Improv Everywhere held its 18th annual No Pants Subway Ride (NPSR) in New York City. Its notoriety exploded in 2006, when eight of the 160 participants were “taken into custody and issued summonses for disorderly conduct. All were ultimately released, said Improv Everywhere, the group that organized the stunt,” according to NBCNews.com.
Jesse Good, Improv Everywhere senior agent, noted the year after the 2006 debacle, is when other cities across the globe started their own No Pants Subway Rides. This year, 24 cities in 10 countries participated in the event, and more might be announced on Improv Everywhere’s website later.
Though he’s been there since the beginning, Good said he might not be around for next year’s NPSR. He hasn’t ruled out coming back, but said he’ll stop for the time being.
Below is my audio story about New York City’s NPSR:
I re-recorded this story on May 12, 2020, after originally doing it on January 13, 2019. (c) Stefan Oliva 2020.
To complement the audio story, here are some of my pictures from the 18th No Pants Subway Ride:
Subway riders look on as people are pantless on the platform of the West 4th Street station. (c) 2019 Stefan Oliva
Vighnesh Rege reads on the F train. (c) 2019 Stefan Oliva
At least one person took the No Pants Subway Ride a step too far. (c) 2019 Stefan Oliva
A few people pose for pictures after the No Pants Subway Ride finished at the Union Square stop. (c) 2019 Stefan Oliva
Almost 100 people gathered in a Brooklyn Heights church last night to express their frustrations and share their stories about the voting process in New York City. Voters and elected officials alike responded to each other in a people’s hearing at the First Unitarian Church. There was an equal mix of groans, head shaking and even hysterical laughter as people talked about their experiences at the ballots just a few weeks ago.
It was well documented that people in NYC had to wait up to several hours to vote, albeit for different reasons . A common one being that at least one scanner was broken in multiple voting sites.
Man shares his frustrating experiences at the poll this year. (c) 2018 Stefan Oliva
Modernizing the election process and making it easier for people to vote were the main issues discussed. One man was accused of voter fraud because, according to the worker who had the book with everyone’s names, his signature did not match his previous one. He had to do it three times and show his driver’s license before they gave him his ballot. Another man was given two ballots, but he didn’t vote twice.
A poll worker in Carroll Gardens this past election explains the process behind training. (c) 2018 Stefan Oliva
Others at the people’s hearing also worked at polling sites on Nov. 6 and said the training, assistance and testing were abysmal. “The exam after the training is only 20 questions and is open notes,” said one woman who worked at a Brooklyn polling site.
A big part of these complications, according to Let NY Vote’s executive director, Susan Lerner, is an outdated system. “The last election laws were written in the 1930s,” she said. “It’s very behind and slow. Automatic registration and early voting are the way to go.”
People also complained about getting conflicting information from workers and indifferent responses when they asked for assistance. Better training for poll workers was one of the main points of emphasis at the event. Lerner said NY State’s Board of Elections is very underfunded.
According to its website, NY State’s B.O.E. has less than $12 million available for election operations, which includes training its polling site workers and volunteers. The recommended budget for reapproprations is almost $42 million, and that’s in addition to the roughly $11.5 million already in place.
In addition to scarce resources, an increasingly divided political landscape and tensions are spilling over to the ballots. “Under normal circumstances, we had deficient election systems,” said Minister Kirsten John Foy. “Under these circumstances, that can be fatal.”
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Let NY Vote is a grassroots organization working toward making elections in NYC accessible to all New Yorkers. They want to accomplish automatic registration, early voting, flexibility to change political parties closer to election day and pre-registration for 16 and 17 year-olds in time for the 2020 presidential election, among other things.
