MTA Day

Feb 23

Today was MTA Day.

First stop: Transit Museum on Livingston St in Brooklyn.  Still no email from Gail, so I decided to track her down in person.  She was friendly but couldn’t offer more than recommending I gather the cards myself.  She said Greg is trying to contact a friend in the corporate division of MTA that handles Metrocard production. 

I take the train up to Grand Central, and while waiting for Greg to arrive for his evening shift, I try to do what he and Gail have advised: find a station manager to ask about collecting discarded Metrocards.  No one seems to know where the station manager is, but they seem to think his or her picture should be on a wall somewhere behind plexiglass, like an FBI wanted poster.  I scour the station without luck, and eventually find the manager for all of Grand Central Station.  He refers me to the MTA booth people.  I'm a dog chasing it's tail.  Time to head back to Brooklyn.

Had a good conversation this afternoon with Lydia Bradshaw, Manager of the MTA Arts for Transit and Music Under New York.  She likes my project but can’t help with procuring cards.  Apparently it’s policy—they get a lot of requests.  Who knew.

I’m giving Greg one more day, then I’m turning to Craigslist.