We The Commuters: We Go Deep Inside the MTA's Lost & Found

Plus: The fight to legalize e-bikes has stalled out, and there's only a week left in Albany's legislative session. A stretch of 14th Street is about to go (sort of) car-free to make way for better bus service. And a NJ Transit bus was caught on camera jumping up

We the Commuters is a weekly newsletter about transportation from WNYC and Gothamist. Sign up below!

(Credit: Emma Yi)

About a month ago, a team of us from We The Commuters went behind the set of doors in the photo above, which is hidden in a corner of Penn Station.

Then we went through another set of doors, and another set, until we wound up in a windowless maze full of lost items. Sporting equipment, jewelry, instruments, prosthetic body parts, and so many iPhones.

Everything we were seeing had been there for a while; if you read this newsletter regularly, you know that items in the MTA's Lost and Found eventually pass their claim-by date, at which point they can go up for auction. But it's also the case that strangers or MTA employees regularly find lost items that riders then successfully reclaim.

A new short documentary, Last Stop for Lost Property, goes deep into the world of lost items in New York City's transit system. I spoke with the film's director, Vicente Cueto, about what inspired the project and how it came together.

VC: As part of the UnionDocs Collaborative program this past year, we chose to research the closure of the L train. I was looking for interesting angles to approach it, and thought it would be interesting to look at lost objects and talk about the identity of the commuters through the objects that they leave behind.

Emma [Yi], the cinematographer of the project, and I spent a lot of time at subway stations and on subway cars looking for objects, and then when we would find an interesting one, we would stay with them with the camera locked on them waiting for something to happen.

Most were ignored or stepped on by busy commuters. Once, we followed a bag with shoes and clothing all the way from the 8 Av L train stop to Canarsie, where it was picked up by the cleaning staff. The team behind the project and I were interested in exploring the value people place in objects, and how this is reflected by lost objects in a transient space.

What are some of the most interesting things you found?

I’ve read about the crazy things that end up in the lost and found office, but we only encountered ordinary objects that represent the daily commute. The most interesting discoveries were the people around the lost and found office who shared stories of recovery and loss.

The project began with an interest in the objects themselves, but we quickly got drawn in to the people and voices behind the objects. The lost objects opened conversations about what losing something of value means, and allowed us to explore different levels of loss and how people cope with it. There are practical consequences, but there is also the emotional value we place we place in our objects and the memories they trigger in us.

Tell me about Sonny Drayton.

Sonny Drayton is the narrator and guide for the film. He's an expert when it comes to loss and lost objects, and has a very humorous and poetic way of talking about it. He loves trains, and is also very familiar with Penn Station because his dad used to work there. Although he does not work at the Lost and Found office, he has a deep knowledge of the process for claiming lost property in the subway and has seen many things come in and out of there. For example, a turtle.

(Credit: Emma Yi)

What’s the most surprising thing you learned about the process of recovering items? Does it happen more often than you’d think?

It is a tedious and bureaucratic process that depends on your ability to describe your item. I was surprised to see how many categories and subcategories of items, shapes and colors you can choose from while filling in the claim forms. I think some people just give up on finding their stuff when going through the MTA’s lost and found website.

Also, the office is very hard to find. It’s funny because many people get lost trying to get to the lost and found! And before they renovated the door and placed better signaling, most people would just walk by it.

Over the course of making the film, what stood out to you about the relationship between commuters and their stuff?

When we see lost items on the subway, it’s easy to dismiss them as a part of the atmosphere. But when we personally lose something, that object takes on a new meaning. The things that we carry mean something to us — whether it’s an important document or a child’s favorite toy.

People tend to ignore or avoid dealing with things that don’t belong to them. This affects how we treat lost items and how we interact with other people, too. For example, commuters often behave towards homeless people as if they are just an obstacle, much like a lost object.

The MTA's New Overtime Watchdog Is Looking for Evidence of Overtime Abuse

MTA Inspector General Carolyn Pokorny and other MTA employees (MTA IG's office)

Remember that Long Island Rail Road worker who made $344,147 in overtime last year?

It's not clear if anything illegal happened, but it certainly fired up Governor Andrew Cuomo, who vowed this week that "we're not going to get ripped off" by potential overtime abuse.

