As I write, things are getting a bit back to normal in Manhattan, but the rest of New York is still in a desperate state. We now have subway service down to 14th Street! What has been noticeable walking around the last few days is how nice Manhattan is with fewer cars, as a consequence of driving restrictions and the gasoline shortage. It never really occurred to me how many people consider it normal to use their cars to get around Manhattan. They did try to introduce congestion charges a few years ago, as in London, but it was vetoed by the Albanians (the State Legislature).
Except that this morning, I heard another symphony of car horns honking, with loud, barking voices outside our window. It turns out that there is a gas station on 96th Street, and there was a long line of cars on West End Avenue waiting to get gas. So the police were there, with street barriers, and of course, fights between drivers trying to cut into the line at the intersections.
Update: We still have our gas queue, with its attendant police supervision. Whenever the police go away, the car horns start and chaos resumes. It feels like the 1970's. An energy crisis! Luckily, we are in NY, so it doesn't matter if all those in line for gas vote for Romney to drill more oil for them. And, hopefully, they don't have guns.
At 6 PM there were three policeman supervising the chaos.
