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Hi John!
I’m Clayton Guse, editor of the transit and infrastructure desk at Gothamist.
New York City’s subways have long been referred to as a “daily miracle.” The system moves more than 4 million people every day, and its construction at the turn of the 20th century allowed New York to turn from a cramped downtown into the sprawling metropolis we know. But today, it’s miraculous the subways even run at all.
Over the last year, I’ve overseen coverage that’s revealed the aging state of the city’s mass transit infrastructure. Our reporting uncovered that many electrical systems that power subway trains run on equipment that predates the moon landing. Most of the signal equipment that directs trains along the city’s 665 miles of subway tracks was invented when FDR was in office. And the very equipment the MTA relies on to fix and maintain those aging systems is likewise far past its useful life.
The rotten state of the city’s transportation infrastructure didn’t happen overnight: It’s the product of years of disinvestment and deferred maintenance by politicians on either side of the aisle. And it’s threatening to turn the “daily miracle” into a “daily nightmare.”
Every day, my colleagues and I in the WNYC-Gothamist Newsroom aim to hold accountable the people who are tasked with fixing the city’s systems. It’s tireless work that requires dogged reporting, precise execution, and your support.
Gothamist is a non-profit newsroom, and donations from our readers keep our site free and ensures that the work we do is distributed widely to the community. We don’t have a paywall, we have you, and that’s why we’re asking you to stand up and make a donation to support Gothamist today.
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