The girl didn’t have long to respond. After observing the interaction, a carriage driver finally swooped in. “Let me give our side of the story now,” he said before leading the family to his brown horse and extravagant carriage, explaining that the horse used to work in Amish country. The driver set the girl up with a carrot to feed his horse and before long the family climbed in for their twenty-minute ride through Central Park. 

“It’s time for us to educate back,” explained the driver, Erez Ziv, before leading his horse down the street.

And so went most of Sunday afternoon as volunteers with New Yorkers for Clean, Livable & Safes Streets (NYCLASS) educated passersby—mostly tourists—on how the animals “suffer from injury, abuse and neglect.” Just a week after one horse fell, and two months since the on-the-job death of another, Charlie, the gathering was part of four holiday “Teach the Tourists” events this month where volunteers distribute anti-horse carriage flyers, triggering steely looks and curt comments from drivers.

“We’re not in your face,” Allie Feldman, the group’s lead organizer, told The Transom. “It would be counter-productive to scream.”

Before sending out volunteers, Ms. Feldman explained that their strategy should be creating a conversation with people. Talking points should include the abuse of the horses, as well as the group’s solution: a City Council bill, Intro. 86A, which would increase restrictions on horse carriages and eventually replace them with electric, antique cars or  “horseless carriages.”

While most drivers managed to ignore the public relations nightmare happening not three feet from their customers, a few shouted or grumbled in the volunteers’ direction. We heard a few “Fuck you”s—at least one shouted in a thick Irish brogue.

Ashley Arias, a student at Fordham University, said that a driver called her a “lying little bitch” on Saturday. But Ms. Arias didn’t seem to mind their comments or being a harasser herself—the holiday season was the best time to get the group’s message across. “This is when they want to ride the horses the most,” she said.

About ten volunteers showed up on Sunday, but pedicab solicitors soon joined their ranks. “This guy’s an entrepreneur,” said volunteer Erika Mansourian, pointing at one. “He’s working the abuse into his pitch.”

(Stephen Malone, president of the Horse and Carriage Association of New York City said, "NYCLASS is getting in the faces of our customers and interfering with our business, claiming that our horses are 'abused and suffering."' If we try to correct them on their so-called facts, I'm labeled an 'animal abuser' as are my customers.  No New York City carriage driver, owner or stable has ever been cited for cruelty.  Pulling a carriage through Central Park does not constitute abuse.")

One carriage driver stood a few feet from a cluster of volunteers, rolling his eyes. Did he think the flyers were going to hurt his business? “Look around,” he said with a gruff chuckle. As for the accusations of abuse, the driver said he takes such good care of his horse, Cosmo, that he’s overweight. “It’s convenient for them to have other facts,” the driver said.

Cosmo’s owner wouldn’t give us his name because he wasn’t so sure we weren’t part of an undercover anti-carriage operation, rather than a reporter. If we weren’t distracted by the earthy smell of horse dung, we’d probably have been more offended.

The above article has been updated to include a comment from Stephen Malone of the Horse and Carriage Association of New York as it appears in the print edition of The New York Observer.

Hay! Keep it down. (Property Shark)

Forget Occupy Wall Street protestors—after removing part of a brick wall at a historic former police station, the N.Y.P.D. has to deal with a new set of idealistic hippies: the Landmarks Preservation Commission.

After removing part of a brick wall at a former police stable, the city's finest might have violated city landmark laws, DNAinfo reports. Though alterations to the stable, at 19 Varick Street in Tribeca, must be approved by the commission, the N.Y.P.D. tore out a wall in the 99-year-old building and put in a metal staircase last summer without notifying the commission of the changes. Though the city obviously needs a new staircase (especially one that make it easier for officers to get to the department's new World Trade Center command post), the Landmarks Preservation Commission is not happy. DNAinfo reports:

"We're on to them," said Roger Byrom, chairman of Community Board 1's Landmarks Committee, who was dismayed to see alterations he believes were done illegally. "We're going to keep on them. It's gone to the enforcement unit [of the LPC], and we'll do what we can."

