Vaping: Why A New Generation's Ethics Is Up In Smoke

The appeal of smoking and its "rebellious" image dates back to the early 1900s when black and white films and images portrayed cigarettes in a sexy light (some may say). Just seeing an old movie star laid across a leather couch with a cigarette dangling between two careless fingers was a symbol of careless sensuality and a "cool attitude."

Who were some of the pioneers of these iconic smoke-filled reputations? Consider icons like James Dean, Marilyn Monroe and my favorite - Twilight Zone host and American writer Rod Serling (who, according to the internet, smoked 3-4 packs of cigarettes a day).

Chew, Not Smoke? Nope!

Totally unrelated, but related, my childhood consisted of school days where the "bad kids" cut class and went somewhere like the schoolyard or staircases to smoke. When I went to Bildersee Junior High School in Canarsie, a group of the "cool girls" wreaked of cigarette smoke, but it was considered a type of rebellious perfume to attract an attract a "cute bad boy" who probably also smoked and had the same educational values. 

Let's get real, very few of the students who were on the honor role or in the chess/math clubs picked up a pack of smokes or went to the bathroom to puff away when the morning bell went off! I wasn't in ANY club or social group and I wasn't liked by the "cool kids", rather I was just boring old Dara who was afraid to fill her little lungs with carcinogens and have her hair/clothes smell like a pipe shop.

Wow - I supposed nothing says: "I look cool because I don't care about my health - and not caring about my health is a great value!" like picking up or continuing a habit that has most likely proven to kill more people than car accidents or homicides in a single city*.

The Centers for Disease and Control Prevention (CDC) reports that over 480,000 annual deaths have occurred from smoking and smoking-related diseases, including secondhand smoke. Lung cancer, heart disease, respiratory conditions...Yes! All of those kids in school have the right idea to look like they're careless while getting a nicotine buzz that helped them numb the pain of growing up. Boo-hoo!

In order to understand the hype behind e-cigarettes and the increasing number of deaths behind vaping (inhaling vaporized or aerated cannabis), most would have to accept the fact that every generation will have a dangerous vice. While I never used drugs or had any interest in substances or substance abuse, I grew up in the 1980s - which was still part of an era when you could smoke in public parks, beaches, restaurants, clubs,  and inside of airplanes.

Our city cracked down on the cigs, banning smoking in most public areas in 2011. Was that going to have a domino effect on our residents and force them to quit smoking since every place they turned forbid them from lighting up? Oh yes, wouldn't it be easier if you JUST DIDN'T SMOKE AT ALL??? Of course!!

Today's generation of individuals - trying to get away with fitting in, getting a buzz/high and  trying to be cool because they don't care about their health - is going a step further than my generation did. E-cigarette users and those who love to vape are dying faster today than the stars of the 1950s and 1960s who smoked regular cigarettes for over 3 decades!

Forget chain smoking and passing a joint around that party just to get a "hit". Today's availability of e-cigarettes and vaping products has upped the game and increased the chances of death much sooner than the smokes of the olden days.

Often laced with toxic cannabinoid additives, THC drugs and chemicals, vaping is becoming just as dangerous as smoking regular cigarettes as it claims the lives of hundreds across the country. In 2019, as of September,  7 people reportedly died of vaping.  Severe lung disease was the alleged culprit - although I'm still unsure why anyone would believe the slightest bit of of smoke trapped in their lungs would be a healthy choice!

Taking these devices off the shelves, banning their use in certain locations or raising the purchasing price/age consumption will not discourage hundreds - perhaps thousands - from getting their hands on these lethal substances. In my humble opinion, businesses are making too much money from those who need a buzz or love to escape reality while risking their lives to care about human mortality.

My favorite "smokes" were the candy/gum cigarettes sold in mini marts back the day. You pulled out a small pipe-like stick wrapped in white paper from the funky box and when you blew air into one end, powdered sugar billowed briefly around your face from the other end, simulating that "cool" image. Ah! But then you took that wrapper off and enjoyed a good old fashioned piece of gum! Yum! 

