Second Avenue Subway

An improvement of New York City's public transportation that has been desperately needed since it was first proposed in 1919, the Second Avenue Subway still inspires manic laughter and searing anger in many at its mere mention. Persons living on the East Side are, naturally, most susceptible to such fits as they are psychologically unbalanced from riding the city's most overcrowded and unreliable subway line on Lexington Avenue. New Yorkers may recall that this line was promised some 50 years ago as a replacement for the decommissioned elevated trains on the East side; some may even recall the $500 million bond issue approved in 1951 for its construction that rapidly disappeared into the black hole of kleptocracy that is the New York City government. More colossally embarrassing than even Boston's Big Dig, the Second Avenue Subway, which will supposedly be constructed by 2011, may yet come to pass and restore the hopes and dreams of millions of Americans. The more likely possibility, however, given Mayor Michael Bloomberg's judgment that the city's most pressing transportation problem is that residents of Queens don't have easy access to an imaginary stadium on the West Side, is that the Second Avenue Subway will remain the unicorn for New Yorkers who have been screwed for over 50 years.