Wednesday evening was rainy and dreary in Manhattan. The streets and sidewalks were slippery. Workers at Pennsylvania Station were kind enough to place a giant plastic trash bin in the middle of the Long Island Rail Road concourse so rush-hour commuters would not have to wade toward the waiting areas and information signs — where they learned that train service had been shut down because of switch problems outside the East River tunnels.

The bin was almost big enough to capture the cascade of rainfall pouring down.

From the ceiling.

Of the lower level of an underground train station.

And that is all I have to say for today about the state of America’s mass-transit infrastructure, the inability of government to build and maintain decent public spaces, the abandonment of excellence in construction and infrastructural integrity, and the gross loss of dignity suffered daily by workers who are forced to depend on neglected, rotting, overcrowded, underfunded, abysmal, soul-deadening transportation systems to get to work and home and back again.