Good morning. It's Friday. Today we'll look at when activating the emergency brakes on the subway is no prank. We'll also find out about a golf course that no longer has a sign reading "Trump Links."
Just before 1 p.m. last May 30, someone pulled the emergency brake in a northbound C train, stopping the train at the Jay Street-MetroTech station in Downtown Brooklyn. The conductor found that a passenger was having a seizure. In the next few minutes, police officers, Emergency Medical Service paramedics and firefighters descended on the train. They took the passenger to Brooklyn Hospital Center a few blocks away. The train was on its way 12 minutes after the brakes had been pulled. It was one of only 30 incidents last year when pulling the brakes on a subway car was justified, according to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. Those 30 occasions inverted the more typical New York calculus, which combines annoyance and lost time after a passenger activates the emergency brake for no good reason. It takes five to 15 minutes to reset the brakes after someone has pulled them. But when someone is in immediate danger, caught between closing doors or trapped between cars, stopping the train could save a life or prevent serious injuries. The transit authority says that in the 30 cases when pulling the brakes was justified, the reasons varied. Sometimes a passenger became sick. Some cord pulls involved a crime that appeared to be taking place. Other times, passengers wanted to stop surfers riding on top of subway cars. Unjustified pulling of emergency brakes happened more than 1,700 times last year, the M.T.A. said, and needlessly pulled brakes led to a derailment that injured dozens of people last week. Transit officials said it was the first time in recent memory that pulling the brake cord had led to a serious incident. Emergency brakes are a standard feature of most subway systems, said Bryan Sooter, the director of standards for the American Public Transportation Association, adding that transit officials must balance the potential for misuse of emergency brakes against the need to activate them in actual emergencies. When the emergency brake was activated on a train at the Astoria Boulevard stop just after 1 p.m. last March 9, the emergency was not a medical one. But there was cause for alarm, at least for the person who had pulled the brakes, a parent whose child had not made it onto the train before the doors closed. The conductor opened the door with a key and the child stepped in. The cord or handle to activate emergency brakes typically rides in a metal enclosure, a box or a compartment with an alarm that is supposed to sound if someone opens it. The enclosure and the alarm were intended as deterrents after cord pulling became rife in the 1980s and 1990s — a time that coincided with incidents in which doors closed on passengers who had not quite squeezed in, said Sarah Kaufman, the director of the Rudin Center for Transportation at New York University.
"It's unfortunate that people are abusing the system" now, she said. "This is like how people call 911 and ask how to roast the turkey or ask for the weather. It's an abuse of an emergency system that needs to be in place." But passengers could be puzzled about when it is appropriate to use the brake. Every subway car in the city has a sticker headed "Emergency Instructions." First on the list under "fire" is this: "Do not pull the emergency brake." The same direction is repeated under "medical" and "police." Officials have said that guidance reflects the fact that stopping a train between stations — which would happen almost instantly if someone pulled the brakes — makes it more difficult for emergency personnel to reach the train. The "safety and security" page on the M.T.A. website does not mention emergency brakes at all.
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As closing arguments began in Donald Trump's civil fraud trial in Manhattan on Thursday, his name disappeared from a golf course in the Bronx where a large sign had long greeted the tee-time set with two words: "TRUMP LINKS." The full name of the course was Trump Golf Links at Ferry Point. But it has a new name, as well as new management. The new operator, Bally's Corporation, put up a new sign — "BALLY LINKS" — and hopes to win a casino license for the site. Mayor Eric Adams, a Democrat who has been critical of the former president, attended a rebranding ceremony there on Thursday. He did not assail the former president during the event, focusing instead on how the change at the 180-acre golf course could spur tourism in the Bronx. The change in management was welcome news to some Democrats in New York. Former Mayor Bill de Blasio tried to terminate the Trump Organization's lease after the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, arguing that the city had the right to do so because the former president had engaged in criminal activity. De Blasio's effort failed in court in 2022. Bally's bought out the multimillion-dollar lease last year. At the fraud trial, Trump directly attacked the judge presiding over the case, as well as the New York attorney general, Letitia James. He said she "hates Trump and uses Trump to get elected." As for the judge, Arthur Engoron, Trump said, "You have your own agenda, I certainly understand that." He also told the judge, "You can't listen for more than one minute." Justice Engoron directed Trump's lawyer to "control your client." But Trump continued until the lunch break, a dramatic episode in the final hours of a long-running trial that has enraged the former president. James has asked for a penalty of about $370 million, arguing that is how much Trump made through fraudulent activity. A lawyer for the former president has called that number "unconscionable." After lawyers from the attorney general's office had finished their closing arguments, Justice Engoron said he recognized that everyone was eager for a decision. He said he would do his best to issue it by Jan. 31 but noted that he was not making a promise. METROPOLITAN DIARY Where to eat?
Dear Diary: I was standing at the corner of 96th Street and Central Park West after an intense hour of tennis at the Central Park courts. As I stood there, I heard three older women talking. They were on their way to the Lincoln Center area and deciding where to eat once they got there. Two of them had settled on a well-known restaurant, but the third was vetoing their choice because she did not like anything on the menu. "But you said you weren't going to eat," one of the women said. "Yeah," she said, "but still …" — Richard Hirsch Illustrated by Agnes Lee. Send submissions here and read more Metropolitan Diary here. Glad we could get together here. See you tomorrow. — J.B. P.S. Here's today's Mini Crossword and Spelling Bee. You can find all our puzzles here. Morgan Malget, Ana Ley and Ed Shanahan contributed to New York Today. You can reach the team at nytoday@nytimes.com. Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox.
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N.Y. Today: The subway emergency brake conundrum
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