Sadly, these goodies were removed from stores for "influencing youngsters" to eventually indulge in the real thing.  The Family Smoking Prevention and Control Act was signed into law in June 2009, when candy/gum cigarettes were subsequently banned.

What's the answer? 

A recent Vice.com article entitled  "Seven People Have Died From Lung Illness Linked to Vaping: Should You Quit?" MeiLan Han professor of internal medicine in the Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at Michigan Medicine and director of the Michigan Airways Program said it best:  "The bottom line is that the lungs were not designed to breathe anything other than clean air."

Any questions???

It's A Battle Of The Wheels For New York City Cyclists

My first set of wheels was a Strawberry Shortcake tricycle.

Ah! Those were the days! Cruising up and down the community driveways and around the backyard at my grandparents house on East 78th Street in Canarsie - those were simple times. As I got older and my bikes were abused from wear and tear, many of my wheels went missing after multiple moves during my teenage years.

The Evolution Of A Cyclist: A Girl And Her Bike

I never "traveled" with my bikes farther than to the end of the block and many parents' concerns at the time were that we should "watch out for active driveways" and cars pulling out of parking lots. Kids in the 1980s basically took over their blocks with bikes, so drivers basically expected to see us somewhere in their vehicle mirrors - coming out into traffic.

There were no "designated bike lanes" or greenways as there are now, and cars parked along Paerdegat Avenue North had the entire span to themselves from Avenue J to Seaview Avenue. There weren't enough deadly and fatal incidents involving cyclist and cars prompting politicians to champion for specific, protected lanes designed to keep cyclists safe.

Decades later, with thousands of well-mapped and well-thought out greenway bike paths in place - and thousands of bike paths designated along residential blocks - the number of cyclist deaths are on the rise and there's no end in sight to the ongoing tragedies.

The death toll, as of this writing, is 19 cyclist deaths in New York City. The 19th death was that of 52-year-old Jose Alzorriz, an avid cyclists, runner and triathlon competitor. Oddly, the media states that Alzorriz was waiting at a busy intersection in Midwood Brooklyn when he was plowed over by a car that blew through a red light. How was this well-loved athlete protected?
Weeks before that in July, a 30 year old woman who was cycling in Sunset Park was allegedly hit by a 10-wheeler truck and one article in the New York Daily News noted that "this year is on pace to be the deadliest year for cyclists since 2014."

Why? Good question!

My boyfriend and I got bicycles in August 2018 and we've been using them as our main source of transportation - no parking problems, no money spent on gas or insurance and best of all, we're never caught in a traffic jam somewhere along the highway waiting to move at a snails pace.

And it's so exciting to breeze to a destination while also getting a workout in there! I've recently incorporated cycling into my athletic life as a cross training tool - and it's been more time efficient than taking public transportation anywhere in the borough.

One thing I've noticed as a renewed cyclists is that there are more residents than ever biking city streets. If you hit up city beaches during any summer weekend, you'll see hundreds of bikes lined up and locked up along the boardwalks. On any given Saturday or Sunday morning, a string of savvy cyclists will be wheeling over the Belt Parkway and either of the bridges that head out to the Rockaways. The Jamaica Bay Greenway, as it's formally known along the Belt, is situated plenty of feet away from traffic and can be considered a "protected" bike path! There are physical spacial partitions and barricades protecting cyclists from traffic.

Unfortunately, when they painted white bicycle lanes along residential roads that run parallel to parked cars, the intention was good  but the reality of their space actually functioning isn't what infrastructure designers planned. I don't think it's what Mayor Bill de Blasio had planned in his "Zero Vision" initiative either!

You can create as many petitions as you'd like to make streets safer for cyclists, have more "zero vision" proposals and offer as many transportation changes as you'd like. Just because there's a bike path on a city street, it doesn't mean it's safe, designated or protected and it doesn't mean two wheels are any less important than four!