A Landmarks Preservation Commission spokeswoman said that they are unsure if the NYPD violated any laws, but assured DNAinfo that they are "looking into it."

In addition to annoying the commission, the new staircase is causing a stir with the locals:

One resident of [a neighboring] building, a 36-year-old woman who has a young son, claimed last week that lights from the staircase shine into her three-bedroom apartment around the clock, and police officers smoking or using their cell phones on the staircase landing keep her awake at night.

"It's a huge nuisance," said the resident, who declined to give her name. "It's ridiculous. It's this enormous structure three feet from our window."

While we might be living in sub-par Manhattan housing, The Observer can't think of an apartment in the city that isn't surrounded by huge structures full of noisy people. But that's just us.

asanders@observer.com

The white Percheron carriage horse that fell/collapsed near Central Park yesterday. (Screenshot from video by Mary Xanthos from Win Animal Rights)

A carriage horse slipped and fell near Central Park yesterday afternoon, raising more accusations from both animal rights groups and the Horse and Carriage Association of New York City.

Around 4 p.m. yesterday on Central Park South and 59th Street, a white carriage horse tripped and fell. While no one was hurt, New Yorkers for Clean, Livable, and Safe Streets (NYCLASS), an advocacy group, stated the horse "collapsed" in a press release. The association, in turn, responded in their release that groups like NYCLASS are "making his minor tumble out to be a major incident." 

The association stated that the horse is back at his stall and resting after being inspected by American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA). ASPCA said in a statement yesterday that they will be investigating the incident. "At this time, the horse has been suspended pending a veterinary exam and won't return to work until the exam is completed," the statement continued.

While the horse was "determined to be healthy, alert and no worse for his brief moment in the activists’ spotlight," the association will be calling in their private vet, their release said.

However, NYCLASS believes the fall (or collapse?) was another example of why the city is unfit for horses. "During this busy season, horses are worked harder than ever," said Carly Knudson, executive director of NYCLASS.

But the horse association's president Stephen Malone said that horses trip and fall all the time.

“The carriage industry in New York City is such a public institution that a horse can sneeze funny and some activist is in our faces with a camera to post footage to YouTube,” said Mr. Malone in the press release. Mr. Malone implied that advocacy groups like NYCLASS and Win Animal Rights, which posted a video of the incident, are happy about the fall.

"These radical animal rights people just live for moments like this. They’re giddy over it. I see they’ve already copyrighted the video,” said Mr. Malone.

The fall is just another incident in the long war for the city's carriages. Along with several of the city's politicians, NYCLASS is pushing to pass Intro. 86A, a City Council bill that increases restrictions on horse carriages and eventually replace them with “horseless carriages." The association, for their part, has accused the ASPCA of a "glaring" conflict of intrest because of their involvement with NYCLASS activities.

Here's a video of the horse following the fall/collapse (Warning: Video is graphic, and not quite a Monday Morning pick-me-up) :

A horse drawn carriage waits to move outside of Central Park (Photo: Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

The following article has been updated to include a statement from the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

Ruby looked restless. The brown horse shifted in place, turned around, and occasionally poked her white muzzle between the red bars of her 8 by 10-foot stall on the second floor of the Clinton Park Stables. Her golf ball-sized eyes glistened and she sighed, staring out at us all the while. The Observer reached in and stroked Ruby’s snout between the bars, wondering if the horse had any clue of the battle raging around her.

Since the death of Charlie, a carriage horse that collapsed on 54th Street last month, the struggle for—and against—the City’s horse-drawn carriage industry has grown into an all-out war, with the Horse and Carriage Association of New York now filing formal complaints against some of the industry’s biggest challengers. 

The association's biggest critics include the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) and the New Yorkers for Clean, Livable & Safe Streets (NYCLASS), which supports phasing out horse-drawn carriages. On Monday, the association filed papers against these two groups with the New York State Attorney General’s Office, the Mayor’s Office, the NYC Department of Investigation, and with the Inspector General of the NYC Department of Health.

Carriage Association president Stephen Malone defends his right to mush.

“Enough is enough,” said the association’s president, Stephen Malone, at a press conference at Clinton Park Stables yesterday.

