Signage has changed up on the Triborough. Warnings that photography and recording of video are illegal no longer exist, unless they were someplace I simply did not see. The “LIFE IS WORTH LIVING” sign is also gone, though that’s been true for at least a year. I don’t know if discussions at the TBA led the agency to decide life was not really worth living, or if someone there discovered there was no emergency hotline telephone 150 feet ahead as the sign claimed. I wrote to complain about that sign, and how it seemed like a cruel joke to direct the the suicidal to a resource that does not exist. The TBA’s response was, simply, there are phones on all three of the Triborough spans. That is simply true and it never was. but at least now there is no longer the sign making the claim. There did not seem to be any way to communicate this fact to the MTA, not even in the plainest English. A friend suggested it was some kind of contractor game being played, where someone claimed they put the phones in place but never did, bribing inspectors or whoever would verify the work to say it had been done. I don’t know if it’s that sketchy but you’d think even someone at LifeNet, the organization responsible for handling any calls that would have come from the Triborough phones, would have had some involvement in the installation and testing of such devices.
My real reason for going up today was to record something. I’ve tried that before but not with my fabulous new surround-sound technique. I’m skeptical the audio will be usable, as noisy as it was up there, but it was worth a try. The piece I have in mind would probably be better done as two-track, with bridge sounds and noises recorded without attempting to do the reading/speaking at the same time.
