Phillip Retuta's Blog

The Life and Times of a Filipino-American

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The Eighth Avenue Aches: WTF MTA?

Since January, I’ve collected data on my commute from my apartment in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn to my work in Columbus Circle, Manhattan: I log the time I leave my home, and I log the time when I enter the door to my office.

When I first moved to my new place in August 2017, I was amazed that it took 30 to 35 minutes to get to work; back at my old apartment in Crown Heights, it took almost an hour to get to Columbus Circle via the 2/3 express trains and transferring to the 1. Riding the A or C train from Bed-Stuy without transferring (and with the subway stations less than a 5-minute walk away), I was finally happy to see that my commute would now be much simpler.

Sometime during the winter, though, I noticed a combination of delayed arrivals and packed trains. If the A train arrived on time, all the subway cars would be so packed, passengers would have to wait for the next train (and in frequent cases, the train after that or even a fourth train). The C train — which runs locally — has a bad habit of arriving 10 minutes apart even during the morning rush hour (I find it acceptable to wait a maximum of 6 minutes for a train on a weekday morning, during the peak hours of 7:30 to 9:30).


It was during one January morning that it took me 2 hours (and transferring between 4 trains) to get to work that I decided to start documenting my commute times. As of writing this post, the express A train (in conjunction with delayed times and packed trains) has been running every 14 minutes during rush hour every morning. If I’m lucky to catch an arriving train, it still takes me almost an hour to get to work as opposed to 35 minutes. On the other hand, if I miss a train, I’m now waiting anywhere from 6 minutes to even 17 minutes for the next train to arrive. Just imagine that, as people who miss a train or simply can’t fit into a subway car, will have to wait for the next train for a long-ass time — only to have more people enter the station and clog up the waiting areas. The congestion that builds up in each of the stations has been unforgivable, and I can tell that my fellow passengers in Brooklyn are getting testy.

Here’s the data I’ve collected so far, bolded times were the typical commute for me back in the summer of 2017:

2018.01.10: 1 Hour, 53 Minutes — A to C to 2 to 1
2018.01.11: 55 Minutes — A
2018.01.12: 35 Minutes — A
2018.01.16: 55 Minutes — C
2018.01.17: 55 Minutes — A
2018.01.18: 53 Minutes — C to A
2018.01.22: 52 Minutes — A to F to B
2018.01.23: 1 Hour, 17 Minutes — A
2018.01.24: 34 Minutes — A
2018.01.25: 54 Minutes —  C
2018.01.26: 51 Minutes — C to A
2018.01.29: 55 Minutes — C
2018.01.31: 52 Minutes — A
2018.02.01: 56 Minutes — A
2018.02.02: 50 Minutes — C
2018.02.05: 51 Minutes — A
2018.02.06: 46 Minutes — A
2018.02.07: 58 Minutes — A
2018.02.08: 55 Minutes — C to A
2018.02.12: 56 Minutes — A
2018.02.13: 43 Minutes — A
2018.02.14: 44 Minutes — C
2018.02.15: 50 Minutes — A
2018.02.16: 44 Minutes — A
2018.02.20: 47 Minutes — A
2018.02.21: 43 Minutes — A
2018.02.22: 50 Minutes — A
2018.02.23: 55 Minutes — C
2018.02.26: 1 Hour, 2 Minutes — A
2018.02.27: 46 Minutes — A
2018.02.28: 52 Minutes — A
2018.03.01: 38 Minutes — A
2018.03.02: 50 Minutes — A
2018.03.05: 1 Hour — A
2018.03.06: 42 Minutes — A
2018.03.08: 47 Minutes — A
2018.03.09: 47 Minutes — C
2018.03.12: 50 Minutes — A
2018.03.13: 51 Minutes — A
2018.04.17: 59 Minutes — A
2018.04.18: 1 Hour, 20 Minutes — A
2018.04.19: 52 Minutes — C
2018.04.20: 39 Minutes — A
2018.04.23: 1 Hour, 2 Minutes — A
2018.04.24: 59 Minutes — A
2018.04.25: 54 Minutes — C
2018.04.26: 55 Minutes — A to C
2018.04.27: 32 Minutes — C
2018.04.30: 49 Minutes — A
2018.05.01: 59 Minutes — A
2018.05.02: 27 Minutes — C
2018.05.03: 40 Minutes — A
2018.05.04: 30 Minutes — A
2018.05.07: 53 Minutes — A
2018.05.08: 47 Minutes — A
2018.05.09: 45 Minutes — A
2018.05.10: 50 Minutes — A
2018.05.14: 50 Minutes — A
2018.05.15: 52 Minutes — A
2018.05.16: 50 Minutes — A
2018.05.18: 50 Minutes — A

