Walking down 47th street Thursday afternoon, I noticed how much a day’s worth of rain could affect the area. Although it had already stopped raining for at least an hour, the entire street had water rising on each side and on the subway stairs. The gutters weren’t taking in water at a fast enough rate despite the fact that the rainfall wasn’t so drastic. The streets’s pungent smell only grew more unbearable, and the street’s aesthetic appeal plummeted. Capturing the city’s issue with drainage and sanitation, the photo only heightens the need for sewage and drainage improvements. In addition, the photo also touches upon improvements in the subway station’s design because of its issues with drainage as well. These daily scenes should inspire New Yorkers to push for infrastructural improvements.
Hey Lauren!
I completely agree. If that’s how it looks outside, I wouldn’t want to see how it looks and smells when the subway is flooded. It’s sad to see all this wasted water that could be put to use somewhere else. Since everywhere is concrete, the water cannot be absorbed since there’s no soil around so it becomes runoff. This runoff then becomes contaminated with pollutants, picking up gasoline that drips from cars, dirt, litter, and who knows what else. That probably ends up in sewers and then into our rivers. The city definitely needs to stop this and implement more resilient draining techniques. Better gutters can only go so far. 🙁