The complaint includes a request for a full investigation into allegations by former ASPCA veterinarian, Dr. Pamela Corey, who said she was told to issue "misleading and unscientific statements" about Charlie's death.

Among objections against NYCLASS tactics, the complaint also asks the Attorney General to investigate what the association feels is a “glaring” conflict of interest.

“Ed Sayres is both the president and CEO of ASPCA, and the co-president of NYCLASS. In addition to subsequent use of facilities, vehicles, resources and personnel, the ASPCA gave NYCLASS $250,000 at the time of NYCLASS’s founding in 2008,” Mr. Malone said in a statement.

Mr. Malone explained that ASPCA’s Humane Law Enforcement Division oversees and enforces laws pertaining to the horse carriage industry, as required by its NY State Charter and by NYC Administrative Code.

"In my opinion, the ASPCA is not to be trusted," Mr. Malone said.

At hoof, the fight is whether or not the city is putting stress on the horses who clomp down its streets. The Horse and Carriage association argues these horse would have no future without the industry, and it keeps New Yorkers employed. The animal rights groups counter that that is no excuse, and they point to Charlie for proof. The circumstances of his death and the information—or disinformation—that followed have only emboldened each side.

ASPCA spokeswoman Elizabeth Estroff explained in a statement that the society has no firsthand knowledge of any complaints filed against them and could not comment on the allegations. Ms. Estroff added that the ASPCA has voluntarily performed carriage enforcement for several decades.

“Remaining steadfast to this commitment, our carriage horse enforcement work has been carried out with objectivity and fairness and always within the bounds of applicable law," Ms. Estroff said in the statement. In another statement on Charlie's death and Dr. Corey's allegations, Ms. Estroff  said the ASPCA was "frankly perplexed by Dr. Pamela Corey’s recent statement."

At a NYCLASS event yesterday afternoon, the Observer asked the group's executive director, Carly Marie Knudson, if they were aware of the complaint against ASPCA and NYCLASS.

"We have not received full disclosure on any of that information yet," Ms. Knudson said. Though she explained that information "just came across our desk this morning," Ms. Knudson first answered our question explaining the information NYCLASS has received was likely the "same article" the Observer read.

Back at the stable, after Mr. Malone announced the association's intent to file complaints that day, Demos Demopoulos, an executive officer of Teamsters Local 553, likened the horses to the working class he represents. "That's why they get five weeks vacation, more than I get," he said.

"In essence, this is an attack on working people, the working people of this industry," Mr. Demopoulos said. Teamsters Local 553 represents the drivers, workers, and small businessmen of the Horse and Carriage Association.

City Councilman James Gennaro, who represents the 24th district in Queens, also came to the stables support the association's announcement.

"It just seems patently unfair," Councilman Gennaro said. "If you have an institution whose mission statement is to get rid of an industry, is that really an appropriate entity to be enforcing against the carriage industry?"

Councilman Gennaro sponsored a bill, Local Law 10, requiring carriage horses to have larger stalls, five weeks of vacation per year and blankets in cold and wet weather. The bill, which passed in April 2010, also requires horses to be in the stalls from 3 a.m. to 9 a.m.

"What we wanted to do was codify what was standard practice," said Horse and Carriage Association vice president, Eva Hughes.

But despite these restrictions, animal advocates continue to unite against the industry.

At NYCLASS' event on Monday, more than 50 supporters lined up on the steps of City Hall, chanting "Hay, hay, we say neigh, horses off the streets today." At the rally,  NYCLASS celebrated 55,000 signatures collected on a petition calling for the City Council to pass Intro. 86A, which would eventually replace horse-drawn carriages with "horseless carriages": electric cars with an old-time-y vibe.

The discourse over the issue, over the carriage horses, has always been horses versus jobs, horses versus people," said Patrick Kwan, New York state director for The Human Society of the United States, at the rally. "But we are proving, once and for all, that it doesn't have to be this way."

Ms. Knudson also announced a new goal at the rally.

"Our next goal is 75,000 signatures by New Year's Day," Ms. Knudson said to cheers from the crowd lining the City Hall steps behind her. "I think we got it—maybe we can go for a hundred if we're really lucky!"

