Good morning. It’s Thursday. Today we’ll find out about the voice that put the “Grand” in Grand Central, the “Penn” in Penn Station and the “kon” in Ronkonkoma. We’ll also see how the City Council voted on a bill to limit broker fees paid by renters.
Van Ritshie had one of those voices that you know in New York.
You know his voice for sentences that were short and practical.
You were going somewhere when you heard him. He put the “Grand” in Grand Central, the “Penn” in Penn Station, the “kon” in Ronkonkoma and the “Plains” in White Plains.
His voice, friendly but authoritative, has been played on Metro-North and Long Island Rail Road trains since the mid-1990s. He announced — more succinctly than this — what station the train was stopping at and where it was going. And there was always the reminder, delivered as if he knew you had heard it a hundred times: “As you leave the train, please watch the gap between the train and the platform.”
To do all this, he recorded dozens of station names, from Albertson to Yaphank on the L.I.R.R. and from Beacon to Yonkers on Metro-North. He put a little extra oomph into some, as if there were an exclamation point after “Southeast”” or “Bayside.” And his announcements were updated when necessary, including when the L.I.R.R. began running trains to and from Grand Central Terminal last year.
Ritshie, who was also a radio personality on stations in the Hudson Valley, died on Nov. 3 at a hospice center in Poughkeepsie, N.Y. He was 80. He died a couple of days before the death of another announcer who became famous for a voice-over gig — Elwood Edwards, who recorded phrases like “You’ve got mail” for AOL in the ’90s.
Technology has changed since Ritshie recorded his first railroad announcements. That raised the question: Will the next generation of transit announcements be generated by artificial intelligence?
Michael DelRosso, the vice president of the Ronkonkoma Chamber of Commerce, said he hoped not, even though he acknowledged that A.I. could easily mimic Ritshie’s voice. “I own an advertising company, and we use A.I. a lot for voice-overs,” DelRosso said. “It ends up being cheaper than hiring a voice actor. But the trains and everything, if they want to keep the authenticity, I think they should keep his voice.”
To regulars on the two railroads, his voice was as familiar as those of the announcers heard on the subways. Ritshie did subway announcements too, not for the M.T.A. but for an attraction at Universal Studios in Florida — Disaster: A Major Motion Picture Ride — that ran from 2008 to 2015. It featured subway stations modeled after those in the Bay Area Rapid Transit system — and a train rocked by an earthquake and another that derailed, along with flames and a flash flood.
Radio and voice-over work would have seemed impossible when he was a teenager: He said that he stuttered until he was in high school, when a voice coach helped him speak clearly.
“He was relatable,” said Bud Williamson, who owns WALL-AM, in Middletown, N.Y. “We gave him a lot of leeway to do a good show, to entertain and communicate with listeners. He would talk about things that were going on in the Hudson Valley, people, how his golf game was.”
And golf mattered to him. He told an interviewer on WKNY-AM and FM in Kingston, N.Y., that the highlight of his career was being the voice of the Golf Channel and, later, the PGA Tour. “Whenever you heard any kind of a commercial on any of the networks for the PGA Tour,” he said, “it was all me.”
It was also all Ritshie on the L.I.R.R. and Metro-North, although no one knew who he was.
Almost no one, anyway. His daughter Lynette Waterfield recalled visiting Long Island several years ago for the first time in years. “I hear him,” she said, “and I call him and say, ‘Really, Dad, I can’t even take the train.’”
Weather
Expect a mostly cloudy sky, with temperatures in the high 40s and a light breeze. Tonight, the sky will remain cloudy, with a low near 40.
ALTERNATE-SIDE PARKING
In effect until Nov. 28 (Thanksgiving Day).
The latest New York news
Cheaper congestion pricing: Gov. Kathy Hochul, who put the original program on hold, is expected to announce a revised proposal with a $9 toll for most vehicles, down from $15. The plan would be fast-tracked to probably take effect before President-elect Donald Trump takes office in January, pre-empting his threats to kill it.
Longstanding ban lifted: The original St. Patrick’s Day parade on Staten Island will welcome L.G.B.T.Q. groups next year, ending a standoff between the parade’s organizers and the gay community.