Let's get real!!! If you want to make bike lanes safe and attempt to bring down fatality rates, the city would have to build boulders, barriers or paths so far away from traffic in every community that there'd be NO chance of collision or danger. This is impossible, I know.  And I was grateful to see that our Public Advocate Jumaane Williams took to the streets earlier this month to trek the very same streets we lost a cyclist to - as Williams' hands-on-the handlebars approach to quality of life ranks top as we try to whittle down what needs to be implemented on our roads.
Despite the presence of existing bike lanes and creating new paths that connect to each other in order to avoid cars sharing the road with their arch nemesis, there will always be fatalities. And the more residents opting to pedal their way to their destination, the more transportation clashes will ensue!

However, here are some other tips and tricks I've learned over the past year that cyclist must abide by as they fight for the road on city streets:

-Even when you're right, you're not right:  Hundreds of miles in each borough are dedicated to bike lanes, whether they're painted slime green or bright white. Even if you abide by the law and stick to bike lanes, CARS RULE THE STREETS. How is it safe to travel along local bike lanes where cars block or double park along the route? Cyclists are subsequently forced to bike around double parked cars, into traffic - and risk their lives even though they took the safest path meant only for them!

-Just because they see you, doesn't mean they don't want to hit you! I always thought that if a driver acknowledges that there's something passing in front of them, they would be cautious. Many times I've had to cycle along city streets to get to protected bike lanes and cars will converge upon me regardless of whether I've slowed down to make myself visible. What do those drivers have against us cyclists abiding by the traffic rules?? I'll never know! 

-Even Pedestrians Hate You: Yes, sorry but it's true. People walking in the streets - or even in city parks - have no regard for bikers. You can ring that little bell all you want (I tried) but many pedestrians are in their own world when they're walking and when they see a cyclist come up from behind them, it's as if a bee stung them on their ass! In my experience, pedestrians aren't worried about being mauled by cyclist, even if it's in the exact environment made for their means of travel. During a recent trip to the Rockaways, I pedaled near Floyd Bennett Field where a youth event was taking place. None of the parents or children walking paid mind as I came through the BIKE PATH made for cyclists to safely travel. We're all using our legs to get around, so what's the problem people!!!

-Drivers Hate Each Other - And You Will Get Caught In The Crossfire!! Let's get real, the number of car accidents in New York City has escalated in the past few years as more residents flock to our state. More people, more cars, more anger, less room, more accidents! I've witnessed hundreds of near-misses as a cyclists - drivers trying to beat the light, drivers racing to an intersection and drivers cutting each other off or speeding past each other in road rage. Too many times, as cyclist are casually rolling along the street - even going in the same direction as traffic - they're victims of drivers battling other drivers. If we can't get our drivers under control and our auto fatality rates under control, how can we keep others safe who are also utilizing the streets?

Now that I understand how tumultuous it  can be as a cyclist in the city, and now that I'm acknowledging how reckless accidents take place, I can only control my own safety and awareness.

Of course I miss the days when my little girlie basket sat perched at the front of my tricycle and the only care I had was -- what will my next bike would look like? Okay...I STILL have a "girlie basket", but it's packed with travel goods and I'm hoping it outlasts all the crazy drivers that get in its way!

Why The Judicial System Adds Insult To InJURY

Junk mail isn't as overwhelming as it used to be. We used to get tons of magazines and who can forget Publishers' Clearing House envelopes bursting with false hopes. We also used to get an influx of medical supply magazines selling gadgets like boot warmers and silly looking gardening knickknacks. Today, there's that ONE PIECE OF MAIL you'll dreadfully receive and it's the equivalent of a mental death sentence; you start to feel animosity towards conventional mail altogether. 

The courthouse had a scenic view of the borough, at least!

