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Should Eating On The Subway Be Outlawed? MTA Mulls Rules
By
John Del Signore
Published Mar 22, 2011
Modified Mar 22, 2011
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By
John Del Signore
Published Mar 22, 2011
Modified Mar 22, 2011
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Just days after a YouTube video surfaced showing a subway scuffle sparked by a spaghetti dinner, an MTA committee floated the idea of an all-out ban on train eating. The Daily News reports that board member Charles Moerdler said the MTA needs "to think about the availability of food products to passengers, who then discard some or all of it on the tracks, on the platform. They're the cause of rats. They're the cause of the fires. We have to do something to make it clear that the public has to wake up." WAKE UP, SHEEPLE, YOUR CHICKEN MCNUGGETS ARE HIGHLY FLAMMABLE!
Moerdler's declaration was enthusiastically received by fellow board member Doreen Frasca, but Frasca decided not to propose a food ban before the full board, for reasons which remain unclear. And MTA spokesman Aaron Donovan tells us, "This came up in an informal discussion at a committee meeting yesterday, and at this point, it's nothing more than that." But we're tired of sleeping while others turn our sweet subway dreams into nightmares with noxious food aromas. Can't the MTA at least set aside one subway car as a dining car, where everyone can eat together like a big happy family?
As a sidebar, the News did a feature wherein reporter Simone Weichselbaum grotesquely consumed curry fried shark on the C and F line. Using the space between herself and another rider "as a table top," Weichselbaum dug in, to the horror of commuter Karen Davis. "There are germs on this train. How can you eat?" asked Davis. "It's nasty." Weichselbaum "snapped back" at Davis, "I don't taste any germs." Unfortunately, Davis let the matter drop and there's no video of a Daily News reporter bitch-slapping a straphanger... yet.
For the record, food is not prohibited on the subway, but ALL open beverages are illegal, from coffee to Courvoisier. Is it right that one form of oral consumption is permitted, while another is outlawed? Let's settle this thing right now:
Tagged
MTA
subway
subway eating
John Del Signore
Originally from the Albany area, John Del Signore has called NYC home since 1995. In addition to his thousands of meticulously-crafted bespoke blog posts for Gothamist, his writing has also been published in The Awl, Deadspin, The Nervous Breakdown, and performed at The Brick Theater in Brooklyn.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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