Home

The Bridge and Tunnel Crowd

I grew up in New Jersey and have relatives in Brooklyn. I’m thus very familiar with the phrase “bridge and tunnel crowd.”

Every time I hear this weasely little expression, my blood boils. My hands tremble. My jaw clenches. My neck fans out like a bull’s. The violent beast inside me wants to snuff the life out of the sniveling little rat that uttered it.

“Bridge and tunnel crowd” is a mocking, contemptuous phrase used by idiot New Yorkers in reference to those who drive or take trains into Manhattan for work or pleasure. It is a phrase of scorn and derision designed to insult those who, for whatever reason, do not live on their stupid island but visit it.

In other words, it’s an insult directed at those who have to pay their ridiculous tolls and train fares.

manhattan-map

Yesterday, a man who grew up with me in Jersey and now works as a stockbroker in Manhattan, flippantly referred to the bridge and tunnel crowd over an after-work drink at a swanky hotel bar. He was bemoaning the demise of Mayor Bloomberg’s $8 congestion fee that would have “thinned out” the bridge and tunnel crowd. I wanted to smash his gin and tonic against his face.

I myself belong to the bridge and tunnel crowd. I travel to New York often, over the bridges and through the tunnels. I enjoy spending time in the city. But like many others, I have no desire to pay $3000 to $6,000 per month for a semi-decent apartment with minimal amenities, so that I can live among drug addicts, thieves, beggars, winos, gangbangers, buskers of all shapes and sizes, illegal aliens, and arrogant little snobs like my stockbroker acquaintance, who himself arrived through the tunnel from Jersey .

I’d rather commute, thank you very much. I’d rather take the Holland Tunnel and pay the $8 toll.

Still, New York takes plenty of my money, which is the main point here. Every time I travel to Manhattan, I drop at least $200 a day on train fare, taxi fare, subway fare, restaurants, bars, nightclubs, hotels, and all the things that one pays for in Manhattan. See, the phrase “bridge and tunnel crowd” insults the very people who patronize Manhattan’s businesses and inject cash into its economy. It also insults those who commute into the city every day to work, which is its own special type of offense. And to add injury to insult, Mayor Bloomberg and the rest of the city government weenies tried to levy an $8 surcharge on the bridge and tunnel crowd.

Do Manhattanites really understand the message they’re sending? Do they realize that we don’t have to come to their island to have a good time? Do they really want to discourage our business?

Manhattanites should start showing a little respect.