In February I finally received that long, yellow-highlighted notification advising me to report to jury duty on Wednesday, March 20th. Of course, they wanted me to call their useless phone number the night prior to going to the Supreme Court in Downtown Brooklyn. Why waste time calling to find out if you have to report? About 80% of the time, you have to report in. You usually can't get out of it unless you're disabled, have children or can find another real, legit and brilliant excuse as to why you can't sit in a building wasting 8 hours a day for less money than you'd earn actually going to work. 

Honestly, I didn't see the negative aspects of serving jury duty -- at first. Hey, it's a day off of work, right? I wouldn't have to travel to the city, I'd be in the heart of Brooklyn with all of those gourmet fooderies and I could do some shopping!  It wouldn't be sooooo bad!!!

Great! I woke up at least an hour later than usual, I took my time and pffffff - I got there at 9 a.m. even though the jury card said 8:30 a.m.  Come on! They're not paying me to be there on time!!

Courthouses are pretty cool and neat. Neat meaning, they look more sterile than a hospital during a flu outbreak. As I went into the huge auditorium already showing some flimsy video clip about citizens being required to carry out their civic duty by being part of the judicial system, I hoped this ordeal would be simple.

Not so much (of course!).

All of the jurors were corralled like harnessed stable horses from the big auditorium into a smaller room where we were addressed by a court officer. "I know y'all all bearing with us, but just imagine - we have to do this every day!"

Every day? In effort to escape getting arrested for arguing with a law enforcement official, I stopped myself from standing up and hollering - "Every day? Y'all get PAID a nice salary and a pension with plenty of vacation and a retirement plan fit for a king!!!! Y'all get to wear bullet proof vests and get certified as reputable law enforcement while we waste away in this suit-obsessed building for a measly $40 a DAY!!!"

Falling asleep in the courthouse - not an unusual site.

For some reason, the professionals who work in the courts want us to pity them (when this is what they pine to do professionally and get paid pretty well to carry out) for having to endure the criminal justice system every day.
Hey- we're just hard working New Yorkers forced out of our jobs and lives to determine someone else's legal fate whether we want to or not!!! Who has it rough?????

The group of jurors I joined were corralled up to another floor where we waited yet again. I didn't get to enjoy my "day off". I wanted to read, catch up on my date book planning and text with a friend. With all of the standing and waiting, I lost over 3 hours of productive time.

Finally, when we were inside the courtroom, we were - in the end - either chosen or not chosen to preside over a burglary case. I obviously can't give the details of the case, but in the back of my mind I wondered why someone would need a dozen random people to prove their innocence!!! How many upstanding citizens who simply go about their business and stay OUT OF TROUBLE wind up in a courthouse with several different criminal charges and their lawyer sitting there trying to convince us that this is a "nice guy". Why would I even care if he was framed?

The bad news was that I was chosen for the case. The good news is that I was later excused from serving as a juror for the simple fact that I couldn't afford to be out of work for a week - the projected time the case would take to reveal all of the evidence and testimonies - at $40 a day.

After dodging the bullet of having to put someone in jail - or letting them roam free - I started noticing more stories in the media about everything that's wrong with our government's jury selection process.

I don't know how many of you have ever served on a case or have witnessed the process by which prosecutors and lawyers choose juries. I've been to jury duty selection 3 times since I was 20 years old and the oddest thing I realized is that most juries are comprised of middle class (or once middle class) workers who are average residents of the county.

 In the juror pool I joined last month, at least 7 of the jurors were freelancers - many journalists for news sites. Others were artistic designers, liberal arts aficionados and construction workers. Of course, the court's time was wasted inevitably by roves of poor souls trying to provide an excuse for why they couldn't be picked for a case. One woman pretended she didn't understand English. DANG, why didn't I think of that?... Oh, yes, it's not really a "disability" as many think it is.

