The New York City Transit created a mess on social media on Saturday, when it deleted a slandered tweet announcing that the agency would remove banks from subway stations “to prevent homeless people from sleeping in them.”
The unrest started on Friday morning, when a Twitter user with the identifier @ Des4gr8ness, who uses only “Jeremy” as his display name, posted a photo of an empty platform at a 23rd Street station with the comment: “ Damn, were the banks f – increasing the budget so much? This is crazy @MTA. “
The official subway feed, @NYCTSubway, replied: “Hi Jeremy. Countertops have been removed from the stations to prevent homeless people from sleeping on them. ^ JP “
The initials at the end look like the person who wrote the reply to the tweet.
The post was shared thousands of times and received hundreds of comments on Saturday morning, with critics telling the agency to put the back seats back in typical New York language.
In fact, many of the comments have suggested that the MTA is violating the Americans with Disabilities Act by not providing disabled customers with a place to sit while waiting for the train.
One of the more polite responses stated: “Hello, NYCT subway. Nobody’s compassion for other human beings must depend on the time or number of deaths from an illness – but at a time like this – that choice is especially disgusting. You are not only denying the humanity of the homeless, but you are also harming disabled customers. “
Another said: “We have been bothering you and making the station more inaccessible to pregnant women, the disabled and the elderly, but you must understand that this allows us to inflict more misery on homeless people.”
The author of the original post, @ Des4gr8ness, made his account private in the midst of the turmoil and, early Saturday afternoon, the NYC Transit response was deleted.
But that hasn’t stopped New Yorkers from giving the agency an additional tone.
Each of the official tweets posted about the metro service on Saturday continued to receive comments about the banks.
In a post that said “ACF trains to the north are delaying after we removed a car with mechanical problems from service on Jay St-MetroTech,” a woman asked, “Was it a mechanical problem or was a homeless person sleeping on it? ”
The MTA said in an e-mail comment that “The tweet was posted in error and has already been removed.”
“The subway is not a substitute for a shelter and homeless New Yorkers deserve much better service,” said spokeswoman Abbey Collins’ email. “We have been working with the city on this important issue and we are asking for more dedicated medical and mental health resources, which are urgently needed to resolve the homeless crisis that was aggravated by the pandemic.”
It is not the first time that the MTA has removed banks to stop the homeless. Last year, he made the same change at West 4th Street Station.
