The Mole People: Life in the Tunnels Beneath New York City

My birthday gift was "The Mole People - Life in the Tunnels beneath New York City." Both subterranean landscapes and alternative societies have always fascinated me, and this book contains both. New York City has some of the largest and most inhabited underground spaces of any city in the United States, and the homeless population is more visible there than some other cities. The book changed how I thought about the homeless. I avoided contact with them because they can be unpredictable. I pretended I didn't see them, thinking soup kitchens and shelters would help them. Although the book reinforces that homelessness is often a choice, it taught me that the homeless are not much different from me.It's amazing how much space there is belowground. So many abandoned tunnels for trains, gas lines, and water. One can still wire electricity, and some abandoned subway stations still have working bathrooms. Cubbies built to house maintenance workers now house the homeless. One community got water from a broken pipe where they showered and washed their clothes. Another even had a microwave. One wonders if any of them have Internet access.I found it interesting that many tunnel-dwellers did not want to return to the surface, or to a normal life. They are the ultimate outsiders, and they have idealist views of their own lifestyle, while believing the surface is not for them. They are invisible, outcasts, on the surface world. Life is not better there. Underground they have a family and a purpose. Men who couldn't find work and provide for the family on the surface world can be productive members of "society" beneath the ground. It amazed me how much they helped one another, forming communities where each person had their role. Of course, there were the loners and the drug addicts and the alcoholics, but others went down for ideological reasons.Close to the surface, many people still held normal jobs above ground, and one child still attended school. With rents so high, people resort to this - you can't work minimum wage and have an apartment in Manhattan. Close to the surface, there is less community and more of a transient population. The police have a higher presence, an outreach program that sometimes helps and sometimes hinders the homeless. Many inhabitants report being beaten by the officers, while the officers say that they endanger themselves daily trying to help these people.So often, the inhabitants would say that they believed life was better for them underground. One self-styled mayor told Jennifer that undergrounders were superior people to whom the human spirit was more valuable than material comforts. The leaders of these communities were usually quite educated, sometimes with degrees. This particular man had a library that he had brought down over the years. A schoolteacher and a nurse lived in his community, both trained in the aboveground world, but choosing to live and work belowground. Appointed runners fetched supplies from t

As a newspaperwoman, Jennifer Toth wrote an article describing life in the tunnels beneath New York City. She met "mole people" (tunnel dwellers) while researching the article. After her article appeared on the newspaper's front page Ms. Toth spent a year exploring the tunnels and interviewing tunnel dwellers. This book describes her experiences and is an excellent example of investigative journalism.As Ms. Toth's contact network grew she met a variety of tunnel dwellers. Examples include J.C., a member of a 200-person tunnel community where the children are held in common (initially he refuses to guide Ms. Toth unless she will "promise to remain underground for a week and to wear my hair in braids." -- she refuses); Sam, an ex-social worker who leads another 200-person tunnel community (no one may leave without his permission); and Blade, a tunnel dweller who first befriends and guides Ms. Toth but ultimately attempts to control and enter her private life.Life underground is neither romantic nor pretty. Ms. Toth's recollections and interviews illustrate the reality of life underground: chemical dependency, danger, disease, and poverty. Her recollections and interviews also illustrate tunnel dweller's greatest weapons: discomfort and fear. Her book is an excellent description of NYC tunnel life, the suffering of all homeless people, and the societal challenge that the homeless represent.

As a New York bureau intern for "The Los Angeles Times", Jennifer Toth wrote an article describing homeless life in the tunnels beneath New York City. While researching the article she met "mole people" (homeless tunnel dwellers) and also met advocates for the homeless. After her article appeared on the newspaper's front page Ms. Toth spent a year researching inside the tunnels and interviewing tunnel dwellers. Her book is an excellent example of investigative journalism.Ms. Toth initially met tunnel dwellers on the Columbia University campus, through the NYC Metropolitan Transit Police, and through soup kitchens. As her contact network grew she met tunnel dwellers willing to be interviewed and to guide her through the tunnels. Examples include Bernard, self-proclaimed "Lord of the Tunnels"; Frederick, a fourteen-year-old runaway turned prostitute who only relates to the homeless ("People who got homes, I don't know what they want."); J.C., a member of a 200-person tunnel community where the children are held in common (initially he refuses to guide Ms. Toth unless she will "promise to remain underground for a week and to wear my hair in braids." -- she refuses); Sam, an ex-social worker who leads another 200-person tunnel community (no one can leave without his permission); and Blade, a tunnel dweller who first befriends and guides Ms. Toth but ultimately attempts to dominate and control her life.Ms. Toth's recollections and interviews are very objective (occasionally over-objective), and they illustrate the realities of homelessness: chemical dependency, danger, disease, and poverty. Her recollections and interviews also illustrate the homeless's greatest weapons: discomfort and fear. (E.g., panic because the hypodermic needles homeless young girls use to attack pedestrians might be AIDS-contaminated.) Ms. Toth observed these realities during her investigations. Her book is an excellent description of NYC tunnel life, the suffering of the homeless, and the societal challenge that the homeless represent.

I first stumbled upon people living in the tunnels under NYC 10 years ago while accompanying a transit police officer on his rounds. The stories he told me about these 'homeless' people were stunningly sad (who could let humanity fall this far?), and it was clear that the powers-at-be wanted to do everything possible to cover up their existence. I commend Ms. Toth for her bravery, not only for writing her compelling expose of 'The Mole People' and their colorful, if tragic, lives, but also for daring to take on the politicians, police, bureaucrats and advocacy groups who would rather pretend these people didn't exist. Bravo.

The Mole People by Jennifer Toth was a wonderful novel that gave its readers incredible information about the underground. The book was written like a documentary, aimed to inform more than to entertain. The description that Toth used all throughout the book was excellent. "In the recess of the tunnel, Mac does not need a trap with stale food or a feces-soaked rag to catch 'track rabbits,' as rats are known to the underground homeless. They come because the garbage is as dense as its stench." Descirbing the scene she was witnessing, Toth gives her audience a clear picture of what underground life is really like. I think that Toth did an excellant job incorporating the facts along with the stories; making the book a very fun read. Some chapters were committed completely to statistics and opinions of the aboveground variety, while other chapters told the real life stories of inhabitants of the tunnels. The Mole People was fascinating in the sense that it introduced me to a way of life that I never even knew existed. The tunnels underground New York City are filled with thousands of homeless people; some living as far as seven stories beneath the street. With separate communities, some even including doctors, teachers and mayors, the people who live in the tunnels are all unique. Some of the mole people, as they are referred to by those uneducated about the underground, are very independent of each other, while others rely heavily on their tunnel neighbors. "The surprising wonder of Bernard's tunnel is less that people can survive in such an environment than that they can work together and even care, sometimes intensely, for each other." One of the many communites descirbed in the book, Bernard's tunnel is a prime example of a different society underneath the streets. Separate from the rest of the world, but with the same qualities as all great cities. I was greatly impressed with the research tactics that Toth used to get information for her book. Risking her life hundreds of times, she traveled deep into the tunnels to speak with all kinds of the underground population. She made the tunnels part of her life, making visits there every day, and gaining many friends along the way. I would recommend this book to anyone. It's an incredibley interesting book that will definitely open up any eyes to the importance of the mole people.