New York City Transportation System Initiates Major Changes

As a bus driver in New York City, Barry Baldwin received several awards for accident-free service. Barry Baldwin was also honored for his role in assisting passengers with disabilities. His employer, the Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA), is making significant changes after New York governor Andrew Cuomo declared a state of emergency in 2017 for its subway system.

The goal of Phase I of the Subway Action Plan is to address 79 factors that cause delays. In addition, MTA is making other improvements, such as cleaning and repainting stations and making elevators and escalators easier to use. It will also carry more passengers on selected trains, place emergency medical technicians at some stops, and make signs more visible.

Other methods are being devised for informing users about delays and route changes. Online information will be easier to personalize, and a new MTA smartphone app will be rolled out. Customer service representatives will be in busy stations, and employees will be trained to suggest other transit choices. Countdown clocks will be installed at all locations.

The estimated cost of Phase I is $380 million. The plan is part of a five-year capital campaign to enhance transportation statewide. The MTA’s Genius Grant Program is intended to discover new methods of increasing on-time operations.

The Origins of Jazz

A winner of multiple safety awards, Barry Baldwin served for 27 years as a bus driver in New York City. In his free time, Barry Baldwin enjoys listening to jazz. Although the term encompasses many styles, jazz is often characterized by improvisation on a familiar melody and a call-and-response pattern of one instrument responding to another.

Jazz emerged in the early 20th century in the cosmopolitan atmosphere of New Orleans, Louisiana, where immigrants from many nations brought along their musical heritage. Drawing on rhythms from African music and harmonies from the classical world, jazz also incorporated elements of the blues, marches, and ragtime.

Musicians such as Buddy Bolden and Jelly Roll Morton popularized jazz early on. A key moment in jazz history was its first recording, “Livery Blues,” by Nick LaRocca and his Original Dixieland Jazz Band (1917). However, the genre did not gain widespread acclaim until the appearance of legendary trumpeter Louis Armstrong, the first person to play solos on his recordings.

Jazz attracted European fans and eventually won over the entire world as an impressive body of work emerged from the likes of Duke Ellington, Charlie Parker, and Miles Davis. It even took hold in the former Soviet Union, where devotees secretly tuned in to the Voice of America’s radio signal to hear jazz greats during the Cold War.