efforts have been “very much harmed by the economic downturn,” said spokesman Aaron Donovan.

He noted that the MTA has launched several new advertising options in recent years: motion ads on the sides of buses, cylindrical ads on Grand Central turnstiles and wrap-around ads that have transformed Shuttle trains into giant traveling commercials for Google Maps, the History Channel and Vitamin Water.

— Simone Sebastian