RSSState Senator: No More Walking and Talking (and listening) in New York
A state senator in New York is proposing a ban on talking on a cell phone or listening to an ipod in Buffalo or New York City if you are walking on the street. I used to live in Manhattan and I have to tell you, the streets are not a social place. If you stop and say hello to someone you do not know, odds are you will get maced before you will get a reply. With the advent of cell phones and ipods, New Yorkers could add another insulating layer from those around them.
Now a Brooklyn state senator is asking to treat listening to an ipod or talking on a cell phone as a crime? Fo Getta Bout It. You would have a better chance of getting these people to smile at a stranger. The intelligencia will rise up as if you were asking to raise the price of a latte at Starbucks.
The ipod is popular in New York because these very same people who desperately want to live in the Big Apple also want to tone it out. This Brooklyn state senator will learn that quickly.
A state senator from Brooklyn said on Tuesday he plans to introduce legislation that would ban people from using an MP3 player, cell phone, Blackberry or any other electronic device while crossing the street in either New York City or Buffalo.
NewsChannel 4 reported that Sen. Carl Kruger is proposing the ban in response to two recent pedestrian deaths in his district, including a 23-year-old man who was struck and killed last month while listening to his iPod on Avenue T and East 71st Street In Bergen Beach.
“While people are tuning into their iPods and cell phones, they’re tuning out the world around them,” Kruger said. The proposed law would make talking on cell phones while crossing the street a comparable offense to jaywalking.
Some pedestrians said they were not worried about their safety while using their electronic devices while walking. via WNBC News.
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6 Responses to “State Senator: No More Walking and Talking (and listening) in New York”
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Can you even imagine that happening? riiiiiiiiiiiiiiight. That brooklyn boy better move, he wont last long with ideas like that.
Can we walk and chew gum in the crosswalks? I suppose we cannot sing. Would be too distracting for those who are used to their headphones….
Brenda
Why do we have to legislate STUPID anyway!? If people do not pay attention, thats their fault. Stupid is as stupid does afterall. And we surely don’t need stupid legislation like this cause stupid people will just continue to be STUPID! Stupid legislator!
This man has surely lost his mind, it’s time for him to retire on a BIG FAT pension.
absurd thought -
God of the Universe says
retire senile senators
.
Getting “Maced” On The Streets of Manhattan ?
That Is A Little On The Extreme Side -
Possibly The Case In The Bronx or Harlem -
But Most People Walking In Manhattan Are
Only Concerned With Going From Point A To Point B
As Quickly As Possible –
p.s.
This Ipod / Cellphone Thing Will NEVER Happen In NYC
Well, I too lived in NYC for a bit … it is a place that inspires extremes, no doubt. Not like the old neighborhood back home.
But people are people everywhere. To prove my point, here’s a story about a New Yorker, presumably a poor one (an immigrant taxi driver), who does his new country proud.
One of New York’s finest, I would say. Along with NYChic.
NYC cabbie returns bag of diamond rings
Associated Press
Wed Feb 7
NEW YORK – Never mind diamonds- a New York cabbie was a Texas girl’s best friend. The driver returned 31 diamond rings he found in his cab after dropping off the passenger, who had left him with a 30-cent tip on a $10.70 fare.
“All my life, I tried to be honest,” said Osman Chowdhury, a native of Bangladesh. “Today is no different.”
But the 41-year-old cabbie from Queens did have a message: “I’m proud of what I did so that people know New York taxi drivers are honest.”
What he did started on Monday evening, when he picked up the woman at a hotel in midtown Manhattan and drove her to an apartment building several blocks away. She gave him $20 to pay the fare and asked for $9 back.
Hours later, at about 10 p.m., three other passengers with luggage discovered the woman’s suitcase when Chowdhury popped the trunk open for them.
Chowdhury first drove to the building where he had dropped off the woman. But he had no idea in which of the many apartments she might be and didn’t want to cause a disruption by knocking on doors.
He took the suitcase to the Manhattan headquarters of the New York Taxi Workers Alliance, a drivers’ advocacy group to which he belongs. He and the alliance president looked inside and found two display cases with 31 diamond rings inside.
“I saw flashing, and I said, ‘Oh my God! Diamonds!’” Chowdhury recalled. “I was shocked. I was trembling.”
They also found a small luggage tag with a Texas telephone number they called – the home of the woman’s mother in Dallas. Meanwhile, she called the number, too.
The woman, who said she was a jeweler, got back the gems on Monday when she arrived at the alliance office around midnight – incredulous at her luck. She offered Chowdhury a reward – a check for $100.
“I cannot take a penny for being honest,” he said, but he reluctantly accepted the money to cover the fares he lost while trying to track her down.
He said it never occurred to him to keep the diamonds.
“I’m not going to take someone else’s money or property to make me rich. I don’t want it that way,” said the soft-spoken cabbie, who was a contractor in Bangladesh until he came to the United States 15 years ago.
He does not own a cab but rents one.
“I enjoy my life. I’m satisfied,” said Chowdhury, who is single.
He didn’t even mind the meager tip.
“I think some people might be broke,” he said. “Or they’re distracted.”
The woman from Dallas asked that her name not be made public.