A trial at Police Headquarters: In an internal trial, Lt. Jonathan Rivera faces charges that he acted rashly when he shot a 31-year-old man during an altercation.
Higher airport food prices: The three big airports serving New York City have proposed raising concession prices and adding a 3 percent surcharge to cover higher wages and improved worker benefits.
Former congressman paralyzed: Michael Grimm, a Republican from Staten Island who resigned from Congress in 2015 after pleading guilty to felony tax evasion, was paralyzed after a fall from a horse during a polo competition in September.
Council votes to shift broker fees to landlords
The City Council approved a bill that would curb a much-maligned New York City real estate practice: making renters pay thousands of dollars in broker fees.
But will Mayor Eric Adams, who has close ties to real estate industry leaders, sign it or veto it?
The bill passed by 42 to 8, enough for a veto-proof majority.
The mayor said at his weekly news conference on Tuesday that he had concerns about the bill. “The bill has the right intention,” Adams said, “but sometimes good intentions do not get the results you’re looking for.” He said that the bill could lead to “permanent” rent increases if landlords were to pass along a portion of the broker fee each month. “Now you’re paying that for the life of your rental,” he said, “because there’s nothing in the bill that states they can’t do that.”
The Council speaker, Adrienne Adams, supported the bill and said that lawmakers were prepared to override a veto if necessary. She said she was surprised by the mayor’s comments because his administration had been part of the negotiations before the vote and had not raised major objections.
She and the mayor, who are not related, have had an increasingly contentious relationship and have been at odds over ways to bring down housing costs in the city. The rental vacancy rate has been hovering just above 1 percent, the lowest since the late 1960s.
The bill was sponsored by Chi Ossé, a progressive Council member from Brooklyn, who used social media to rally support for the measure. He said it would end “a cruel and unfair system that has persisted for decades.”
He also said that President-elect Donald Trump’s victory showed the urgent need for Democrats to address concerns over the cost of living. “Democrats will prove we can tackle affordability,” he said. “And the voters will see that government can work for them.”
The real estate industry opposed the bill. James Whelan, president of the Real Estate Board of New York, called it “yet another instance of prioritizing ideology over economic and practical reality when it comes to the city’s rental housing stock.”
The measure calls for anyone who hires a broker to pay the fee. Landlords and their agents would have to disclose the fee in listings and rental agreements. The bill also calls for fines of up to $2,000 and would apply to market-rate rentals and to the city’s roughly one million rent-stabilized apartments.
METROPOLITAN diary
Voices atop the stairs
Dear Diary:
“Hurry Dear; we’re waiting.”
From atop the stairs they call,
while the yellow box Checker cab honks
and honks again.
When I am six
my mom and nan
wear hats with veils,
fox furs, dark wool suits,
and silk seamed stockings.
“Hurry Dear; we’re waiting.”
We’ll ride
own Flatbush Avenue,
across the Brooklyn Bridge,
to fix their hair at Saks,
piquant with powder and perfume.
Warren and John will set it
and Kate Smith’s before she sings
“When the Moon Comes Over the Mountain”
on afternoon TV.
“Hurry Dear; we’re waiting.”
I’ll stay at my granddad’s office,
the doctor and Columbia professor,
between Lexington and Park,
with rabbits in cages,
and specimens in glass bottles.
He will see into his microscope and
talk to wax cylinders while
I’ll practice “balloon” and “bicycle”
on the typewriter, and
his nurse in crisp whites
calls me a smart little fella.
“Hurry Dear; we’re waiting.”
I’d like cinnamon toast
at Rockefeller Center
before we head for home.
The yellow box Checker cab honks
and honks again.
“Hurry dear; we’re waiting.”
But that was long ago.
I am seventy-six now
and all is gone.
Yet still from atop the stairs they call,
“Hurry Dear; we’re waiting.”
— Wayne Cartwright Beyer
Illustrated by Agnes Lee. Send submissions here and read more Metropolitan Diary here.
Glad we could get together here. See you tomorrow. — J.B.
P.S. Here’s today’s Mini Crossword and Spelling Bee. You can find all our puzzles here.
Makaelah Walters and Ed Shanahan contributed to New York Today. You can reach the team at [email protected].
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The post The Man Is Gone, but His Voice Will Keep Riding the Rails appeared first on New York Times.
