Lagos-On-Hudson

In this post five months ago, I wondered if New York City had "a growing quality of life problem." After something no one could have predicted -- a heavy rainstorm during the summer -- shut down the city's transit system on Wednesday, I think the answer's pretty clear. If you don't know the details, here's one NYT report. A few of the comments posted by the paper's readers on this message board:

• I am stunned how unreliable the New York Transit system is. For the price it must be the most poorly run system in the world; For half the system to be knocked out by a night of heavy rain is embarrassing. I won’t even mention how dirty and broken the stations are.
  
  
• The MTA is a joke. it is by far one of the worst subway systems i have experienced. Some third world countries have better transportation.
  
  
• It took my girlfriend 2 hours to go from 181st st. on the A to 103rd st. only to be stranded there. MTA is a total joke! No one communicated what was happening which leaves a very sick feeling about what would occur if this were a terrorist event. Can we please stop rebuilding Iraq and like, invest in decent drainage and communication systems for our largest commuter subway system?
  
  
• I’m disgusted and appalled by the city, though very impressed by the fortitude and endurance of the people who live here. My advice to them: move! It’s not worth it.
  
  
• It is just terrible. I ran back and forth from one station to the next, stood inside the train station for three hours and nothing. The MTA workers dont know anything. They keep on saying "We dont know."
  
  
• My biggest problem was that the MTA website was completely down!
  
  
• I’ve lived in Bombay where the conditions were much worse and yet the trains managed to run on time.
  
  
• I have been in Tokyo during (not the morning after, but DURING) a typhoon and neither the above ground nor below ground trains were a second late.

Go take a look at the hundreds of other comments. The Bloomberg is off the rose, to put it mildly. Keep in mind this happened on one of the hottest, most humid days of the year. If you blindfolded me and told me I was in Lagos or Kinshasa, I would have believed you.

Listen, I've never been a fan of those "we could build X number of schools with all the money we spend on Y" arguments. But it's undeniable: While we're pouring blood and treasure into policing a civil war, this country's critical infrastructure -- New Orleans, Minneapolis, New York, and who knows what next -- is crumbling around us. New York City can't even keep its transit information website up and running during a thunderstorm. Six years on, think we're ready for the next 9/11? It's outrageous.

Some good news: We can probably trim the budget for homeland security a bit. The terrorists know now that to paralyze the world's financial center, all they have to do is fly a twin-seater over Manhattan and seed the clouds.