Good morning, I’m Lisa Daglian, Executive Director of the Permanent Citizens Advisory Committee to the MTA, PCAC.
Millions of us start and end our days the same way New Yorkers did 120 years ago – riding the subway. The thrumming pulse of the underground has kept our city running and growing since it opened in 1904. A lot has changed, but our reliance on a fully functional subway system has not.
We may have largely moved on from using electric typewriters and telephone answering machines, both introduced at the World’s Fair in 1904, but our use of and need for the subway has only grown. It remains the fastest way to get around town. Taking the subway helps fight climate change by taking cars off the street and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. It turns strangers into friends and has been the start to more than one beautiful future.
The subway means different things to different people. To me, it means freedom, adventure, and opportunity.
As a kid in the 70’s, the subway was dark, mysterious, edgy – and forbidden. That made it more attractive to me. Learning to navigate the system is a rite of passage; learning how to get to the far flung reaches of the city was an adventure. I’ve seen the ups and downs, the good and bad, from graffiti days and club kid nights to shiny new train cars that stretch endlessly.
The subway allows us the opportunity to live – and love – where we want, go to schools that best suit us and land jobs to improve our worlds. Simply, New York would not be New York without it.
Now it’s up to us to make sure the subway, and the entire system, is there for future generations. That isn’t possible without a fully funded capital plan – and that isn’t possible without congestion pricing.
Happy 120th, Subway!
Happy first Committee Meeting as official Transit President, Demetrius, very well deserved, congrats!