As usual, the pro-animal contingent was packing star power. Emmy-award winning actress Kathy Najimy made an appearance at the rally, where she explained she was "deeply saddened" by the carriage horses, in addition to implying all NYC tourists are, ugh, huge.

Actress Kathy Najimy spoke on the steps of City Hall at a New Yorkers for Clean, Livable & Safe Streets rally.

"Beautiful, gorgeous horses are not meant to be in busy, traffic-y streets pulling really heavy passengers and carriages," Ms. Najimy said.

In addition to Ms. Najimy, several politicians have also shown support for the bill, including Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer and City Councilwoman Melissa Mark-Viverito. In addition to ultimately phasing-out horse-drawn carriages, Intro. 86A would increase working restrictions on when horses are allowed to work, as well as increase medical checks and necropsies. Intro. 86A is set to be heard in January.

Public Advocate Bill de Blasio expressed his faith in electric cars.

"I am convinced," Mr. de Blasio said. "We see electric cars being used all over the world now. There's no question we can make this technology work in New York City."

In addition to Mr. de Blasio,Councilwoman Mark-Viverito and 14 other City Council members support Intro. 86A. When asked about his colleagues's support, Councilman Gennaro said most of the Council members behind Intro. 86A all voted for the bill he sponsored in 2010.

"This law, Intro. 86A, did exist back when Local Law 10 was being debated...It was my reform bill versus the car bill," he said. "Pretty much everyone who was supporting the car bill back then ended up voting for my bill."

Two other advocacy groups, the Coalition to Ban Horse-Drawn Carriages and In Defense of Animals, also announced Monday that they sent a letter to the president of the ASPCA, Mr. Sayres, asking for him to release carriage horse industry accident reports since January 2009.

"Unfortunately, although the ASPCA's Humane Law Enforcement Division performs a  'police type' function, they are not subject to the Freedom of Information Law and are therefore not really accountable to anyone," said the coalition's president, Elizabeth Forel, in a statement.

asanders@observer.com

(Photo: PaidContent.org)

The journalism community prides itself on its social media use, but a study released yesterday reveals that mainstream news organizations are using Twitter wrong, i.e. to advance their own material as opposed to engaging with readers and followers.

Researchers from The Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism and The George Washington University's School of Media and Public Affairs examined over 3,600 tweets over the course of a week last February (Feb. 14-20, 2011) and found that those news organizations used the social media site to promote their own editorial content. The study concluded that "sharing of outside content and engagement with followers are rare."

The study found that most of the 13 main Twitter accounts had a similar focus, promoting the organizations own work with links hopefully sending followers back to their websites. On the main accounts, 93 percent linked to a news story on the organization's website.While it makes economic sense that news organizations will promote their websites on Twitter, it's possible to do both: New York Daily News regularly asks followers to send pictures and comments over Twitter.

Some other highlights of the study:

• A lot of the news organizations had multiple accounts. With 98 to choose from, The Washington Post was on top. The Observer likes the idea of multiple accounts for niche blogs (check out @Betabeat), but Civil War WaPo (@CivilWarwp) is a bit excessive.
• Civil War accounts aside, The Washington Post's main organization account tweeted the most (664 different tweets during the week), followed by The Huffington Post (415 tweets) and The New York Times (391). Cable news networks tweeted the least.
• Only 2 percent of tweets from main feeds were "information-gathering in nature."
• Fox News retweeted the most of the 13 organizations studied, while The New York Times didn't use the retweet function at all. In fact, 44 percent of Fox News' tweets were retweets during the sample week in February.
• Researchers also examined the feeds of 13 individual journalists (the most followed at each news organization) and found that only 3 percent asked for information and only 6 percent of their tweets were retweets of outside institutions. (Guilty.)
• The study found that health reporters make use of Twitter as a reporting tool more than any other beat, with 6 percent of health reporters' tweets soliciting information. Hey, it's better than nothing.