I find that these delayed times and packed trains are a combination of a lot of things. First of all, the MTA (and the New York Governor who controls MTA funding) has reduced the number of trains. Top that with the increased number of people moving to the outer boroughs (I’ll save the rant of new high rises, urban displacement, and gentrification for later), there are simply not enough trains and money to accommodate suitable transportation in Brooklyn. God knows I don’t enjoy the yearly subway fare hikes, but that money seems misused if they decide to reduce the number of trains running throughout New York.

I’ve also noticed that the MTA relies on a century-old transit system. The express A train merges with the local C train after three stations and continues to be on one track for about 40% of my commute (I don’t get how the A train from Nostrand Avenue to 59th Street-Columbus Circle is “express” if it’s only 5 less stops than the C train). Once I get past 42 Street in Manhattan, the A then merges with the same track as the D train. Usually, I’ve noticed, it takes me 15 minutes to get from 42nd Street to Columbus Circle; the A train just stops between the 17 blocks between 42nd and 59th, and I see two to three local trains whiz by on the adjacent track. The way I see it: the A train shares the same track as the C train (and the C train later shares the same track as the E train and B train). The D train shares the same set of tracks as the F, B, and M trains. If there’s one problem (say a signal malfunction, stalled train, or sick passenger) on any of these trains, my commute is affected. It’s train traffic at its worst.

Lastly, and I think this is the bane of every New Yorker’s existence: signal problems. All of the MTA’s train traffic runs on a signal system implemented in the 90’s, as a result of this train crash. Although it’s meant to protect the safety of commuters, the signal system has been plagued with numerous problems lately. It’s a system almost 3o years old now, and if there’s a minor problem with a signal (which nowadays is prone to malfunctions), then all train traffic along the affected line stands to a halt.

I’m not too certain if there’s an immediate solution to these problems, but if the New York State is going to annually increase my subway fare and extend my commute to double its time, I’d like the MTA to be less vague about subway delays and more transparent with what they’re doing with our money. Otherwise, I’ll just be continue to be habitually stressed out and rant about it.

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Taxes, IRS, and Social Security: Talk About Bureaucracy!

Because of a clerical error where my social security number and birthdate didn’t match, I wasn’t able to e-file my taxes this year. You’d think that this would be an easy fix, but when you go through government channels, it’s obvious that a simple office typo of a “25” looking like a “26” is a bureaucratic nightmare:

