Inspirations:
"In the Subways - I Think Tony Would Laugh"
by
Ray Sanchez, Newsday; May 31, 2004
'Wrong
is what makes the world go around. Wrong dominates.
The world is actually geared to go wrong."
You
could almost hear the subway philosopher of the Stillwell
Avenue
terminal yesterday as throngs descended from the trains at
the spanking new
station near the boardwalk in Coney Island.
His
name was Tony Butler, a homeless 53-year-old man who made
many friends
while roaming the subway with an old chess set and big plastic
bags. He died
alone, from pneumonia, at a Manhattan hospital nearly three
months ago. His
body has not been claimed by family or friends, and someone
at St. Vincent's
Hospital said burial will be at Potter's Field on Hart Island.
"He
was a philosopher and chess fanatic," said Alnisa Williams,
a subway
car cleaner who had befriended Butler over the years. "We
could have made a
collection for a proper burial. I don't want to see him go
to Potter's Field."
Butler
was a fixture at the historic terminal, which originally opened
in
1919. He missed its grand reopening a week ago after a still-incomplete,
$280-million rehabilitation that included a solar-cell paneled
roof to help
power the station. Transit honchos rode one of New York City
Transit's
vintage-1930 Nostalgia Trains to the modern facility.
The
sprawling terminal was Butler's living room. His neighbors
were the
train operators, conductors, car cleaners and riders there.
He never begged.
Still, they always looked after him, with food and money and
conversation.
Butler
would place the plastic bags containing everything he owned
on the
floor outside a window at the terminal's crew room, where
a television set was
always showing sporting events. For hours, he rested on bags
bulging with his
belongings, watching the Yankees or the Knicks or whoever
else was playing. No
one bothered him. He'd wash up in the slop sink used by the
car cleaners.
Yesterday,
some workers at Stillwell Avenue said they could imagine
Butler's booming laugh echoing across the vast terminal had
he lived to see the
reopening. The terminal is far from complete, but NYC Transit
rushed to have
it ready for Memorial Day.
Local
merchants and elected officials were promised normal service
at the
terminal for the start of the 2004 summer season. Yesterday,
that meant
trainloads of people arriving at the unfinished station. There
are water
pressure problems for cleaning personnel. Track switch problems
for some trains
entering the station. In the rain the other day, the new roof
leaked.
"I
think Tony would be laughing at us," Williams said. "Not
everything is
working yet."
Gone
are the windows with a view of the crew room TV set. Gates
would have
prevented Butler from sitting directly outside the glass panes,
which act like
mirrors and make it hard to see inside. Besides, the tall
windows don't open.
"There's
no TV in there yet," a transit worker said. "We
were talking about
taking up a collection for a TV and VCR."
Butler
called himself a volunteer customer service train representative.
Sometimes he advised riders of service changes and delays
before official
announcements were made. "He was like a liaison with
the riding public," said a
car cleaner named Nelson who swept around the feet of a sleeping
man on an F
train.
"It
really offends people when they don't know where they're going,"
the
subway philosopher would tell people.
Another
transit worker, a motorman with 20 years on the job, said
Butler's
mind and wit will be missed around a modern train terminal
constructed of glass
and steel.
"He
bought a little humanity to this place," he said. "He
picked you
up."
Copyright
2004, Newsday
Inc.
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