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Germs lurk on subways, but trains still safe to ride
Germs always get a free ride on the subways, but swine flu is making straphangers particularly alarmed about catching more than the train to work.
“I am worried all the time,” said Nicole Wilson, 27, a rider from Rosedale, Queens. “I don’t want to come home to my kids with germs from the train.”
In this climate of swine-flu fear, a sniffly passenger is seen as public enemy No. 1. Just Monday, two women riding on the D train came to blows in Manhattan after one coughed without covering her mouth, said Lawrence Delevingne, a blogger who intervened and later reported the incident on the Business Insider news site.
“There’s just tremendous tensions about swine flu,” Delevingne said.
New Yorkers can take smart steps to manage those tensions. Clouds of bacteria lurk on the subways and buses, but the answer isn’t to avoid the subway .
“The subway air is pretty clean. The problem is the other people,” said Norman Pace, a microbiologist studying city subway air.
Bacteria rise with heat and are emitted in plumes when someone sneezes. Having someone sneeze or cough in your face can make you sick, with germs able to travel at least three feet, said Georges Benjamin, director of the American Public Health Association.
“Absolutely they can catch something. That’s why we try to aggressively get people to cover their mouths,” Benjamin said.
Bacteria can live on surfaces from hours to days depending on humidity, said Laura Baumgartner, a microbiologist studying the city subways. Germs generally survive on plastics, such as the subway seats, longer than metal subway poles and station handrails, she said.
Strains of flu, including H1N1, are generally not contagious after 24 hours, and someone who is ill should do everyone a favor by staying home, said Dr. Albert Levy, assistant professor at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine.
The city Department of Health is urging commuters to wash their hands and cough into their elbows. A spokeswoman stressed that the subway are safe.
Subway ridership tanked during a flu epidemic in 1918, when the city health commissioner stated that the disease was rampant on the subways. Current ridership has fallen since last year, but the MTA attributes the slump to the economy, not swine flu fears.
Phoebe Kingsak contributed to this story.
Preventing subway sickness
If you’re not sick:
- Wash your hands or use sanitizer after leaving the train
- Don’t rub your face or eyes with your hands
- Get a flu shot
If you are sick:
- Don’t ride the train if you are feeling ill
- Sneeze into your elbow or hand
- Stay home for at least 24 hours after your fever breaks
Source: CDC(Photo by RJ Mickelson/amNY)
Tags: mta, nyc transit, subway
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Art and nature come together at Storm King
Mark di Suvero's work is displayed against a beautiful backdrop.
For art lovers looking to escape the stuffiness of the city’s gallery scene or anyone looking for a quiet, meditative respite from the urban jungle, there is no better day trip than Storm King Art Center in Mountainville, N.Y.
But you’ll want to move quickly, as the center closes for the winter on Nov. 15. (It reopens in the spring.)
Located just about an hour north of the city, Storm King is surrounded by beautiful Orange County scenery and mountains.
The center’s 500 acres of landscaped fields and woodlands provide the perfect backdrop for more than 100 large-scale sculptures by artists such as Richard Serra, Ursula von Rydingsvard and Alexander Calder.
WHAT TO SEE
There is a narrated tram that circles the entire park, but you will want to get up close to the sculptures to fully appreciate them.
Among the must-see works is “Wave Field,” a site-specific series of man-made hills in the corner of the park created by Maya Lin, the architectural artist best known for designing the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C.
Also impressive are the mammoth metal sculptures by Mark di Suvero that are stunningly highlighted in the fall by the changing colors of the trees in the south field. (At 65 feet high, however, it’s hard to miss di Suvero’s towering “Pyramidian,” the open-frame metal sculpture he worked on for more than 10 years.)
Inside Storm King’s French Normandy-style museum and visitor center there are smaller works, including Lin’s “Bodies of Water,” a collection of working models for “Wave Field.”
WHeRE TO EAT
You can enjoy an alfresco meal at one of many tree-shaded picnic tables.
On the weekends, check out the outdoor cafe for light lunch and snacks.GETTING THERE
The Storm King Art Center is accessible via car and public transportation. The Coach USA bus line offers roundtrip service to Storm King for $44, including admission, which is $10.
Buses depart at 10 a.m. from the Port Authority Bus Terminal and leave Storm King at 4:45 p.m. on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and weekends.RETAIL THERAPY
After you’ve gotten your share of culture, you might want to do your part to help the economy. The much-heralded Woodbury Common Premium Outlets is a 15-minute drive from Storm King. In addition to outlet staples such as Gap and Ann Taylor, Woodbury Commons boasts designer stores such as Chanel, Balenciaga, Prada and La Perla. But don’t expect the prices to be slashed too low at the higher-end boutiques. While you can walk out of the Crate and Barrel outlet with a $20 chair, a Chanel handbag can still cost you a few thousand dollars.
