Subway

Elena Nicolaou, a senior at Columbia College, is the editor in chief of Now!Here, Columbia International Relations Council and Association's travel journal, along with fellow Columbia College senior Rebekka Troychanskiy. Nicolaou is studying English with a concentration in modern Greek studies. This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.

The subway slows down when night sets in. When the passengers get out of work, or leave their party, or abandon their date, or finish dinner, they will walk down the steps to the subway station and see that the next 1 train will arrive in 14 minutes. When it arrives, the passengers will walk in directly—there aren't that many people getting off. The doors will close, and the train will continue its slow lurch down the tracks, until it halts in the middle of the dark tunnels. No one will speak, because half the passengers in the car are asleep and the other half are trying not to make eye contact with the woman who is murmuring "Quiet, quiet, quiet in the court."

Recently elected District 7 City Council member Mark Levine has proposed a plan to expand the Citi Bike bike-sharing program to the Upper West Side, up to 125th Street. If enacted, this expansion would allow Columbia students and residents of Morningside Heights, the Upper West Side, and Manhattanville to take advantage of the Citi Bike program—previously impossible due to a lack of stations north of 60th Street. Access to Citi Bikes would provide an opportunity for Columbia students and residents of these neighborhoods to reach previously too-far destinations more rapidly and with less environmental impact.

"I want to sing and dance for money in the subway one day," I jokingly told my friend the other day. That doesn't seem so funny now that the MTA is officially raising base subway and bus fare by 25 cents. That increases the cost of a single subway ticket to $2.75 and a 30-day MetroCard to $116.50 (an increase of $4.50). Thankfully, we still have a bit of time before the hike—new rates will take effect on March 22.

"I want to sing and dance for money in a Subway one day" I jokingly told my friend the other day. The tone of that sentence might soon change from joking to serious. According to this article by the New York Times, "The Metropolitan Transportation Authority voted on Thursday to raise the base fare on subways and buses by a quarter, to $2.75, and the cost of a 30-day MetroCard by $4.50, to $116.50."

Like every other moment spent in New York, our time in subway stations is marked by sounds. Along with subway cars arriving at the platform, MTA announcements, and people chatting in different languages, we also hear the sounds of different musical performances—from classical violin to enthusiastic rapping. But last month a member of a subway audience captured a video of Adam Kalleen being arrested by police officers. According to a Time magazine article, the police officer told Kalleen that he needed a permit to perform, but Kalleen argued that the MTA doesn't issue permits to performers. "The MTA guidelines state that 'artistic performances, including the acceptance of donations' are permitted, although that does appear to conflict with state law that prohibits subway station loitering 'for the purpose of soliciting or engaging in business,'" the article explains.

Police said on Wednesday that they are looking for information about four men involved in a robbery on a southbound 1 train as it stopped at the 110th Street station at around 5:15 p.m. on Sept. 25.