Violent crime has created a grim new normal in the Big Apple’s subway stations: the platform wallflower.
Skittish straphangers steer the edge out of the way — pressing their backs against the wall as they wait for their train, terrified they will become the next victim of a random push on the tracks, riders told The Post.
For two afternoons recently, The Post witnessed hundreds of riders hugging the walls at stations at East 86th, East 77th, East 68th, East 59th and East 51st streets, and West 18th Street, 14th Street-Union Square and Wall Street.
“Since the [attack last month]I don’t wear my headphones and make sure I stay away from the edge of the platform,” said West 18th Street straphanger Mariana Castillo, 25, referring to the near-fatal attack at the same station on Dec. 31. Police said Joseph Lynskey was pushed onto the tracks by an unhinged Kamel Hawkins.
“I definitely went back as far as I could,” said Hoboken resident Tanner Crochet, citing the same incident, as he waited for the southbound 6 train on East 51st Street.
“[Lynskey] I probably thought something like that wouldn’t happen to him, because that’s what everyone thinks,” says 23-year-old Crochet, who also tries to stand near the police when he sees them.
Even MTA board member Lisa Daglian is taking precautions.
“If there isn’t much space . . . I will either walk very close to the wall and hug that wall, or I will stay where I am,” she told The Post. “And maybe that means I’m not where I want to be on the train, but if there are a lot of other people in line, I might not want to risk walking past them.”
Sheila Rodgers, 62, also stays away from platform entrances. “I’m afraid someone is going to come off the street angry and push the first person they see,” she said at the West 18th Street subway station.
“I always back up as far as I can now,” said Penny James, a 59-year-old Roosevelt Island resident whose spine was practically plastered against the blue barricade at the 59th Street station as he waited for a southbound 6 train.
The alarming trend caught fire on social media this week.
“New Yorkers wait against the platform walls for the train. This is what living in fear looks like,” reads the caption of an image of nine straphangers hugging the wall at the East 86th Street 6 station. The photo, posted on X on Wednesday by Yiatin Chu, president of the Asian Wave Alliance, has been viewed as many as 3.7 million times.
A separate image on Instagram shows at least eight straphangers attached to the wall at the East 51st Street 6 station, and is captioned: “How absolutely everyone is feeling right now after the recent commotion/fights on the subway.”
Last year, the subway system saw 10 homicides — the most in 25 years — and 579 crimes, which was slightly more than in 2023, according to data from the NYPD’s transit bureau.