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Holiday Inn gets a new look
If you’ve stayed at a Holiday Inn recently, you’ve probably noticed that the brand has undergone a bit of a facelift.
In an effort to give its locations a more modern feel, the hotel chain has refreshed its guest rooms with new bedding, new lighting in the welcome area and redesigned brand signage. So far, 1,378 hotels around the world have relaunched, 1,216 of them in the Americas (you can go to holidayinn.com to see if your next vacation destination has a relaunched property).
“There’s a very noticeable difference,” said Peter McNamee, general manager of the Holiday Inn Manhattan Sixth Avenue. “People are saying this is not what I’m used to from a Holiday Inn.”
McNamee said the most visible changes are in the rooms. One major improvement is that pillows come in two comfort levels, “soft” and “firm.”
McNamee credits the upgrades to helping Holiday Inn stay vibrant while other hotels suffer. “We actually opened right before the market started declining. It’s really helped us build a leg up. We’ve been able to capture a fair share, and that has a lot to do with the new image,” he said.
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For mayoral candidates, it's now all about turnout
Thousands of hands have been shaken, hours of speeches have been made and multi-million dollar TV ads have been repeated on an endless loop.
Now it all comes down to the ground game.
Both Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Comptroller Bill Thompson will focus today on getting their supporters to the polls, a mean feat in what has proven to be a less than blockbuster campaign.
“I think it’s going to be a very low turnout race,” said Kenneth Sherrill, a political science professor at Hunter College. “Who benefits from that is very difficult to predict.”
Voters interviewed this week gave the two-term mayor high marks for his record on crime and education, but criticized him for going against voter wishes and extending term limits and for rising fees and taxes.
Thompson was praised as a champion for the middle class, even though many voters said they knew little about him.
“(Bloomberg) violated the trust of the people,” said Brian Wilson, 48, of Brooklyn, referring to the mayor’s flip-flop on term limits. “He’s already had eight years and I think he’s setting a really bad precedent.”
Juan Lugo, 64, of the Bronx, a Bloomberg backer, said public safety is his primary motivation for voting. “Bloomberg has done a lot of good,” he said. “I feel safer on the streets because of him.”
Bloomberg, running on the Republican and Independence lines, will rely on 5,000 volunteers and his campaign is expected to knock on 100,000 doors Tuesday, officials said.
Thompson, the Democrat, is backed by a handful of key unions and the Working Families Party, which will look to traditional Democratic activists. The campaign said it will mobilize 2,000 volunteers Tuesday.
“This race will depend on turnout,” said Eddy Castell, Thompson’s campaign manager. “It’s important for us to close strong: mail, phone calls, canvassing.”
Bloomberg -- who leads 50 to 38 percent according to a Quinnipiac University poll released yesterday – has been preaching the same message.“We’ve got to tell every single voter we meet that we can’t take this election for granted,” he told volunteers.
Chris James and Phoebe Kingsak contributed to this story
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Sample sales: Nov. 2-8
J. Crew: Nov. 3-6, 10 a.m.-7 p.m. 261 W. 36th St., btwn Seventh and Eighth aves., 212-947-8748.
Vivienne Tam:
Emanuel Ungaro: Nov. 5, 1-7 p.m.; Nov. 6-7, 9 a.m.-6 p.m. 409 W. 39th St., btwn Ninth and Tenth aves., 212-249-4090. Men’s and women’s clothing and accessories are up to 80 percent off.
Buckler:
Send sale listings to jgordon@am-ny.com.
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Halloween pranks against buses turn deadly
In a Halloween prank turned tragic, an MTA bus driver struck and killed a Bronx man who had just thrown a heavy object at the vehicle, shattering part of the front window,police said.
The incident raised the alarm of transit employees who were already on watch against increasingly violent pranksters on Halloween. Earlier in the day, a windshield on another Bronx bus was shattered after it was allegedly struck with a bullet from a BB gun.
In the fatal encounter, police said Luis Rivera, 22, was lying unconscious on Boston Road and Third Avenue after the Bx21 bus struck him at 10:30 p.m. He was taken to Lincoln Hospital and pronounced dead.
The incident was ruled as an accident and the driver, who was not identified, was not charged, police said. Passengers and the driver were not hurt.
It’s a time-honored tradition for kids in many neighborhoods to bomb buses with eggs on Halloween. amNewYork reported last week that NYC Transit deploys cleaning patrols on Halloween to remove eggs, which are a safety hazard.