  1. After attempting several times to e-file, I get an email from H&R Block that the IRS has rejected my federal taxes (but not my state return). As I mentioned, on a federal level my SSN and/or birthdate were filed incorrectly. Normally, I’d be happy with sending my state return online, and my federal return by mail; I’d get my state refund sooner, and I’d pay my federal taxes by check. Unfortunately, New York State is saying I had to e-file both my federal and state returns conjointly.
  2. H&R tells me to contact the IRS.
  3. I search through 5 years of emails looking for the pin number the IRS gave me to log into their site.
  4. The IRS website says they can’t fix my SSN/birthday online.
  5. I call the IRS during work. After being on hold for one hour, the IRS tells me to call the Social Security Office.
  6. I call the Social Security Office during work the next day. After 45 minutes on hold, the Social Security Office won’t confirm or fix my birthdate or Social Security Number. They tell me that I need to bring my physical birth certificate to a Social Security Office in person.
  7. I call my dad who I would think has my birth certificate. He does not. I have to get a replacement birth certificate.
  8. I wanted to get my birth certificate from my hospital in Chicago, but they closed it down and turned it into condos.
  9. I pay 50 dollars to the Cook County Clerk’s office to send me my birth certificate to New York City.
  10. One week later, 4 days before my taxes are due, I receive my birth certificate.
  11. Yesterday, I use my lunch break to go to the Social Security Office closest to my office. I have my birth certificate, original social security card, W2’s, a passport, and a driver’s license — anything and everything I would need. However, the front desk tells me I need to go to the Brooklyn branch in order to correct my SSN/birthday. They don’t do corrections in this Social Security Office. Unfortunately, I learn, all of New York City’s Social Security Office hours are from 7am to 4pm (during weekday work hours).
  12. I leave work early to go back home to Brooklyn, to that particular Social Security Office. I get a waiting-line number and remain seated for two hours to be called.
  13. Everyone is waiting, and I notice one agent arguing with a French woman since I arrived. People’s numbers are called and they come and go, and I’m starting to think I’m next with this particular agent.
  14. My number is never called, and the entire social security office clears out after 4:45pm. The French woman leaves. Completely alone in the waiting room, I go to the agent’s window and I exclaim that my number was never called. She says come back in the morning, “We’re closed.”

Holy fuck.

I didn’t explode or yell or anything. Instead, I immediately bought a pack of cigarettes and smoked furiously. Luckily, I planned this would happen and sent my taxes out by the mail; I just won’t expect my state return for a few months, and I know my bank account will take an immediate hit for my federal taxes. Still, the sheer idea that I can’t get my tax return sooner because of a clerical error is frustrating, but nonetheless a minor inconvenience till next tax season. What’s more frustrating, however, is this goddamn bureaucracy to fix this error and the time and money I’ve wasted.

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The Trump Ideology.

trump_inauguration

Last night in New York, the mayor, a few activists, and a few celebrities threw a protest rally. To my surprise, it was literally across the street from where I work in Columbus Circle, but I haven’t been feeling well the past few days and called in sick. I still watched the live coverage on Facebook, but I was dismayed by all the negative reactions that people posted in realtime.

“An army of snowflakes…”

“Black lives don’t matter…”

“Look at these Hollywood faggots…”

“You lost. Get over it, Libtards…”

Sure, there are a number of internet trolls who take great joy at instigating conflict, but a lot of these comments seemed absolutely genuine. I guess it comes as no surprise that a lot of these people are middle-aged or baby boomers, and I’m pretty certain they got a Facebook account less than five years ago. Nonetheless, I can’t help but wonder why some people (a good portion of middle class America) think like this. Don’t they know when they criticize the Hollywood Elite, they elected an Elite Reality TV Star?

The part of me that irks me most about Trump is his personality: brash, narcissistic, and utterly immoral. He clearly had no respect for anyone, much less for minorities, immigrants, and women. Are people that angry that they helped elect a morally-bankrupt individual to office? The answer, sadly, is yes. I’m a rational individual who always examines the motives behind people, but I’m utterly shocked that an individual can forgo his or her moral compass and support such an awful human being. Maybe I’m in that so-called liberal echo chamber, but I know what’s right and wrong. I know how to feel empathy and care for my fellow human being. I also know that I can’t blame my misfortune on others and feel helpless. Is it the economy that encouraged people to vote for Trump? If so, I’ve struggled with unemployment at the tail end of the Bush administration and deep into Obama’s. Is it terrorism? As someone who pays attention to the news and is aware of history, whatever is going on with ISIS and terrorism stems back to the last administration, if not decades ago. If it’s illegal immigrants taking jobs, I have never worried that I’d lose my job with my college or masters education. Throughout his presidency, I have never blamed Obama for my downfalls and saw the country as pretty prosperous. It wasn’t the calamity that fringe conservatives have been hawking on about.

