Appealing to our better selves this morning

Johnny was about to write a piece admonishing the horrendous acts of Nouel Alba, who is accused of pretending to be the aunt of one of the children murdered in Connecticut last week and trying to raise money off of it. He was going to ask for your help in apprehending another subway "pusher" who shoved a man to his death on the 7 line yesterday.

Instead he read this article in the New York Times about people coming together to help each other on the subway.

Architectural quirks are all about. The Tower of Pisa leans. The flagpole in centerfield at the old Tiger Stadium was in play. Manhattan's grid gives New Yorkers Manhattanhenge a couple times a year. New York also plays host to the subway quirk at Delancey and Essex Streets where one line is up (F) one set of stairs and one downstairs (M). The NYT explains:

But at Delancey Street, the F is downstairs, a short walk from the M, but hopelessly out of view from the other train’s platform. The M shares a track with downtown J and Z trains.

So the straphangers have come together to relay info up and down the stairway if the train coming is the right train coming:

As with any worthy production, the participants have come to master their roles. On a recent weekday morning, an orderly line formed, stretching from the upstairs M platform, down a flight of stairs to the F, then back up a separate staircase. (Riders say this formation allows word to travel fastest when the proper train arrives.)

Some travelers heard a stirring overhead — an M train, they wondered? No, a young man instructed from the top of the staircase, peering at the platform. Hold your positions.

A breeze wafted up to the turnstiles. An F? Not yet, said a station sage, unmoving. The gust, he said, had not been stiff enough to have come from an F.

Coming together, helping out and making life easier for strangers. Saving people a few valuable minutes on a workday. Isn't that the kind of place we want to live in? Johnny thinks so. 

Come on F train, no whammies!