Christopher

Journal 5
1

Maleka Christopher
Brooklyn College English 1012
Professor Gruss
October 22
nd
, 2013

Much like the America in which its situated, New York City and its subway lines mean a
multitude of things for a great variety of people. New York City has been called everything from the
land of dreams to a concrete jungle, by people who range from hopeful immigrants eager to start a
new life to natives who wouldnt give up their hone state for the world. These various viewpoints about
New York, and on a lesser scale its transportation, are aptly expressed and described in Speak, Hoyt
Schermerhorn, an anecdote by Jonathan Lethem about the city subway.
The city subway, like almost all the other forms of transportation available in New York, is a
place that connects peoples various personal lives and personal space to the rest of the world. People
who take the train daily can name all of the stops by heart, including their stop, where they begin and
end their journey to and from various places daily. For this very reason, people begin to associate their
stop on the train with places that are very special and personal to them; in a broader sense, by doing so
we relate ourselves to the rest of the people who do so throughout the world.
The subway as Lethem points out is synonymous with crime, he prove this when he admits to
us that he as a teenager was detained, not arrested, trying to breeze the wrong way through and exit
gate, (Lethem 73). I can relate to this because I myself have forgotten my buss pass at home, or simply
been lacking the money necessary to pay my way, and have done the same thing that he has done, only
difference is that I have never gotten caught. This is not necessarily a fact that I am proud of, but the
differences between my easy breezing, and his inability to ride the train if *he+ were paying for *his+
misdeed, (Lethem 74) made me deeply consider a question raised by the passage.
The presence of cops and robbers in the same place has a kind of chicken-and-egg quality,
Lethem points out; . . . do *they+ arrest you because *they+ see you? Would they arrest you elsewhere if
*they+ were there? (Lethem 74). Though this was never something that I questioned too deeply before,
reading the passage made me sit and consider the various aspects of my journeys on public
transportation. When I was still attending catholic school and I used to board the G train at the 7
th

Avenue train station, there were never any cops present, so jumping the turnstile, or going through the
gate was never a problem after all there was nobody there to catch me in the act. Now that I go to
public school in another district I have to take the 2 train at the Church Avenue train station, not having
my buss pass is a constant problem. There are constantly cops flooding the underground, waiting for
Christopher
Journal 5
2

one stupid child to try to cheat the system by jumping the turnstile, and the second you do, they come
down on you like a swarm if flies, ticket in hand, long lecture prepared.
It never bothered me before, and it still doesnt, but I am beginning to question the presence
the cops and robbers at Church Avenue, and the surprising lack of both at 7
th
Avenue. Is it because its a
different train, and nobody takes the G as often as they take the 2? Is it because its a different district?
In Park Slope everybody was prepared to take the train the legal way, the air and streets were clean, and
everyone is polite; On Church Avenue on the other hand people constantly go under or over, or find any
way they can to completely bypass the turnstile, the streets are filled with litter even though there are
public garbage cans on every street corner, and people are impolite to the point of rudeness. Is it
because there arent as many schools surrounding the G train as opposed to the dozens of schools that
are scattered around the 2 train line? I believe that would be the most plausible reason because schools
mean children, and children much like the train station are synonymous with crime. My own
experience on New York City Public Transportation, in conjunction with Jonathan Lethems, seems to
prove it.