After reading and watching news about his cabinet hearings, I can’t help but worry that these positions are going to be filled with unqualified billionaires and millionaires who will do nothing but harm our future generation. Why can’t those who supported him understand that their children will be affected by their proposed federal cuts on education, health, environment, and housing? Why can’t they realize they voted against their best interests? Did they truly hope that Trump, with his self-interest and billions, would change things? Because it looks like he’s not going to change the status quo on a corporate-owned America.

Today, after his inauguration, Trump immediately took down informational pages on climate change and LGBTQ rights from the White House webpage. I’m hesitant because this is a clear sign that the our compassion for our fellow human being — both present and future — is at stake.

These are dark times ahead, and people might not realize it just yet, but we all have to fight for what’s best for both ourselves and our children’s lives. Why? Because we’re all human, and we’re all in this together.

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Post-Election New York.

trump

I’ll admit that the past couple have been hard, and it’s definitely showing here in New York: the news sites I visit and my social media feeds are expressing anger and sadness, acts of prejudice and bullying validated by our next President fill the headlines I read, and all my conversations with friends are wrought with feelings of betrayal and fear. Even on my subway ride to and from work, people are more frustrated and sad than usual, to the point that a select few are acting like assholes (on two separate occasions, a couple of young people angrily shoved into passengers). I get it: you’re upset with this election. I’m upset. We’re all upset.

Still, after a young girl berated everybody on my crowded train to “fucking move,” it dawned on me that above all else I need to retain my kindness and humanity towards my fellow Human beings. I need to remain positive and hopeful despite the potential shitty times ahead.

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Ignorance With Good Intentions (Or Misguided, Whitewashed Racism).

ProtestCanines and their human supporters protest Yulin’s annual Chinese dog eating festival in Chinatown

This gets me angry, but for different reasons. I love dogs, and I’m Asian, but this type of short-sighted ignorance to protest a horrible practice in China in Chinatown New York where they don’t eat cats or dogs seems so unjust. It’s like protesting ISIS in Bay Ridge with its significant Muslim population, or Haiti’s corrupt government here in Crown Heights. It doesn’t make sense.

You can read the article from ReAppropriate here:

Since 2009, one festival in China has caused a stir in the animal rights community. The festival — the Yulin Lychee and Dog Meat Festival — was inaugurated that year, and immediately resurrected controversy over the ethics of consuming dog meat. Pictures of dogs crammed into tiny wire cages have shocked netizens for the last several years, along with reports that as many as 10,000 dogs are slaughtered annually at the festival.

The festival — which is not sanctioned by the local government — is intended to celebrate a centuries-old tradition in parts of China where dog meat is considered a delicacy. Government officials insist that the festival is attended by a small minority of local residents. This doesn’t stop outraged animal rights activists, however, from protesting the festival as outrageous and unethical.

The question of dog meat consumption is, I think, a weighty one. While I have never consumed dog meat, I can find nothing more (or less) unethical about eating canines than any other meat considered acceptable for consumption in the West. Animals are not by nature categorized as “food animals” or “companion animals” — this is a human conceit. Dogs are no smarter than pigs, which are routinely raised and slaughtered for food in America. Cuteness is subjective. Other animals that Americans typically consider to be cherished pets are traditionally eaten in other Western nations, such as rabbits, guinea pigs, and horses. Dogs slaughtered in Yulin are not treated less humanely than some livestock raised for consumption in America, where cows, pigs and chicken are routinely housed in deplorable and unsanitary conditions.

Let’s be real: for some activists, this really just boils down to an “ick” factor. Yet, cultural qualms about eating dog meat are just that — our qualms. Other cultures are equally as disgusted by how we view some animals — cow, for example — as totally acceptable all-American food sources. I may not be really up for eating dog, but I have little business telling someone else that they should abide by my disgust. It is culturally imperialist to assert that food sources I might find unappetizing has no business being on someone else’s plate.