I've actually never seen or heard of a jury "of my peers" who were doctors, lawyers, CEOs of companies, Wall Street types or politicians. How often do they even receive summonses to appear for jury duty? Is there some salary bracket that upper class and rich people fall into that by and large excludes them from the judicial hell that is jury duty? Does their professional standing get in the way of them being chosen - and are they easily excused from even being picked because their professions are SO in demand that the State Of New York doesn't want to touch their delicate schedules??

Who knows!!!!

It doesn't take much to realize that jury duty and the process by which the courts "randomly" chooses us is the worst and most out dated rigmarole I've ever seen. There are a few factors that makes jury duty itself faulty and ineffective to any case - especially one that's in the spotlight.

The court system is full of confidence and legal nonsense. They want people who don't care about someone else's criminal activities to think beyond reality. We have to declare and believe that someone's "innocent until proven guilty."

Let's get real!!!!!  The reason they're in court to begin with is because someone out there deems them unsavory and they've already gotten their hands dirty somehow by being involved with the wrong people or by being at the wrong place of accusation.

Now, I'm not a saint by ANY means, but I've never had a brush with the law. I've never been involved in a situation where I put myself in any legally compromising position. No one has ever had to defend my innocence. 

I'm sure there are millions of people out there who just live their day-to-day life without being questioned by the law. It' my opinion that those aren't the people who need a jury to decide if they deserve time behind bars.

Nowadays, jury selection shouldn't be about choosing a "regular working person" at random and throwing them into a room to be questioned. 

If you picked up the March 27th issue of the Daily News, you could clearly understand in their article, "Let Me Trial Again: Chapo Sez Toss Conviction by Tainted Jury," how cocaine kingpin El Chapo felt the randomly selected individuals were swayed in their decisions by social media.

Who isn't???

Whether the courts want to admit it or not, most jurors - when exposed to a case - can't help but recall some of the most notorious stories in the media - the O.J. trail, Michael Jackson's array of legal woes - from sexual allegations to claims that his own doctor reportedly assisted in his passing, and more recently, Bill Cosby's almost shocking sentencing years after his abusers were victimized.

As "normal folks" we're all watching 'Law And Order,' 'CSI', 'Forensic Files', 'The First 48 Hours' and 'Dateline'. Nowadays, we're constantly fed information on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter about new evidence, updates on a crime and press releases/statements from politicians intended to go viral. We know more about a robbery, murder or lawsuit than we truly want to because it's all made public information somewhere and who can be 100 % honest that what they've read in the news has NO impact on how they view the criminal justice system?

The old saying goes that no matter what, if you're picked for a jury, you have to be able to prove the client's guilt/innocence "beyond a reasonable doubt."
By the time they reviewed this bit of famous information,  I was sitting in the jury box - pitying the suits who had to waste the court's time questioning our perception of the law. Who knows how many individuals receive unfair trails every day?

For example, anyone who lived in New York in August 2016 knows the horrible story behind the murder of Karina Vetrano, a runner who was reportedly attacked and killed in Queens by Chanel Lewis. The jury on this trial revealed a guilty verdict and the Daily News' April 2nd article, "Justice For Karina" implied that the jurors weren't being fair to Lewis in many legal facets.
So an average person like ME has to sit and listen to a case we already knew about and feel horrible for the family? Were the jurors swayed inadvertently by the evidence and stories they'd heard on the news and social media years before Lewis' trial began? Did they feel bad for the Vetrano family at the inception of the tragedy?

Of freakin' course!!!

By the end of my own jury court day, as I was informed of the procedure when we returned to the courtroom the following week, I already thought about the criminal justice system and my hatred/dislike for its processes.
So many defense lawyers and prosecutors want retrials, new jurors, appeals and verdicts that really mean something to their clients' case. With this in mind, how can they proceed with jury selection when their pool is limited to the class and types of jurors they bring in.