Update: The man let go of the rope on purpose or accidentally fell into the water around 2 p.m., according to The Nation's Greg Mitchell. He landed in water or on the deck of barge and was taken to police barracks, Mr. Mitchell reports. The man's condition is unknown, but NBC New York reports the man fell in the water, not on the barge. Right now he's on an emergency worker's boat, according to Gothamist. Before jumping he also took off his pants, apparently, and tried to swim away but emergency workers gave him a life preserver, which he took.

Occupy Wall Street might have to step up their protesting efforts. A man is currently dangling off the Tappan Zee Bridge, protesting his termination at a mental health facility Rockland County. Michael Davitt is clinging to a banner that's tied to a van blocking traffic on the bridge over the Hudson River, occasionally taking sips from a thermos. The banner reads "ROCKLAND EXECUTIVE LEGISLATURE COVER UP RETALIATION," and Patch reports his car has closed one lane.

Emergency crews are gathering in three boats below the bridge in Tarrytown. They don't seem to know what to do.

Mr. Davitt is a Rockland County resident who has alleged during several county council meetings he wrongfully lost his job, Rockland County Sheriff James Kralik told Patch. Mr. Davitt has apparently been conducting one-man protests in front of the Rockland County Office Building in New City and has spoken several times to the Rockland County Legislature. Sheriff Kralik also told patch his comments to the Legislature were "somewhat threatening." Before losing his job, Mr. Davitt worked for the Department of Mental Health at Rockland County's health complex in Pomona. Do we need to point out the irony?

Assemblywoman Linda B. Rosenthal, Eric Goldstein from the Natural Resources Defense Council, former Commissioner of the NYC Dept. of Environmental Protection Albert F. Appleton, Deborah Goldberg from Earthjustice, and actor/activist Mark Ruffalo.

Last night, actor Mark Ruffalo was on hand at an Upper West Side public forum to voice his opposition to the proposal allowing  hydrofracking in New York State.

Assemblywoman Linda Rosenthal arranged the forum as a means for her UWS constituents, along with other New Yorkers, to discuss the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation's proposal to open the Marcellus Shale to natural gas drilling, which comes after the moratorium on the practice was lifted in June. The DEC has opened its Draft Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement (SGEIS), which explores the controversy surrounding hydrofracking, to public comment through Dec. 12. 

Mr. Ruffalo arrived at the forum just ten minutes before its scheduled conclusion at 9 p.m., but questions, comments and general indignation at hydrofracking continued for 90 more minutes. Mr. Ruffalo, along with panelists and organizers, braved an antsy crowd as time to publicly comment ran out and one woman asked why there was no representative from the gas industry present.

After almost an hour of citizen questions and comments—including one representative for Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer—a woman named Marsha walked purposefully to the microphone and said, softly defiant, "Since it was billed as an information forum, I’d like to know why there is no representative of the gas industry."

By then it was around 10 p.m. and most of the audience had left, but a soft mumble-grumble filled the hall at B'nai Jeshurun Synagogue on the Upper West Side where the forum was held. After the woman finished speaking—she had two more questions—Assemblywoman Rosenthal jumped right in, explaining the gas industry "does not need me to organize a forum for them."

The woman, who tried to respond to Ms. Rosenthal, was met with cries of "enough of this lady" and "next". (It should be noted that someone also said "let her talk, she's a voice!")

"Last night was about conveying the other side of the story about the potential dangers of fracking to our drinking water, our environment, our health and even our home values," Assemblywoman Rosenthal said in an email this morning. "These are direct repercussions of fracking that the industry has refused to acknowledge, let alone discuss."

Mr. Ruffalo also responded to the woman's comment, which included questions about the validity of the panel's claim that hydrofracking is environmentally un-friendly.

"They are not taking responsibility for what they should take responsibility for," Mr. Ruffalo asserted. "Until that day comes, you cannot have an honest debate with them because most of what they're saying is lies. And that's the truth."

The Observer caught up with Mr. Ruffalo after the forum ended around 10:30 p.m. and asked about the woman's comments.

"I didn't have a problem with it," Mr. Ruffalo said. "I think there's a lot of room in our democracy for that kind of conversation. And if you go down to Occupy Wall Street, you see that type of conversation happening everywhere. It's a conversation that a healthy democracy can handle."