So, he appointed Carolyn Pokorny, a career federal prosecutor who'd been working in his administration, to serve as the MTA's Inspector General, the agency's internal watchdog. In her first week on the job, she went around to several train yards and offices, calling out punch cards for being archaic and suggesting that a cracked time-keeping clock had been smashed in an act of vandalism.

Tony Utano, the president of the Transit Worker's Union, said the clock had a cracked screen but works fine, the way an iPhone still functions with a broken screen.

The union also said these investigations have destroyed worker morale at the MTA, at a time when the transit agency and the union are in the middle of negotiating new contracts.

Best of the Week From Gothamist and WNYC

Delivery cyclist Yang Hai on the Upper East Side (Scott Heins / Gothamist)

A bill to legalize e-bikes and e-scooters appears to be stalled in Albany, with just one week left in the 2019 legislative session. Many advocates see one main roadblock: State Senator Liz Krueger, whose spokesperson told us is concerned about overcrowding in her Manhattan district.

New York City is planning to extend its existing cap on new Ubers and Lyfts (and the like), while adding restrictions on how much time drivers can spend cruising around the busiest parts of Manhattan without any passengers.

The Upper West Side will not get a two-way protected bike lane along Central Park West's 50-block stretch. The Department of Transportation said this week that installing such a wide lane would push too much traffic onto other streets, but the city does plan to put in a northbound bike lane, separated from traffic by plastic bollards and a seven foot buffer.

Some guy has been putting debris on the subway tracks at several stations, and the NYPD wants riders to help catch him. In three different incidents this month, the same person has placed Christmas lights, a shovel, a bag of concrete mix, and a fire extinguisher on the tracks.

What Else We're Reading

Blade and (soon) Uber still plan to shuttle paying customers from Manhattan to JFK Airport via helicopter, though certain city lawmakers are reiterating their calls for banning non-essential helicopter flights after a private charter helicopter crashed into a Midtown skyscraper last week, killing the pilot. (Fast Company)

Starting July 1st, private cars will be banned from most of 14th Street between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m. The stretch from 3rd Avenue to 9th Avenue will be used to pilot a new system, called the 14th Street Busway, that's meant to serve L train riders looking for alternatives while the tunnel is under construction. (AM New York)

"They make sure that food delivery gets to New Yorkers sitting comfortably on their couches." New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer wrote an op-ed this week throwing his support behind the bill to legalize e-bikes, and decrying the city's crackdown on the mostly low-wage immigrant workers who rely on them. (Streetsblog)

After a Times investigation detailed the devastating costs that taxi drivers face, Mayor de Blasio announced two initiatives: A plan to exempt all taxi medallion owners from paying their $1,100 renewal fees due this year or next, and the creation of a "driver assistance center," which will provide counseling, food stamps, and other benefits to drivers in need. (The New York Times)

Watch this NJ Transit bus jump up onto a highway median to cruise around traffic. A truck driver caught this on camera last Tuesday, and NJ Transit is not happy about it! (NJ.com)

Summer Jams: Classical Edition

Our friends at WQXR are back with a "Prelude to Summer" edition of their commuter decompression playlist. Click here to stream it on Spotify.

2 Minutes and 15 Seconds of DRAMA!

In case you missed it: Someone recently started stabbing the side of a bus, neighborhood locals weren't having it, and one enthusiastic man caught it all on tape.

Upcoming Meetings and Events

Monday, June 24th
Metro-North & LIRR Committee Meeting - 8:30 a.m.
NYCT & MTA Bus Committee Meeting - 10:00 a.m.

Wednesday, June 26th
MTA Board Meeting - 9:00 a.m.

Thursday, June 27th
Whose Streets? Reclaiming NYC for Cyclists
6:30 p.m. - 8:00 p.m., $12 and up
Museum of the City of New York

For official MTA committee meetings, registration for two-minute public speaking slots opens 15 minutes before the start time. To speak before a board meeting, you must register 30 minutes early. Both are held at at the MTA's Board Room at 2 Broadway, on the 20th Floor.

We the Commuters is a weekly newsletter about transportation from WNYC and Gothamist. Sign up for essential commuting coverage delivered to your inbox every Thursday.