Underground in NYC

Right now, New York is a very photographic city, with a lot of amazing things to capture on giga-bytes and film. Back in the 1980s, Times Square was kind of a s**t hole, and honestly, when I was in Times Square 5 years ago, I had no idea where I was. The subway stop is clean, and above ground it is clean, neon and huge stores for CNN, Nike and the like. It is not the Times Square of 25 years ago. This visit, the only thing I saw of Times Square is the subway stop. I had said this whole trip that NYC is an incredibly photographic city, and I could have filled the GB chip in the camera. Underground NYC is just as photographic.

This is what I saw of Midtown - the Times Square subway sign.

At the transfer deck of the Times Square subway stop, there was a mini-Michael doing the moonwalk to Beat It. I wish we had a camcorder to put his dance on YouTube.

Amazingly enough, we were lucky to catch up with Curtis Sliwa, the founder of the Guardian Angels, while waiting for our train at Times Square. If you can recall back about 25 years ago, Times Square was completely sleezy and unsafe, especially for the New York Times reporters coming and going out of the New York Times building day and night. 25 years ago was around the time that New York was suffering from funding cutbacks. Services for the people were being cut or stretched to new bounds. Mentally ill wards of the state were just let out on the streets of New York because of a new law to protect the rights of all people, and innocent people could not be held against their will. 25 years ago, there was a growth in crime in New York. During that dark time in New York, the Guardian Angels were born in New York as a volunteer community group to reduce crime with non-weapon tactics, and the Guardian Angels made riding the subways safer than ever before. Thanks Curtis, for 25+ years of volunteer service to the people of New York, and tourists that visit all year long. Good job!

A funny thing I notice about all subway stops and underground subway connector tunnels in New York- There are all these black dots on the ground, about a quarter in size. I surmise that they are all old gum ground down flat with dirt. I wonder how many gum dots there are in all the underground subway stops in New York? Anyone know the answer?