FYI March 24, 2020

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On This Day

1900 – Mayor of New York City Robert Anderson Van Wyck breaks ground for a new underground “Rapid Transit Railroad” that would link Manhattan and Brooklyn.
The New York City Subway is a rapid transit system owned by the City of New York and leased to the New York City Transit Authority,[13] a subsidiary agency of the state-run Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA).[14] Opened in 1904, the New York City Subway is one of the world’s oldest public transit systems, one of the most-used, and the one with the most stations.[15] The New York City Subway is the largest rapid transit system in the world by number of stations, with 472 stations in operation[16] (424 if stations connected by transfers are counted as single stations).[1] Stations are located throughout the boroughs of Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx.

The system offers service 24 hours per day, every day of the year, though some routes may operate only part-time.[16] By annual ridership, the New York City Subway is the busiest rapid transit system in both the Western Hemisphere and the Western world, as well as the ninth-busiest rapid transit rail system in the world.[17] In 2017, the subway delivered over 1.72 billion rides, averaging approximately 5.6 million daily rides on weekdays and a combined 5.7 million rides each weekend (3.2 million on Saturdays, 2.5 million on Sundays).[1] On September 23, 2014, more than 6.1 million people rode the subway system, establishing the highest single-day ridership since ridership was regularly monitored in 1985.[18][note 6]

The system is also one of the world’s longest. Overall, the system contains 245 miles (394 km) of routes,[10][19] translating into 665 miles (1,070 km) of revenue track[10] and a total of 850 miles (1,370 km) including non-revenue trackage.[10] Of the system’s 28 routes or “services” (which usually share track or “lines” with other services), 25 pass through Manhattan, the exceptions being the G train, the Franklin Avenue Shuttle, and the Rockaway Park Shuttle. Large portions of the subway outside Manhattan are elevated, on embankments, or in open cuts, and a few stretches of track run at ground level. In total, 40% of track is aboveground.[20] Many lines and stations have both express and local services. These lines have three or four tracks. Normally, the outer two are used by local trains, while the inner one or two are used by express trains. Stations served by express trains are typically major transfer points or destinations.[16]

As of 2018, the New York City Subway’s budgetary burden for expenditures was $8.7 billion, supported by collection of fares, bridge tolls, and earmarked regional taxes and fees, as well as direct funding from state and local governments.[21] Its on-time performance rate was 65% during weekdays.[22]

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Born On This Day

1826 – Matilda Joslyn Gage, American activist and author (d. 1898)
Matilda Joslyn Gage (March 24, 1826 – March 18, 1898) was a women’s suffragist, Native American rights activist, abolitionist, free thinker, and author. She is the eponym for the Matilda Effect, which describes the tendency to deny women credit for scientific invention.

She was the youngest speaker[citation needed] at the 1852 National Women’s Rights Convention held in Syracuse, New York. She was a tireless worker and public speaker, and contributed numerous articles to the press, being regarded as “one of the most logical, fearless and scientific writers of her day”. During 1878–1881, she published and edited at Syracuse the National Citizen, a paper devoted to the cause of women. In 1880, she was a delegate from the National Woman Suffrage Association to the Republican and Greenback conventions in Chicago and the Democratic convention in Cincinnati, Ohio. With Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, she was for years in the forefront of the suffrage movement, and collaborated with them in writing the History of Woman Suffrage (1881–1887). She was the author of the Woman’s Rights Catechism (1868); Woman as Inventor (1870); Who Planned the Tennessee Campaign (1880); and Woman, Church and State (1893).[1]

Gage served as president of the New York State Suffrage Association for five years, and president of the National Woman’s Suffrage Association during 1875–76, which was one of the affiliating societies forming the national suffrage association, in 1890; she also held the office of second vice-president, vice-president-at-large and chairman of the executive committee of the original National Woman Suffrage Association.[1]

Gage’s views on suffrage and feminism were considered too radical by many members of the suffrage association, and in consequence, she organized in 1890 the Woman’s National Liberal Union,[2] whose objects were: To assert woman’s natural right to self-government; to show the cause of delay in the recognition of her demand; to preserve the principles of civil and religious liberty; to arouse public opinion to the danger of a union of church and state through an amendment to the constitution, and to denounce the doctrine of woman’s inferiority. She served as president of this union from its inception until her death in Chicago, in 1898.[1]

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FYI

By Steve Gardner, USA Today: Peyton Manning’s top 10 TV commercials in honor of his 44th birthday
 
 
 
 

By Salvador Rodriguez, CNBC: Instagram has a new way for people isolated by coronavirus to connect: sharing posts via video chat
 
 
 
 

Google Open Source Blog: A Season of Docs story
 
 
 
 

The Rural Blog: Local papers render public service with coronavirus coverage & here are some resources that may help; Bipartisan legislation seeks rural hospital relief; Medicaid waivers greenlit in 11 more states to combat coronavirus; Virginia and West Virginia trying to expand black walnut syrup industry; Wild horses and burros in West outrun the federal program that is trying, and failing, to reduce their numbers and more ->
 
 
 
 
Gastro Obscura: The Oregon creamery making vodka from milk; Make Way for Pest-Controlling Ducks and more ->

 
 
 
 
Today’s email was written by Jenni Avins, edited by Annaliese Griffin, and produced by Tori Smith. Quartz Obsession: Silent retreats: Ancient self-isolation
 
 
 
 

ILSR’s Community Broadband Networks Initiative: Recently in Community Networks… Week of 3/24
 
 
 
 
The Citizen from Radiotopia: This Day in Esoteric Political History launches today! More ->

 
 
 
 

Recipes

Caroline Stanko, A Taste of Home: 40 Recipes That Start with a Can of Corn
 
 
The Food Network: Super Cheesy Recipes That Will Make You Melt
 
 
By Sheela Prakash, The Kitchn: 25 Pasta Recipes You Can Make in Less than 20 Minutes
 
 
Betty Crocker Kitchens: Recipes That Will Change the Way You Cook, Shop and Spend
 
 
By Christina Herbst, A Taste of Hme: 50 Easter Recipes for People with Diabetes
 
 
Taste of Home: Deserts