‘Are the Ninja Turtles in there?’: Casey Neistat inadvertently opens dangerous hole in the middle of a New York sidewalk

So many movies and TV shows have tried to convince us that there’s a secret other world beneath the streets of New York City — be it Michelangelo scoffing pizzas and being a party dude underneath our feet in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise or the underground Old New York in Futurama. But that’s all just fiction, right? Right? Well, maybe not. We’re through the looking glass here, people. Or, more accurately, down the rabbit hole to Wonderland.

YouTuber and social media star Casey Neistat, who his long-term fans will know recently moved back to NYC, left the citizens of TikTok shaken when he captured the moment he accidentally discovered a dangerous hole in the middle of a New York sidewalk. Neistat’s video sees him poke a very loose slab of concrete with his foot, which easily collapses and exposes a feet-deep hole — one that seems more like the kind of booby-trap Indiana Jones might fall foul of than something you’d encounter on your daily walk to work.

Naturally, commenters let loose with variations on the same, but entirely apt, joke at the expense of sky-high NYC property prices. “With a bit of work that would be 7500/month rent easy,” quipped one, while another offered, “That’ll be $3k/month.” One more issued a dire warning: “Don’t let NYC land lords see this. They’ll be advertising a 1 bed studio with a skylight for $3k/mo.” This comment wins the prize, though, for this pitch-perfect prediction of what they hope happened next: “I was waiting to hear: “Hey, I’m working down here!!!” In a New York accent of course.”

Unfortunately, Neistat’s window into another world is no doubt just one of many perilous pocket dimensions that litter the city’s streets. ASCE’s 2022 report on New York’s infrastructure found that NYC’s transportation network is “under immense strain” as needs vastly “outweigh available funding.” In fact, a total of half of the State’s roads are stated to be in either fair or poor condition, with 10% of bridges also in poor condition. So, be careful out there, New Yorkers, or your next trip to Subway might see you end up, well, on the subway.