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New Yorkers find their footing on day two

BY DIANE DAVIS | STAFF WRITER

December 22, 2005

The debate grew as loud as the noise on the crowded commuter trains and streets:

Heroes for the working folks, protecting pensions for future generations and demanding due dignity?

Selfish frauds, betraying the city they serve and hurting the people who need to get to their jobs the most?

Or maybe it was more complex than that.

Angry words, frustrating commutes, frozen feet and fading patience. To those who had to get somewhere in the city, the Winter Solstice's short day felt as long as it ever had.

But on the second day of the transit strike, it all strangely felt a little more routine, a little easier.

The LIRR added trains and cut back on long lines. More people banded together to carpool; four to a car is more bearable than 145 to a train car. More took ferries, enjoying the brilliant December sun shimmering on New York Harbor.

New Yorkers patted themselves on the back for being New Yorkers.

And even among worries over the ill and elderly, and fears that empty stores and restaurants are leading to empty coffers, there was the tiniest bit of hope, dangled at the day's end: The strike could end if talk of changes to pension plans would.

No matter, though, the debate and its scars probably will long linger.