During the forum, Mr. Ruffalo explained that since moving to upstate New York he has educated himself on the issue of fracking and become involved for the sake of his children and, well, America.

"It’s seeing how outrageous citizens of the United States are being treated," Mr. Ruffalo added to the Observer on his way out the door. "They’re not being taken care of."

Before Ruffalo arrived, the forum was mostly an information session. Panelists, including the Natural Resources Defense Council's Eric Goldstein, former Commissioner of the city's Dept. of Environmental Protection Albert Appleton, and Earthjustice's Deborah Goldberg, informed over 300-person group on the politics and dangers of hydrofracking.

Hydrofracking, also known as simply fracking or hydraulic fracking, is a controversial method of natural gas extraction. The process involves pumping a mixture of water, sand, and an unknown cocktail of 336 chemicals (or more in some cases) into the ground to fracture shale deposits some 5,000-20,000 feet below the surface, which releases the natural gas in the shale. Mr. Goldstein said that water quality, water quantity, air quality, land and habitat, public health and other resources may be jeopardized where fracking occurs.

"Folks can actually light the methane with a match in their faucet in the kitchen where methane gas has escaped from gas drilling activities," Mr. Goldstein said at the panel.

Panelists said that hyrdofracking can contaminate groundwater, which threatens to contaminate New York City's water source in upstate New York. The Halliburton Loophole, which amended the Energy Policy Act in 2005, exempts the hydrofracking liquid from the Clean Water Act, Safe Drinking Water Act, Clean Air Act and Superfund Act. While only a fraction of the fracking liquid, panelists affirmed the fluid is toxic and not "safe" as natural gas companies have said.

"The fracking fluid is actually poison," said Mr. Appleton. "If you drank it you would almost certainly die."

Other concerns addressed by the panel included fracking liquid disposal and the argument that opening up the state to hydrofracking would create jobs.

"Many of the jobs, as the SGEIS indicates, would intitially go to folks from out of state who are experienced," Mr. Goldstein explained. "You're not going to get some unemployed kid who lives up in Chemung County and put him to work in this drilling equipment."

A recording of the forum was filmed and will be submitted to the DEC as part of the public's comments. On Nov. 30, the DEC will also hold a public hearing at the Tribeca Performing Arts Center.

Before Slate lost Mr. Swansburg, the site laid off Jack Shafer, Timothy Noah, June Thomas, and Juliet Lapidos. But Mr. Swansburg escaped the layoffs, leaving voluntarily for newyorker.com where he became the site's first online culture editor in September, according to WWD. Mr. Swansburg had been with Slate since 2007, and it seems that, after four years, he couldn't stand being anywhere else (even the New Yorker).

Just before dawn on Oct. 14, Salon reporter Justin Elliott was on Twitter and in Zuccotti Park, awaiting the outcome of Mayor Bloomberg’s proposal to clear out the Occupy Wall Street protestors for cleaning.

“On scene at Zuccotti, infusion of new protesters just arrived with signs "NYPD protects and serves the rich" | big cheers #ows,” Mr. Elliott tweeted.

A few days later, Nocturnalist columnist and New York Times staff reporter Sarah Maslin Nir kept followers up to date on the latest from her Zuccotti sleepover.

“Getting cold and tired, but every serious protestor has a tarp to block the wind. And I refuse to huddle for warmth #gonnadie,” Ms. Maslin Nir tweeted just before 1 a.m. on Oct. 17.

With freezing rain forecast for Saturday, staying warm is a major concern for Occupy Wall Street protesters and reporters alike. For many journalists, the movement is noteworthy for regularly drawing them out of the newsroom for long periods of time, demanding an on-the-fly mélange of traditional and social media reporting. 

Unlike, say, a political campaign—which can be adequately covered over the phone from the cozy dryness of the office—the demonstrations require hands-on reporting, Mr. Elliott explained.

“Because it’s so de-centralized, I think there’s a real advantage to being on the marches and in the park as much as possible,” he said.

For the same reason, OWS reporters keep one eye on Twitter, one of the main organization tools of the protest, at all times.

