Yesterday was a staff picnic at the agency where I work. Really beautiful day for it weather-wise (hazy, hot and humid... my favorite!). I was sort of dreading it. Enforced jollity in the workplace is pretty degrading when you think about it. But, I think I was recalling my experiences working at Ernst & Young. However, I like all of these people! So it wasn't at all a drag to spend a day with them.

Some context is necessary for this next bit. I live in Jersey City. I work in Manhattan. I get to and from work by way of the PATH train, usually catching it at the Christopher Street station, as it's convenient to my gym and coffee places I frequent, etc. Big doings in the West Village lately. Much consternation on the part of a group called RID ('Residents In Distress') about what they allege is the precipitious decline in quality of life in the Village. Guess who is most frequently indicated as the perpetrators of this decline? People from New Jersey. Who get off the PATH train and hang out on Christopher Street. Why, that would be me, wouldn't it? Actually it wouldn't. I'm white. It's probably not the white people from New Jersey who get off the PATH train and hang out on Christopher Street, it's the black people from New Jersey who get off the PATH train and hang out on Christopher Street. I'm sure they'd say that this isn't the case. Horsesh*t. Seven years ago I lived on 11th Street between 5th and 6th. The streets between 5th and 6th are called the 'Golden Blocks.' They're among the most beautiful in the city. I used to dread walking the dog on the 11pm walk on Friday and Saturday nights. Greenwich Village is the playground for the greater metropolitan area. Beer cans, drunks, vomit, cars blaring music, it was insane. It's my distinct impression that things are much, much better now than they were then. So, these people in RID have none of my sympathies.

So one more piece of information. The PATH train was built in a bygone era. The Christopher Street Station has one narrow stairway that accommondates thousands of people who use it daily. You can't get in or out of there during rush hour. I've only been riding these trains since October, but it's my understanding that things have gotten much, much worse since September 11th buried an entire line of the system. So PATH--not the most responsive quasi-governmental entity around--is putting in additional entrances and exits.

Well, the folks in the West Village are up in arms about these plans. Landmark buildings. Old growth trees. Christopher Street will be narrowed. Blah blah blah. As my saintly white-haired grandmother used to say, "If that's your trouble, you ain't got trouble." So there's apparently a demonstration, organized in part by some of the same politicos I used to work for.

So I have this devilish idea. Requiring more time than I have, but still. Printing up bunches of posters on behalf of PATH Riders For Fairness Coming Together (PRFFCT). I'll see if there are any upcoming meetings that I can encourage folks to turn out for, and urge PATH Riders to boycott any business on Christopher Street that has a 'NO PATH Expansion' sign in the window. If there were world enough and time... Maybe I'll print up a few hundred posters and carry them around in my backpack. What the heck.