It seems appropriate that on Monday evening, February 9, 2015, a certain box arrived at our house. On a day when an epic amount of snow is piled high outside, and on a day when our governor has announced all trains and subways and buses will be shut down tomorrow because of our blizzard, this box had particular significance to me. It’s exactly one year since “The Race Underground” came out, and today the paperback version is released (yes, if you still don’t have the hardcover, the paperback is cheaper and it looks great, complete with a New York Times quote on the cover!). Chapter 5 is titled “The Blizzard That Changed Everything,” and it tells the story of a boy named Sam Strong, who nearly died trying to run a simple errand for his aunt in the Blizzard of 1888. That storm was pivotal in how it forced city officials from New York to Boston to take a long hard look at their transit systems and decide they’d be better off running underground than above. Subways in America were born. One can only hope that the Blizzard of 2015 forces today’s officials to take an equally long hard look at their transit system and make some changes that are equally momentous. On that note, if you need a great read this winter, “The Race Underground” paperback is here! Thanks all.