My proposal? Bus in a slew of retired professionals who have life-long experiences and values who don't mind spending a day Downtown Brooklyn wasting time. Provide these seasoned individuals with meals and transportation from their senior centers to the courts.
Make jury duty a volunteer-based legal program with benefits (provide jurors with meals, allow them to use their cell phones whenever they want and PAY THEM AT THE END OF THE DAY!!!) Please - stop forcing working people to sacrifice their salaries just to decide the fate of someone they don't even care about (which is the point of hearing someone's story).
If someone's receiving unemployment for a long time, make it mandatory that they serve on a jury in order to receive benefits until they find a job. Yes, plenty of jurors are unemployed etc., and the court should take advantage of those who aren't worried about missing work and important deadlines.

No matter who's picked, it always seems like the supposed criminal isn't being operated fairly... or someone isn't happy with the verdict. Then what good did the courts do selecting jurors to preside over those cases in the first place?

Well, I'm still waiting for my $40 compensation for serving that one day - that one day which made me realize that nothing's improving in our judicial system and even when "justice is served" there will be someone out there looking to settle the score and challenge a new jury's decision because they're unhappy with the results. It's also unsettling that it's a crime to not show up to jury duty!!!

Really!!!
Case dismissed!

What The "L"? New Plans Won't Help Our Commuter Hell!

For me, every commute on the 'L' train at 6:30 a.m. is  H - E - double hockey stick! If you didn't know this, the earlier you board this train, the more bums there are -- scattered along seats, sprawled out sleeping. This  means us hard working, tax paying New Yorkers - along with school children on their way to getting an education don't get to sit or rest before the hustle and bustle of our workdays.

Any stop can be your "last" on the L!

Many of my morning rides are spent trying to drown out loud commuters who are wide awake - laughing and chatting it up on their cell phones before the sun even rises! During other treks into the city, I'm simply trying to maintain my "space" in a seat where I get smushed by someone who has no regard for personal physical boundaries. Am I getting my $2.75 worth? Is ANYONE?

 Of course not!!

What gets me riled up is the freestyle mornings! Those are the days when anything can happen. The 'L' train has "signal problems" and "train traffic ahead" or some "mechanical disturbance/delay" that renders everyone's trip useless! Just one minute can be the difference between getting to work on time and going back home altogether because it would simply take too long to reroute yourself from anywhere along the line to another train that could get you to your destination. 

Trust me, whenever there's an issue with the 'L' in the morning, I'm tempted plenty of times to just get on a train back to Canarsie and call in sick. The headaches produced by MTA woes is sometimes too much to bare!!! But why let the MTA defeat me and make me miss an entire day of work!!

A couple of weeks ago, my morning commute - which hadn't been disrupted for quite a few months (shock and a half!!) - was off to a quiet start. Of course, it was too good to be true! A few seconds after the train pulled away from the Myrtle-Wyckoff Avenue stop, the cars seemed to bump unexpectedly into each other and I could feel an abrupt halting of the gears.
Something wasn't right! Sure enough, after two minutes of not moving, the train conductor announced that there were NO L trains running in either direction due to "someone who had been hit by a train at Myrtle-Avenue."

WHAT!

Crazy enough, as I evacuated the train along with hundreds of fellow commuters, we saw a middle -aged man hunched over on the edge of the platform. MTA staff yelled at everyone to stand back as they assessed the situation. 

It was uncertain if the guy hit by our train was inebriated, homeless or simply a straphanger who was side-swiped after leaning too far out to see if the train was coming. It could have been any one of these tangibles. Regardless, we all got yelled at for standing around (and what else could we do - we had no idea yet what our alternative transportation options would be!!!).
As soon as FDNY personnel showed up with their gurneys in tow, we were forced off the platform and upstairs to take an alternative route - the 'M' train - a line that practically stops at every block in the borough!! Sure, we were lucky to be stranded at transfer point - but what if we weren't?

For those of us who wanted to take an 'L' train back east towards Canarsie - to perhaps catch a better option of transfers into the city - it was a no-go. So NO trains operated for about an hour on the 'L' as officials sussed out the situation, soon leaving thousands of riders fending for themselves at the last minute.