The violence this weekend came as MTA workers tried to help each other out through Operation Pumpkin Patch, designed to raise awareness among drivers of their rights in case they are attacked. Concern was heightened this year because Halloween fell on a Saturday.
“We have no protection and no respect,” said Israel Rivera, a Bronx driver who was out assisting bus drivers on Halloween.(Photo by Israel Rivera Jr.)
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As election nears, both candidates on the trail
As the clock ticks down toward Election Day, Mayor Michael Bloomberg and city Comptroller Bill Thompson were both out in force over the weekend, with each candidate pumping up their supporters and reminding them to go to the polls Tuesday.
Perhaps looking for inspiration as he sprints to the finish line, Bloomberg greeted runners at the marathon Sunday before hitting rallies in Brooklyn and Queens. Thompson attended several church services Sunday morning before appearing with fellow Democrats in Queens.
Bloomberg is running on the Republican and Independence party lines, though he is not registered with any party. According to a Marist poll Friday, Bloomberg has a 15-point lead in the election.
Both the mayor and Thompson share a socially liberal political outlook and find common ground on a lot of major issues, though each side has ramped up its attacks over the past few weeks, with a slew of negative ads hitting the airwaves.
“This has been a campaign more about style rather than clear difference on policy,” said David Birdsell, the dean of Baruch College..
Still, each has sketched out an agenda on several key issues, with Bloomberg, naturally, promising much continuity with the last eight years.
Education
Both support mayoral control of the schools. Thompson has criticized the Department of Education for its emphasis on test preparation and called for more parental involvement, while Bloomberg touts what he says is the narrowing of the achievement gap and better graduation rates since he took over.
Public Safety
Bloomberg has vowed to increase the use of surveillance technology for law enforcement and points to historically low crime rates during his administration. Thompson has criticized the police department’s stop-and-frisk program as too aggressive, though he has not said he would end it.
Economy
Both have called for the city to diversify its economy beyond Wall Street with job training and help for entrepreneurs. Thompson has proposed financial incentives for independent retail operators and more funding for vocational schools, while Bloomberg created an incubator for start-ups and promised to streamline the permitting process for small businesses.
Affordable Housing
Thompson says he will push to repeal vacancy decontrol laws and would steer homeless families into Section 8 housing. Bloomberg has touted a loan program for homeowners facing foreclosure and promised more subsidies for the Mitchell Lama program.
Transportation
The Bloomberg administration pushed the extension of the No. 7 train to the far West Side and plans to continue opening bicycle lanes. Thompson has proposed creating a permit parking program and said he would attend MTA board meetings as a way to influence policy.
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Weekend work continues to make for rough commuting
The weekend subway woes haven’t let up, with 16 out of 20 lines impacted from Friday to Sunday. Passengers had to navigate 26 service advisories and shuttle buses running on five lines, as the MTA crams in necessary maintenance work before the winter. amNewYork culled weekend horror stories Sunday along the E, G and L lines as part of our new series:
Anna Han, 27, Brooklyn
As if being an artist wasn’t enough of struggle, Han’s commute from Williamsburg to her Long Island City studio has become a nightmare. She must board a shuttle bus running on the L line, switch to G and wait for another shuttle bus to get to Queens Plaza.Han recently tried swapping the last shuttle bus for the B61, and ended up waiting in the pouring rain for 45 minutes.
“It’s crazy. Why do they do all the construction at the same time everywhere?” she said.
Myesha Miller, 28, Brooklyn
Getting out to Rikers Island to visit her “boo” has become even more a drag for Miller.Miller visits the prison on weekends with a gaggle of other girls with loved ones locked up in the big house. They take the G from Bedford-Stuyvesant, get on a shuttle bus at the Court Square stop and then wait for the Q100 to get to the prison. The ordeal takes about an hour and a half, about 30 minutes longer than normal.
“The fares go up. The train is slow,” Miller said. “They are stealing my money.”
Jamie Hurley, 47, Manhattan
The housing market is bleak, and the MTA isn’t making Hurley’s job any easier.Hurley travels all over Manhattan, Brooklyn and the Bronx showing homes on the weekends. A ride to 145th Street nearly took 90 minutes with A trains being rerouted on the F line. On Saturday, he exited the L train to search for the shuttle bus.
“It’s abysmal,” Hurley said.
Got a weekend subway horror story? Send it to hhaddon@am-ny.com.
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HR department: A wealth of resources
For many people, Toby Flenderson, the HR guy on “The Office,” may well be the face of the human-resource professional.
