Another Way The Suburbs Screw You

Your subway service is in danger of being cut because of the salaries of LIRR employees:

In fact, more than a quarter of the Long Island Rail Road’s 7,000 employees earned more than $100,000 last year . . .

Compensation varied widely within the authority’s various divisions. About 24 percent of Metro-North Railroad workers earned more than $100,000, along with 18 percent of bridge and tunnel workers, the data show. At the authority’s biggest sub-agency, New York City Transit, only 6 percent of workers earned six figures.

Then you have the Post, which tries to pin it on Q53 bus drivers who “still get paid” to show up for extra runs to Rockaway Beach during summer weekends, “rain or shine” (what do you want them to do, start a snow chain?).

That Was The Fleet Week That Was

“That’s the cougar!” Dave cried. “Watch out!”

. . . a 52-year-old MTA bus driver was reunited with the dashing Navy ensign she met fleetingly Friday when they exchanged smiles.

The Emperor Has No Briefing Book

What if the terminal guy isn’t as “technologically savvy” as everyone made him out to be? The mayor marvels at new paper-saving technology:

The tech-savvy mayor showed off his new tablet computer at a Staten Island civic meeting on Tuesday night, calling it a great way to save time and eliminate paper — though he’s still fumbling with the touchscreen.

Thieves Finally Realize That That Sleek Clipboard Thing People Are Walking Around With These Days Is Not Some Sort Of Census-Taking Device But Rather An Expensive Apple Product Worth Jacking

Although written in a quippy, generally entertaining style, I usually find the Brooklyn Paper crime blotter depressing and try to avoid it, as I want to believe that there is less crime than there probably is.

But sometimes it’s useful, like when it shows how long it takes technology to get stolen, which in this case is 55 days*:

Brooklyn has had its first reported iPad theft — a swipe that occurred near Fort Greene Park on May 28.

The 23-year-old victim told police that he was playing on the revolutionary tablet computer near the corner of Park and Waverly avenues at 7:45 pm when someone ran up behind him and snatched the device out of his hand.

*The iPad Wi-Fi model was released April 3, 2010.

Perhaps This Is Part Of Why You Take The Train

Or, this is what a MARK IV Transportation Technologies Group press release looks like:

Sometimes a tollbooth isn’t a tollbooth. Sometimes it’s a battleground where life’s little conflicts unfold.

Friction between collectors and drivers is clear in a review of dozens of complaints filed with the two agencies that collect fares at the city’s 15 toll crossings.

. . .

At a Port Authority crossing in October 2008, a driver hands the collector a $10 bill. The collector returns it, claiming there’s a rip. The customer fishes out another $10 bill and asks, “Is this better?” “F— you,” the worker replies.