2nd Avenue Subway Part 2

Considering how miserable I am on First Avenue, I can only imagine how horrible it would be to live on Second Avenue. 

They have put up these huge six story structures that are blocking the views of the people who live behind them. 

They do have those really cool-looking exhaust pipes. 

Unfortunately they don’t seem to be working very well and there have been many complaints about poor air quality in the area.  

In fact at one point they stopped drilling to address the problems.

Before the construction began in 2007, Second Avenue was a vibrant restaurant row with plenty of outdoor seating lining the streets for people to hang out and enjoy the nice weather.  

Sadly many of those restaurants have gone out of business. 

Of course all the stores in the worst locations - behind the structures - are in trouble.

And since walking on Second Avenue is a nightmare I avoid doing it, contributing to a huge decline in foot traffic that has been devastating to remaining businesses of every kind. 

One of my students this term lives on 68^th and Second.  That’s a really bad spot as her building is directly above a station.  She says that they the blast at 6:00 p.m. in the evening.   I guess it’s better than 9:00 a.m.

Ciao

PJ

(c) 2012 PJ Lehrer