This harrowing course of events on the 'L' seems to take place more often than not - and no one has figured out emergency tactics to get riders back on track immediately after an "incident." Investigations, interruptions...the only thing I was thankful of that morning was having the 'M' train option to begin with.
If we were evacuated from the train at, say, Grand Street or Montrose Avenue, commuters would have to foot the bill for a cab to their destination because the MTA wouldn't be able to resolve the situation in a timely fashion. 

Why are we always left stranded?

As you can imagine, I've already had it up to here (hand saluted at forehead level) with  the 'L from Hell.' And I'm not alone when I say that straphangers would have been totally frazzled by the mandatory shut down of our 10.24 mile line this April. Unavoidable Hurricane Sandy repairs would be tediously executed along what officials coined the "Canarsie Tube."

  

Dozens of MTA and community hearings produced a plethora of transportation alternatives. Still, train lines across the board - in one way or another - would feel the brunt of overcrowding as a result of the 'L' shutting down.  Officials can say anything they want about the expected time of completion for reconstruction, be it 13 to 18 months, a year-plus... We were preparing to be derailed every day on the line, which serves 24 stations that accommodate just under 300,000 residents  a day from Brooklyn, some from Queens, and Manhattan.

Alas!!!
New York's own uncaped hero Governor Andrew Cuomo came to the rescue in early January - tossing out years of engineering studies, budget allotments, contracting plans and everything else that came along with the scope of reconstructing our already doomed 'L' line tunnel. Cuomo and his new "team" of engineers from Columbia and Cornell universities have it down pat.

Their new agenda calls for construction that only disrupts service during nights and weekends instead of 24/7 - GREAT!

Their new plans will also reportedly shut down one track at a time inside of the  Sandy-damaged tube so that we can actually ride uninterruptedly into and out of the city with minor inconvenience...FABULOUS! 

Fun fact?
I've been riding the 'L' train since I was 16 years old and to be quite honest, I can't recall too many weekends or late week nights when it actually operated without diversions. There would be weekends at a time when shuttle buses served the line between Rockaway Parkway and Broadway Junction. Then there were days when the 'L' facilitated ONE single shuttle train every 25 minutes on ONE track back and forth between Canarsie and Broadway Junction.
More recently, riders were diverted on the weekends with no trains traveling beyond Broadway Junction, Myrtle Avenue or Lorimer Street so that crews could haul in materials and prepare for the Big Shutdown.

Hey - I should be used to this game of musical trains by now after 20 years!! And we all get it - our precious 'L' is becoming more and more popular every year as Brooklyn's up-and-coming neighborhoods like Williamsburg, Greenpoint and Bushwick draw in thousands of residents.

There have been a slew of editorials, updates and opinion pieces on Gov. Cuomo's reassessment of  the updated work span. I had no idea our savvy governor had such astute engineering skills that provoked him to bring on a new team of contractors and planners!

A considerable population of New Yorkers are worried that Cuomo's revamping efforts will just add up to dangerous or useless "patch work." We want permanent resiliency efforts. The pre-Cuomo plans included a multi-million dollar project which involved removing and ripping out ALL of the old wiring/tracks etc.
Will new plans - that include simply relocating power lines and fortifying bench walls - last long enough? And will the new tunnel components be strong enough that crews won't have to come back years later to fix or repair?

Let's get real - it doesn't matter what the itinerary is for the new scope. Send in every army of  the government you've got with different resources and insights - our 'L' will practically always mean "Lost"!
Once this rehab project is done, another one will follow in 10 years from now... and who knows what those commuters will have to contend with!

Yes, it's a small victory for daily riders like myself who panicked about which alternative method of transportation we'd use when the Big Shutdown finally happened, so kudos to Cuomo! Crisis averted! If you can't sense my sarcasm, it means we shouldn't be shocked or annoyed at any upcoming plans that infringe on our commute.

In the end, it's just another day in the life of hell on the 'L'.