“You can’t be omnipresent,” said ANIMAL New York editor Bucky Turco. “So If I’m at Zuccotti and there’s something going on elsewhere in the city, it will usually end up on Twitter first and I can adjust.”

In New York, protesters and demonstrators typically coordinate with police before marches and acts of civil disobedience, explained Mr. Turco. (He had the procedure explained to him by Detective Rick Lee, the so-called “hipster cop.”)

“That’s what kind of makes it intriguing for the media, is that you don’t know what’s going to happen next,” Mr. Turco said. “It's organic and it’s not staged.”

With the help of a MiFi, Mr. Turco and other reporters blog, write and file copy directly from the scene or a hospitable fast food restaurant nearby.

“Sometimes I just do my normal routine from Zuccotti,” Mr. Turco said.

As populist uprisings in Iran and Egypt demonstrated, Twitter is more than a reporting tool. Professional reporters, like citizen journalists, treat it as a publishing platform for a complementary narrative, more personal than a newspaper story and delivered in real time.

“A lot of the stuff that’s being put out on social networks is kind of a blow by blow, giving a glimpse into the mechanics of things like the General Assembly,” said Anthony De Rosa, Reuters social media editor.

New York Daily News social media Anjali Mullany said she is increasingly spending more time organizing the paper's live reporting, as well as other forms of non-traditional coverage of Occupy Wall Street.

"Social media is also a great mechanism for reporting details and anecdotes that may not fit or work in a traditional article. So is live coverage and live blogging," Ms. Mullany said in an email to the Observer.

A live tweet can illustrate the excitement and urgency that hooks a reader.

“Tweeting scratches that itch for the reader,” Ms. Maslin Nir said. “Especially when police are about to close in and you’re getting these tweets like, ‘We’re being shoved down 42nd Street, the barricade is crushing us.’ You know, that’s really something that Twitter can do.”

But for others, covering OWS exemplifies one of the major tensions between new and old media. Swept up in the shallow stream of Twitter, do reporters miss the big picture?

“There’s a lot of people tweeting about Occupy Wall Street, but there’s actually very few people, if you start looking around, just on the scene, doing descriptive reportorial stuff,” Mr. Elliott said. He tends to live tweet when he’s on scene, and Salon posts both traditionally reported stories and live tweet feeds for readers.

Although Twitter tells reporters where to be and when, it’s little help once the tape recorder comes out.

"Because there are no leaders in the group, it's difficult to get a really representative statement on what's going on," said a reporter of a widely circulated New York newspaper who was gathering information at an OWS gathering on Oct. 26 in Union Square.

"It ends up being a lot of talking, to a lot of different people, and then, somehow, trying to find the truth between everything that you're told," added the reporter, who asked to remain anonymous for job security purposes.

The reporter's struggles raise an interesting question: Is the plurality of Twitter a more accurate representation of the movement itself than the forced, newspaper-friendly narrative?

Most news outlets are hedging their bet, combining new and old, in hopes of creating the most complete portrait of the movement possible, at the risk of their reporter's social lives.

“You have to devote a lot of time to it,” Mr. Turco said. “I haven’t seen my family and friends as much.”

Though 84 percent of subway riders reported they were satisfied with the overall comfort and convenience of using the subway, the number of satisfied customers only increased six percent since last year. Overall satisfaction with local bus service also slightly increased from 62 percent last year to 70 percent.

Our suburban brethren did not have it so good.Overall customer satisfaction decreased to 78 percent on the Long Island Rail Road from 89 percent last year and Metro-North Railroad satisfaction also decreased, from 93 to 89 percent. However, as the M.T.A. explains in a press release, "Satisfaction in the railroads was adversely impacted by weather-related disruptions and other external factors." Yeah, yeah, blame it on the weather.

The agency actually got a little lucky in that regard, considering the annual survey was conducted in June, well before the disruptions from Tropical Storm Irene or the city's summer construction projects began. There was still that cursed blizzard that caught everyone flat-footed, though.

So when we all complain about the subways, are we just kvetzing out usual frustrations, or is it actually somehow better than we like to complain about?