There are times in our lives when we wonder if maybe our preconceived notions of New York’s rich and powerful are unfounded. What if those besuited greyhairs secretly actually have our best interests at heart?
Well, today gives us more comforting evidence that we were right all along, that the anonymous power-brokers who run this city really do look down with disdain and disgust at the common folk they’re forced to share this earth with. From the very end of the Wall Street Journal‘s story on Grand Central getting an Apple store and a Shake Shack:
During his presentation, [MTA Real Estate Director Jeffrey] Rosen announced both the Apple store and a new Shake Shack for the terminal.
“I can’t imagine why any kid in Westchester would want to do anything other than go into Grand Central and shop at Apple and eat at Shake Shack,” Rosen said.
Board members wryly noted that Penn Station, Grand Central’s less glamorous sister across town, will not be offering such sleek retail any time soon.
“Kids from Long Island and Jersey can take the 1 and 2 and then the shuttle” to buy iPads and Shackburgers, said Pat Foye, the board member from Nassau County.
The board member from Suffolk, Mitchell Pally, followed his lead:
“It makes the Penn Station customers no longer second-class citizens,” he said. “It makes them third-class citizens.”
When they had finished making fun of kids in Long Island and New Jersey for not being as cool and rich as the kids in Westchester, Rosen, Foye and Pally then flicked some Canadian coins at a group of homeless men and cackled as they scrambled to pick up the worthless change.
