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The New York City Transit created a social media mess on Saturday by removing a maligned tweet announcing that the agency would remove benches from subway stations “to prevent the homeless from sleeping on them.”
The strand began Friday morning, when a Twitter user with the handle @ Des4gr8ness, who only uses “Jeremy” as the display name, posted a photo of an empty rig at a station in the 23rd. street with the comment: “Damn, the benches were f – increase the budget that much?” It’s crazy @MTA. “
The official subway stream, @NYCTSubway, responded, “Hi Jeremy. Bankers were removed from positions to prevent homeless people from sleeping on them. ^ JP “
The initials at the end appear to be those of the person who wrote the reply to the tweet.
The post was shared thousands of times and garnered hundreds of comments on Saturday morning, with critics asking the agency to put the f-king benches back in unmistakable New York language.
Indeed, many comments suggest that the MTA is violating U.S. disability law by not providing customers with disabilities a place to sit while waiting for the train.
One of the more polite responses said, “Hi, NYCT Subway. No one’s compassion for other human beings should depend on the weather or the number of deaths from illness – but at a time like this – that choice is particularly disgusting. Not only are you denying the humanity of the homeless, but you are hurting clients with disabilities.
Another said: “We have disturbed you and made the station more inaccessible to pregnant, disabled and elderly women, but you have to understand that this allows us to inflict more misery on homeless people.”
The original poster, @ Des4gr8ness, made its account private amid the uproar, and in early Saturday afternoon, NYC Transit’s response was deleted.
But that hasn’t stopped New Yorkers from giving the agency an additional nuance.
Each of the official tweets posted on the metro service on Saturday continued to receive comments from the benches.
To a message that read, “ACF northbound trains are running late after we removed a mechanically problematic car from service at Jay St-MetroTech,” a woman asked, “Was it a mechanical problem or did he have a homeless sleeping? ”
The MTA said in an email that “the tweet was posted in error and has since been deleted.”
“The subway is no substitute for a shelter and homeless New Yorkers deserve much better care,” spokeswoman Abbey Collins said in the email. “We have worked with the city on this important issue and have called for more dedicated medical and mental health resources that are urgently needed to address the homelessness crisis that has been exacerbated by the pandemic.
This is not the first time that the MTA has removed benches to deter the homeless. Last year he did the same at West 4th Street station.
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