I don't have a clear memory how I first-first heard about it. I had a friend to worked for Skanska in legal, and they mentioned it, but I might have also heard about it through the 2nd Avenue Sagas blog. The criteria was that you had to live within 1 avenue block of 2nd Avenue to qualify. I did, but much further south of the construction zone. They didn't care.

Either way, I emailed somebody, they added me to a list, and they were really good about updating people about when tours were available (all options were early morning Saturdays, if I recall), and what would be expected of them (wear clothes that can get dirty, shoes you really don't care about, you'll end up walking a couple miles before the tour is over, but not a lot of stairs because it's a mine-shaft-ish elevator sto get in and out. You'll meet at this location near 71st st for the introduction, safety lesson, and to issue gear, the tour will walk you over from this station to the next one, expect to get "rained" on, and we'll come back up there instead of the way we went in...

The second tour I think was available only to people who'd been on the earlier tours. By this point it was almost a complete station. They were still putting up tiles and doing wiring, but things were dry, painted, and clean. The Bronx Borough president was on our tour, so there was a gaggle of photographers along with, but they basically ignored us normies.

Both tours were awesome in their own way, but I liked the first one better, and I had a lot of fun remembering all this stuff for this comment. If you ever are near an MTA contstruction zone, ask around to see if they're doing a tour.

https://imgur.com/a/QBvv428

Quarter included for scale.

They did multiple tours per weekend, usually 1-2 dozen per tour, so I'm sure there's some other redditors who can share their experience.

Back in 2012 and again in 2016, they (MTA/Skanska) gave out free tours for people who lived in the construction zone of the Second Avenue Subway. Granted, the construction wouldn't reach me until 2035 at the earliest, but they said that qualified, and I wasn't going to argue. The tours sounded (and were) very cool.

On the first tour, they were still "mucking", which means hauling rocks out to the surface. They joked that you could keep as many as you could carry, and would break off pieces to anybody who wanted one. I took two. They're on a shelf in my living room.

Do what you love, and you'll never work a day in your life.

I suspect the business model of these discount stores relied on an inefficiency in the business model of main brand stores, and that inefficiency no longer exists. Those main stores now sell excess inventory via their own websites, and that gives them away to sell the pieces that still were in demand and what remains is no longer good fodder for C21 in terms of price or desirability.

C21 may come back, but there is no secret supply of fashion that will distinguish itself from other department stores.

That's 1.1 imperial shittons or 26.4 shitloads if you use that old system.

Very. Ask grandma.

The red zone is for loading and unloading only, there is no parking in the red zone.