My god, it has been awhile.

Well, things here have been pretty good. Okay, they've been alright. Depends on what day you catch me.

I'm actively searching for employment. Maybe one day, I'll post some funny stuff that happened to me on the campaign trail - and yes, there was a lot of FUNNY stuff that happened on the campaign trail.

But let's chat for a minute, Monkay style, shall we? I want you to entertain me - even those of you who don't live in this city - just so that you can see what I fought for during the last six months of my employment.

Maybe this only affects those of us who live in NYC. Actually, I know it does. But for those of you outside of the city, maybe you'll understand.

I wanna talk about this possible MTA "illegal" strike.

For those of you that don't live here, I want you to imagine NYC without its subway system. Too vague? Then think about this: 8 million New Yorkers all live and breathe in this city. Many of us (not including myself since I'm unemployed) work in the borough of Manhattan. This means not just people living in Manhattan, but people that live in the other four boroughs, which include Brooklyn, the Bronx, Queens, and Staten Island. Not including those who live in the suburbs of the city - which include Long Island, Westchester, and Rockland. Now many people that live in this city don't work in Manhattan and work in other boroughs. If they're lucky, they live in the borough that they work in. But let's think for a second about the way that this city is geographically situated, shall we? Let's, for arguments' sake, say that most people work in Manhattan.

I want to make this tangible for all of you who haven't grasped this or don't care to. This is me caring about your knowledge whether or not you live in this city, mmkay? Sharing is caring. Knowledge and understanding are important tools we must have, which is why I feel the need, nay, the responsibility to impart this and make it tangible for you.

Manhattan is an island. One purchased rather cheaply by the Dutch from the Manhattan tribe. There are certain pockets or "areas" that are work places. Wall Street comes to mind. Downtown Manhattan. Midtown Manhattan is a bustling area that is mostly commercial. Now the rest of Manhattan is residential, though the mix of commerical and residential makes New York what it is. I'm thinking Upper East and West Sides, Lower East Side, TriBeCa, The Village, Clinton (or Hell's Kitchen), Gramercy/Union Square, Harlem (proper), East Harlem (Spanish Harlem), Washington Heights - these are what can be considered residential. Now take the actual geographic size of Manhattan - 24 square miles - and it doesn't seem so big, does it?

Now let's size it down. Let's say that I live in the Upper East Side - around 86th Street. Let's say I work on Wall Street. That's easily around 100 blocks.

Now let's say that this strike actually happens and there is no subway service. There is no bus service. 100 blocks in a cab is equal to about $12.00 - but that's if there isn't any traffic or any stop lights - that's going straight and during the day (this means $2.00 fare plus $.30 every three blocks and not including tip - there is a science to those non-New Yorkers out there).

Ah, but let's remember that if there is no bus service and no subway service, people would have to rely on cabs to get them to work. Now let's think about the fact that it's hard to get a cab in Manhattan on the work week in the morning rush as well as the evening rush - let alone the traffic that happens in general in New York. Oh, and if it rains, it becomes five times harder to get one.

Now let's think about everyone taking a cab - that jams the traffic even more. In this cold, people would be crazy to walk to work.

And this is just if you live in Manhattan.

The only ways to get into Manhattan are via bridge or tunnel. It's already hard enough to do that if you live outside of Manhattan and drive into work. Imagine if all the people already in Manhattan had to resort to cab and livery service to get to work, add that to the normal morning rush and you've got REM's "Everybody Hurts" video.

Now let's talk about status quo in the city for a second, shall we?

If my memory serves me correctly from my Coro year, the subway and bus system moves approximately 5.4 million people every day to stops all over the city. Most of these people are going from home to work and back or home to school and back. The rest are just going about their lives, running errands, going to meetings, meeting friends, etc. 5.4 million people - that's just mindblowing. All in a day's time.

And MTA service also encompasses the Metro North and the Long Island Railroad - people who travel from the suburbs I talked about earlier.

Now, if what we said was true earlier, in the event of the subway strike, and you've got cars snarled and not moving at all on the roads and I live on the Upper East Side and work on Wall Street, my only two options to get to work are to: 1, walk, or 2, ride a bike, rollerblade, or razor scooter it.

That is just re-goddammned-diculous.

Are you kidding me? Are you f___ing kidding me? There has to be another way.

Or someone's head is going to roll.

Now the Mayor (who I worked hard to get into the office, by the PS) has offered a few remedies should the situation actually get there. One is to limit all car travel in the city to carpools with four people. One is to suspend alternate side of the street parking (keeps me from moving my car from one side of the street to another at an ungodly hour). Livery cars would be able to to pick up passengers who hail them, like cabs.

I repeat: Are you kidding me? Are you f___ing kidding me? There has to be another way.

Or someone's head is seriously going to roll. Seriously.

I mean, he doesn't have many options. He's gotta deal with it, plain and simple. He's gotta try to talk to the governor about this 'cause the MTA is a state thing. That's right, people, a state thing. But since the Mayor is the Mayor of the city, he's gotta deal with it, so he's gotta be involved. The last time that this happened, the strike lasted for 11 days. I've seen the pictures in the papers - there is a sea of folks out on the street. It was April and it was during the Koch administration.

It is now December, it's freezing cold out there, and there's now 8 million of us. I think it's bad walking through Times Square on a weekend with tourists or on Canal Street on Saturdays in Chinatown.

Are you f___ing kidding me?

If the transit workers go on strike, the City loses something like $311 million a day (think about what would happen if the contingency plan goes into action - the loss in revenue from suspending alternate side of the street parking - read parking tickets - plus loss of commerce from trucks coming into the city - just the tip of the iceberg). How the hell can we afford that when the economy is tanking and we're cutting services left and right in this city?

The truth is this: there is ONE person who can stop this from happening - and one alone. Though the Mayor is involved, like I said the MTA is a state agency.

That would be Governor Pataki.

And he's not doing a damn thing right now. Why? I don't know. Maybe he knows something or is stalling on the negotiation. But what it amounts to is doing a whole hell of a lot of nothing.

Just give the transit workers the damn raise. Just do it. If this city is the economic engine of the state - think about what just one day on strike would do to us. Think about the people who would lose their jobs because they couldn't go to work - and lose them in the worst economy possible. Think about the children who couldn't even go to school because they couldn't get there on time. For crying out loud - think about your goddamn citizens and get off your duff and stop this from happening. Those transit workers deserve it - they don't get paid enough to do what they have to do - have a damn heart and stop this craziness.

And don't let people fool you - the governor is the only one who can make it all dissapear.

But you know what? I just spent 6 months trying to convince New Yorkers to get rid of him, they didn't, and now look. Funny, 'cause I think that Transit Workers endorsed Carl McCall, the candidate I worked for. In fact, I seem to remember a certain press conference on the steps of the New York Public Library - yes, I seem to remember an endorsement on the Working Families line. Yup, something about weilding campaign signs on sticks and losing my already slipping voice on a gray afternoon in the cold. Hmmm.

Hey, politics is politics.

But you know what? I have a baaad feeling this strike is going to happen. The negotiations should, ideally, remain in good faith - but who the hell knows?

All the same, I've got a baad feeling. And you know what? I'm going to need another two people to ride in my car just to pick up my grandmother in Brooklyn so that I can take her to my house in Syracuse for Christmas. And I'll need another two people to ride in my with me just so that I can get back into the city. And I'd better leave now or else the traffic is gonna suck in a week. And guess what I'm gonna say when I'm stuck in three-hour traffic and I've gone a block?

Are you kidding me? Are you f___ing kidding me? There has to be another way. I thought I told people not to vote for that bastard.