The New York Doorman: Taxi-hailer, Status Symbol – Striker

There are things that you expect to see on Park Avenue in Manhattan – chauffeurs waiting for their passengers, the children of millionaires out strolling with their nannies – and then there are things you don’t, such as the union rally held there this week. New York’s legions of uniformed doormen are nothing if not polite, but their ultimatum was firm: if their demands for improved pay are not met by midnight tonight the city will face its first doormen’s strike for 15 years. “You would think if any group of people would not want to demonstrate what life would be like without them it would be doormen,” the comedian Jerry Seinfeld once observed. Without a doorman, “people open the door, they walk in … who’s gonna walk out next? The guys who clean your windshield at the traffic light, with the dirty rag?” But the threatened absence of the city’s 28,000 apartment-building workers would not pass unnoticed. Doormen occupy a unique and complex niche in the New York class system. The services they provide may seem superfluous – holding open the door, taking delivery of packages, hailing cabs – but for wealthier residents their symbolic value is far greater. They demarcate the boundary between Manhattan’s most pristine apartment blocks and the street outside. And they serve, quite simply, as living reminders to the tenants that they are rich enough to afford a doorman. “Park Avenue stands for money,” Mike Fishman, president of the local 32BJ union, which represents doormen, told the rally. “The rich are getting richer, and what’s happening to the middle class? The middle class is becoming the working poor.” Members are protesting against a wage freeze imposed by building owners, who say they must offset the costs of providing workers with health insurance. It is not yet a case of class war, more a civilised class disagreement, but it has thrown into relief the contradictions of the role – what Peter Bearman, a Columbia University professor who wrote an anthropological study of New York doormen, calls “too much closeness in a context of too much distance”. Doormen know everything about their tenants, Prof Bearman discovered, but tenants have a tendency to look through their doormen. Perhaps in an effort to render their role more palatable 90% of doormen say their main function is to provide security. But about the same percentage, according to Prof Bearman’s research, say they have never had to deal with a security incident. David, a doorman on duty in Park Avenue this week who did not want his full name to be used, said: “I don’t want to say they’re spoilt, but it costs a lot of money to live here and a doorman is one of the things you get for the money.” He confirmed the widespread suspicion that living in a doorman building essentially eliminates one’s privacy. “You do get to know things. I’m not gonna name names, but there was this gentleman – he’s dead now – and his wife travelled in Europe twice a year. The moment she was gone, like clockwork, his girlfriends would be round. But what can you do? You say ‘Hello, how are you? Isn’t it a lovely day?’” Some residents had worked out that having personal conversations in the building’s lobby was a bad idea, David said. “They speak real hushed here, because they know the doorman can hear. And then as soon as they’re in the elevator, they have really personal conversations.” He shook his head. “But the thing is – we have an elevator guy. What’s he gonna do? You can’t stuff your ears.”

——————
Articles are copyrighted

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to the Bishopsteignton Taxis RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Related posts:

1. Airport Transfer Services In New York City – by
2. How To Make Money As A Taxi Driver In New York City Or Any Place – by
3. New York Auto Show Showcases Taxi Cabs – by Glady Reign
4. Taxi School In New York City, Why We Need It – by Terence Gelber Terence GelberLevel: BasicTerry Gelber was born in NYC’s Brooklyn in 1956. He received his Hack lincese in 1990 and founded the Master Cabbie Taxi Academy in 1996. … …
5. Taxi Driver Jobs in New York – by David Buster

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.