Carli Lloyd unveils USWNT plaque at Canyon
BY ALEX MITCHELL
Legendary US midfi elder Carli
Lloyd immortalized her 2019
Women’s World Cup-winning
US Women’s Soccer Team in Lower
Manhattan’s Canyon of Heroes on
Tuesday.
Standing alongside the Downtown
Alliance and some potential future soccer
stars, Lloyd cut the ribbon above the
team’s second sidewalk plaque in the
Canyon of Heroes. She talked about the
thrills of victory and its signifi cance.
“Both ticker-tape parades in New
York City here were unbelievable,”
Lloyd said.
“We captured the nation, we captured
the world,” she boasted at a podium
before doing the honors, going on
to say that along with her teammates,
the US Women’s Soccer Team will continue
“pushing the barriers” for the future
of women and girls soccer.
There is another barrier that Lloyd
wants to break after playing in the
2020 Olympics — tackling a chance to
kick in the NFL.
While at the unveiling, Lloyd said
she’s already been practicing in full
pads for a potential debut in American
football.
“It’s sort of like taking a penalty
shot,” she said.
“You’re not worried about the keeper
you’re worried more about just putting
the ball in the back of the net, so with
Carli Lloyd, who helped the U.S. Women’s National Team to victory in the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup,
speaks at a Dec. 10 ceremony Downtown honoring the team’s Ticker Tape Parade in July.
fi eld goal taking that’s the mindset,”
Lloyd added about her newest athletic
endeavor.
While kicking in the NFL is still a
goal for Lloyd, the two-time gold medalist
said that her focus is currently
on preparing for next year’s Olympic
Games in Tokyo, where she hopes to
win a third gold medal in women’s soccer.
“I know that the NFL teams are
struggling a little bit with kickers this
and the last couple of years,” she told
amNewYork. “We’ll see what happens.”
When asked about potentially enjoying
a third parade down the Canyon
of Heroes, this one as an NFL kicker,
Lloyd said, “that would be wild, anything’s
possible in life but I would cross
PHOTO BY TODD MAISEL
that bridge when it comes.”
Lloyd grew up on the New Jersey-
Philadephia border as an avid Eagles
fan and she admitted that if the New
York Giants were to give her an offer to
kick, it could be a tough one to accept.
“Oh, I don’t know about that, I think
my Eagles fans might turn against me,”
Lloyd told amNewYork.
Feces photo on Man. train wins trashy contest
BY VINCENT BARONE
A photograph of what appears to
be human excrement splattered
on a Manhattan subway train
won an especially disgusting contest
from the union representing MTA transit
workers.
The Transport Workers Union Local
100 announced the “Trash Train” contest
back in October to call for the MTA
to restore roughly 80 terminal cleaner
positions — workers responsible for
cleaning trains as the end of the line.
Tania Garcia, an MTA station cleaner
from the Lower East Side — and a
union member herself — snapped the
photo on a 6 train in Manhattan. The
image received the most votes on the
contest website and was awarded a
$500 check.
“It was horrifi c,” said Garcia, of the
scene. Her picture received 263 votes.
Garcia said she happened across the
feces when she was attempting to escape
a foul-scented train car on the 6
line one night. She was commuting to
work when she decided to switch seats
by traveling between train cars—that’s
when she noticed the excrement piled
on the outside of the train, where the
Tania Garcia, stands with her winning photo and TWU Local 100 Vice
President Nelson Rivera as the union announces Garcia has won its
“Trash Train” contest at the TWU Local 100 office in Downtown Brooklyn
Tuesday, Dec. 10, 2019.
two cars are coupled together.
“We seriously need more cleaners to
help us out with this,” Garcia said.
The union launched the contest during
was a bitter public fi ght over its next
contract with the MTA. The MTA and
union leadership have since come to an
agreement on a new contract, which
now must be approved by a vote among
PHOTO BY VINCENT BARONE
all union members.
There are currently 378 terminal car
cleaners in the subway system, according
to the MTA. The latest cut to the
position, carried out in the summer of
2018, has meant that trains are only
cleaned at one terminal, instead of both,
during overnight hours.
But those trains can travel hours before
workers can clean them, according
to the union. Terminals like Coney Island
in Brooklyn and Norwood-205th
Street in the Bronx no longer have any
overnight cleaners to tidy up late-night
trains coming in, the union has said.
Nelson Rivera, a union vice president,
said the MTA had agreed to hire
12 more terminal cleaners since the
contest launched. Six are expected to
be deployed at Norwood-205th Street
in the Bronx and the other half are
expected to be sent to Jamaica-179th
Street in Queens.
“Its start but it’s still not enough,”
said Rivera.
There are about 204 soiled car incidents
per month out of 2.1 million trips,
according to the MTA, which referred
to Transit President Andy Byford’s
statement on the contest from late last
month.
“This is insulting to our professional
cleaners who work hard every day to
ensure trains are clean for six million
riders,” Byford said at the time. “On
occasion, when messes are left behind,
there may be a gap before cleaners can
get to a particular train. From my daily
observations, cleaners do an outstanding
job which I very much appreciate.”
Schneps Media December 12, 2019 3