Yet, animal rights activists rarely confront — or even acknowledge — how their actions blur the lines between a reasonable conversation about animal rights and historic anti-Asian stereotypes. This is not just a conversation about the ethical treatment of dogs. This is also a conversation about race, ethnicity, privilege, and stereotypes.

For centuries, anti-Asian stereotypes have included portrayals of Chinese as barbaric consumers of dirty and unimaginable food sources. The stereotype of the “Heathen Chinee” typically associated Chinese immigrants with the frequent eating of rat or dog as evidence of their cultural and moral inferiority to Whiteness, thereby co-opting a cultural culinary tradition to rationalize white supremacy. Meanwhile, we rarely consider how the development of traditions around “unconventional” meat sources is also as much about institutionalized poverty as it is about culinary interest. Itshould come as little surprise that the parts of China where canine meat is consumed are also predominantly rural areas where livestock may have been historically and seasonally scarce. In America, anti-Asian stereotypes about dog and rat meat were further reinforced by the fact that early East Asian immigrants to America were often trapped in indentured servitude and ghettoized to ethnic enclaves where more conventional food sources were simply inaccessible and unavailable. There is a certain economic privilege in moralizing about certain food sources, when the tradition may have its roots in systemic hunger and poverty.

Today’s animal rights activists ignore Asian Americans’ history of enduring stereotypes of the “Heathen Chinee” when they confuse the enjoyment of dog meat by some Chinese people as endemic to all Chinese people. Last Friday, roughly twenty misguided animal rights activists took to the streets of New York City’s Chinatown to protest the consumption of dog meat in Southern China. The animal rights activists claim they are interested in advocating that China ban dog meat festivals. Yet, to accomplish this, they spent a day harassing Chinese American restaurant owners and patrons, most of whom have zero connection with the Yulin dog meat festival, with a message of cultural intolerance and nativism.

Said one protester to the New York Daily News:

“That’s not how we roll in our country. If they … bring that tradition to our country, they’ll be investigated and will go to jail,” he said.

This protest was a clusterfuck of compounding stereotypes. The activists invoked the “Heathen Chinee” stereotype with their assumption that the consumption of dog meat is widespread in China. The activists invoked the Perpetual Foreigner stereotype with their organizing of a protest targeting Chinese Americans about the goings-on in parts of Southern China. The activists reinforced a White-normative framework of what is, and what isn’t, considered “acceptably American”. The activists even implicitly reference the Model Minority stereotype with their bizarre assumption that the actions of White animal rights activists are needed to galvanize Chinese people to political action.

Never mind, of course, that animal rights are increasingly an important issue for Chinese citizens, amid rising dog ownership among China’s wealthy and middle class. Since the festival’s inception in 2009, it has faced profound public backlash within China as activists gather at the festival and purchase and save dogs destined for slaughter. A recent poll suggests that as many as two-thirds of Chinese people oppose animal cruelty and support animal products produced humanely.

Yet, last week’s animal rights protesters in New York City ignored the burgeoning Chinese animal rights movement, and in so doing erased their work. Instead, they assumed that the West’s moral superiority regarding the ethical treatment of animals is needed to save Chinese people from our own barbarism.

I get that activists angered about the Yulin festival wanted to do something about it. But they could have raised money or posted selfies supporting the work of Chinese animal rights groups. They could have written letters to the Chinese government, or even protested outside of New York City’s Chinese consulate where they could speak to the actual Chinese government. They didn’t need to confuse the difference between Chinese and Chinese American with their moral scolding. They didn’t need to trample over the work of Chinese animal rights activists by reinforcing the narrative of Eastern backwards-ness and Western enlightenment.

And they sure didn’t need to invoke the language of xenophobia with their “don’t bring this to our country” rhetoric. Chinese Americans are Americans. Most of us aren’t really down to eat dog; and oh, by the way, this is our country too.