Let’s just say he doesn’t represent the majority.
As the sole rep for the Scranton branch of Dunder Mifflin, he admits to having no passion for human resources and takes the easiest route when dealing with employee problems.
In reality, HR workers often wield more power on company policy than commonly understood, care about staff development, and are not merely “paper pushers” or “firing squads.”
Defining HR
“Human Resources works with … the nuts and bolts of what an employee needs to make their way through the corporate world,” said Dawn Passaro, a researcher with hrmarketer.com.
Kim Ruyle, a 25-year veteran of the industry, noted that businesses need financial capital, raw materials and human capital. It’s the latter that HR handles.
“We optimize the human capital to make the business grow,” Ruyle said. “Humans are our biggest cost, but they are also the one thing we can leverage to drive business.”
HR reps must balance the needs of management and employees — especially when they conflict.
“You have to be on both sides,” said Linda Paul, a 15-year veteran.
HR also is the driving force behind hiring. “HR sets the salary, writes the job description and places the ad,” Passaro said. “They review the resumes and select the best candidates.
They hand hold the candidate through the process … and then sell the candidate to the manager.”
They also handle promotions and raises.
According to salary.com, entry-level HR people in NYC make $37,000 to $54,000 annually; mid-level execs make $70,000-$90,000 and higher-level execs make $165,000-$280,000.
Debunking stereotypes
Human resources professionals are rarely paper pushers. Many higher-level HR professionals are involved in major decisions.
And they don’t take layoffs lightly. “It’s not something we aspire to do,” said Libby Anderson, a member of the Society for Human Resource Management’s Organizational Development Panel. “Ideally, our position would be to advise the correct leadership on how to handle things like that.”
Doing HR
While some universities are offering degree programs in HR, most professionals recommend a background in business.
“You must understand how the business operates in order to be a good HR representative,” said Anderson.
It’s also helps to take the Senior Professional in Human Resources exam, given by the Society for Human Resource Management.
The industry’s future
The HR industry is growing, as more higher-level professionals become involved in strategy and core business development decisions.
“HR will continue to be on the business-partner side of things,” Paul said.
Paul said recruiters have been hit hardest during this recession. “If a company is downsizing or having hiring freezes, they have no choice but to let their internal recruiters go as well. It’s definitely an advantage for an HR professional to be a generalist so that their varied skill sets can be used no matter what the climate.”
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Henican: Hey, Mike, regarding third terms, ask Ed and Mario about how that went
Thirds terms are tough.
Ask Ed Koch. Ask Mario Cuomo.
Both men were riding two-term waves of public appreciation — Koch at City Hall, Cuomo in Albany — when they asked themselves, “Why stop now?” The polls were with them. The jobs were fun. And truly, they’d both learned some things about governing New York.
There are many theories for why their third terms stunk.Koch’s exhausting exuberance. The governor’s brooding soul. Tougher economies and harsher race relations.
But I’ve always been convinced it was more elemental than that: They’d just hung around too long. People got sick of looking at them.
No one can say for certain how four more years might turn out for Mike Bloomberg. He’s been an undeniable success for eight. He certainly appears likely to win on Tuesday.
So what does history say?
History says that in the 1985 mayor race, Koch got a whopping 78 percent of the vote against Carol Bellamy and Diane McGrath, and things went immediately downhill from there. He picked petty fights with Jesse Jackson, got dragged into the gay-bathhouse disputes, refused to let the 1987 Super Bowl Giants parade in Manhattan (“If they want a parade, let them parade in front of the oil drums in Moonachie”) and had his popularity shaken by Donald Manes’ suicide. He had a small stroke and even then couldn’t stop himself, getting beaten by David Dinkins in 1989.
“How’m I doin’?” Koch was fond of asking.
“Oh, shut up,” the people eventually replied.
Cuomo’s third term wasn’t any more fun.
No longer was he the governor of soaring oratory and moral strength.
It’s hard to remember what his actual third-term accomplishments were. Those were the years Cuomo perfected his “Hamlet on the Hudson” routine.
Would he run for president in 1992? Would he like to sit on the U.S. Supreme Court? Third-term Cuomo could never quite decide.
And when George Pataki ran against him in 1994, the 12-year governor was easily caricatured as an out-of-touch, bummed-out liberal.
Mike Bloomberg, take notice: After a third term like that one, Cuomo lost, of course.
E-mail ellis@henican.com.
Follow him at twitter.com/henican.Tags: Henican, Michael Bloomberg, Ed Koch, Mario Cuomo, mayoral election, 1989, 1985, 1980s, New York City, politics, history, old school
