re the mole people

I am a retired NYC Paramedic-- and can affirm from direct experience that there are numerous communities of people living in train tunnels, abandoned stations , large vaults, switch room and so forth—bad enough that the cops don’t go in in groups smaller than 12.
There are entire abandoned lines, as well as many abandoned stations-- with water and power-- so they are viable living spaces.

Since the board software doesn’t automatically generate a link to the column, I provided one so others can follow along.

Are there really “Mole People” living under the streets of New York City?

Please name two or three of these “abandoned stations-- with water and power,” and let us know where, exactly, they are located.

Thanks!

Don’t hold your breath waiting for an answer. The last post before this one by the OP was in 2001, and he never returned to the thread he started then.

I always think of this song (even though it has little to do with the MP): The Mole People - YouTube. A lovely “where would I be without you, baby?” song. (Spoiler: he’d be living underground.)

I enjoyed Toth’s book, and was disappointed when I first encountered the various debunkings.

There’s been a similar case of too-good-to-be-true ethnography/sociology recently: Alice Goffman. These blog posts from Paul Campos at LGM summarize the case well (start with the oldest):

http://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/?s=Goffman+&x=0&y=0

Apparently, they do exist to a degree.

I saw the Mole People on the Adventures of Superman.

My dog barks at the invisible ones.

I too, enjoyed the book, whether they exist or not.

And TriPolar, let’s not forget that epic cinematic classic “The Mole People”.

The blinding light of Ishtar!

It’s been a while since I watched it, but this film seemed to document one instance.

Nevermind New York. There is plenty of other cities with well documented cases of many homeless people living underground including some with social hierarchies. Vice is pretty good in covering this stuff.

Its hard for me to believe with the high cost of housing in New York that any such places would be found out by the owners, or want to be owners, who would clear out such areas and turn them into condos or businesses.

Turn a subway tunnel into a condo? :dubious:

*“Once in a lifetime opportunity to live in a liquid waste transit tunnel facility !” Close to the Subway. *

The populations are self limiting… to about one.

One person lives in one room and toilets in the other. he knows the smell is his own.

Another person lives nearby, the rule then is “if you poop anywhere near you, you are dead”.
Soon, the population returns to one.

Every time I see the thread title, I read it as “the molé people,” and I think, “You mean Mexicans? Is that the name of a food truck?”

They’ll still live underground 1000 years from now, only they’ll all be horribly mutated. My cite is the documentary series Futurama

FWIW, here’s Cecil’s followup column in which he takes Jennifer Toth (author of The Mole People) to task for being full of shit.

The original column linked upthread remains a credulous embarrassment.

Given that you can find in any urban area collections and encampments of homeless, I find it fully credible there are people who are using any abandoned area, including abandoned subway tunnels. In Dallas, they form giant camps under large interstate bridges. Recently one big one was finally disbanded by the city. Of course, what do all these people do now? They certainly all aren’t put in public housing or anything. No, they just disperse around the city and find new places to camp. Or they get shipped to outlying suburbs with “more resources”.

Toth’s claims may be loaded with bogusness, but others have documented the existence of homeless living in these tunnels.

“Mole people” is sufficiently vague to allow it’s use for homeless who prefer to sit in camp and let others do collecting and such. However, the more exotic descriptions are most certainly false.