Stephen Bogdan and Chrystal Mallouras,

Perhaps one of the most noticeable and iconic objects that almost all New York City high school students can recognize is the green student MetroCard. Functional from 5:30 AM to 8:30 PM, with 3 rides and 3 transfers, these cards were the backbone of any high schooler’s commute to class within New York City. However, as of 2024, the iconic student MetroCard has now been dethroned and replaced with the new student OMNY card. Chrystal and I were the last year of high school students who used the old student metrocard for all four years of high school. As such, we want to preserve the history of the iconic card, which has brought us to and from school for all this time. We don’t want the classic swipe metrocard to be overlooked and forgotten by the new tap-to-pay system. The MetroCard used to be the only way past the MTA turnstiles, and as a result, it has been the symbol of the commuter culture within the city for decades. We don’t want to lose this iconic symbol, and by turning the card into a monument, we hope to preserve the metrocard and its symbology for generations to come.
As for our second monument, the Halal Cart, we want to honor the equally large food cart culture within New York City. The Halal Cart serves as an iconic representation of the food cart and street food scene in New York City. The carts can be found littered throughout countless streets and avenues among the five boroughs. Their popularity and cheap price speak to the ever-moving nature of New York and how everyone needs to eat, and its mixed menu and popularity represent New York City as a crossroads of different ethnicities, fostering great cultural celebration and emphasizing the bustle of the city that must live on.
Ultimately, the student metrocard and the halal truck were two objects with which Chrystal and I heavily interacted throughout our high school years. Through this project we wanted to highlight some of the common objects that New Yorkers seemingly interact with every day. Their commonness within our city might make them overlooked by New Yorkers; we want to reaffirm their significance within our city. By placing these objects in the context of monuments, we hope to invite people to think about the value and importance of New York’s food carts and metrocards and to further consider the importance of other common objects that we utilize.