SHEEPSHEAD BAY'S ONLY INDEPENDENT NEWS BLOG

I wasn’t able to attend last night’s public hearing on MTA cuts, but luckily Allan Rosen, the former MTA official who critiqued the plans earlier this week, sent us the dispatch below. I encourage anyone who went to add their two cents to the report.

As for me, I’ll be submitting testimony online based on what I’ve seen and heard from residents. Also, at the Sheepshead Bay/Plumb Beach Civic Association meeting on Tuesday, board members asked to get a hearing in the area, which State Senator Marty Golden’s office is looking into.

Here’s Rosen’s report:

Brooklyn had their turn last night at giving the MTA an earful regarding their proposals to cut subway and bus service as well as the free or reduced-fare student MetroCards.  The meeting turned tumultous as a brawl broke out when one student tried to speak out of turn and four people were arrested.

Students were frustrated at having to wait hours for their turn to speak because of the MTA’s policy to allow elected officials to speak before the registered public speakers.  Finally, one elected official suggested that the MTA alternate one elected official with one member of the public, which the MTA finally heeded. Still, even pre-registered speakers, who registered weeks ago, such as Allan Rosen, didn’t get a chance to speak until 8:45 PM; the meeting began at 6.  Those registering on the night of the hearing had to wait much longer.  Many went home before their turn as the hour turned late.  One of them was CB 15 Chairperson Theresa Scavo.  A few speakers from Sheepshead Bay did get a chance to speak. The meeting was expected to last until midnight.  It is unknown if the meeting actually lasted that long or even longer.

The main points brought out my speakers were the need not to cut student passes, the need to use a portion of the federal stimulus money to fill the deficit gap until more permanent funding can be found, a sweetheart deal between the MTA and Ratner which allowed the Atlantic Yards to be sold at below market value with terms of up to 80 years for him to complete payment to the MTA and how the MTA is wasting money by allowing 370 Jay Street to remain empty for years.

The disabled also spoke against proposals to cut Access-a-Ride services; some mentioned ways to improve how the current system works.  Others protested cuts to specific bus and subway routes.  The MTA stated that the complete video of the hearing will be made available on its website one week from today and all sumitted written testimony will be prepared in book form and be made available to Board members for their review.

Also, some people criticized the location of the hearing claiming it was a difficult location for them to get to, requiring multiple buses and trains. They suggested that in the future additional meetings be held at more locations.

During last Wednesday’s Manhattan Beach Community Group meeting, Community Board 15 Chairperson Theresa Scavo urged residents to attend the March 3 hearing on MTA service cuts. The all-important hearing is being used by MTA commissioners to judge opposition to their plans, so a light showing from certain neighborhoods could be interpreted as a sign of community approval.

Don’t let that happen! Attend the hearing even if you don’t plan to speak. Let them know that striking out the B4 service along Emmons Avenue will suffocate businesses and leave Plumb Beach residents and several senior homes without service. And let them know, too, that you believe these plans are ill-conceived and rely on faulty data.

To give a little more oomph, you’ll see in the video above that Scavo believes eliminating the student metrocard will lead to increased crime rates. She says struggling students are “going to be stealing the money to get to where they are going, or they’re going to be jumping the turnstiles. They are not going to put their hand in their pocket rather than going and buying sneakers or their cell phone to pay to get on a train or a bus.”

I’m not sure if I totally buy the increased crime argument, but asking families to pay nearly $100 a month for their kids to get to school for their supposedly free education is ludicrous. It will certainly lead to increased drop-out rates and further hurt New York City’s education standings.

It’s stealing opportunity from an entire generation of low-income students and their families.

Learn what you can do to stop the cuts from suffocating Sheepshead Bay!

Photo courtesy of a-NeRo86 via Flickr

Allan Rosen, a Manhattan Beach resident and former Director of Bus Planning for New York City Transit, has fired off a 2,600-word missive at the MTA for its latest round of cuts.

Rosen posted his planned testimony for this Wednesday’s MTA hearing, in which he lays into the befuddled agency for poor planning. And he should know – in addition to his role as Director of Bus Planning, Rosen wrote his masters thesis on the “Inefficiency and Ineffectiveness of Brooklyn Bus Routes” at Columbia University. He’s also a 25-year veteran of the MTA, retiring in 2005 after recovering the authority millions of dollars as Director of Asset Recovery.

The scope of Rosen’s challenge to the MTA is breathtaking. His years of experience afford him an advantage few critics of the MTA have, including a deep knowledge of criteria and guidelines used to determine “acceptable” cuts. And he uses that knowledge to do an almost point-by-point decimation of the MTA’s plan.

Among Rosen’s critiques, which he explains at length, are that the MTA:

• overestimates the cost savings provided by cuts
• assumes inconvenience is not a factor in determining whether someone chooses to use the system or not
• grossly understates the negative effects … [which include for some] no mass transit option at all
• based its cuts on faulty criteria (which Rosen picks apart well)
• routinely chose cuts over optimizing efficiency

He also hints that the plan being put forward now is not based on fresh data, but has been a “go-to” plan shelved for many years until deficits grew too deep.

Notably, one of the bus cuts that Rosen singles out for examination is the B4, which will have service eliminated east of Coney Island Avenue. Not only has he observed much higher ridership than the MTA’s data claims, but the service elimination leaves residents with a walk much longer than the MTA’s own planning guidelines allow. The cut will sever mass transit options to the Emmons Avenue waterfront, including a shopping and dining district, major movie theater, and several senior homes.

Rosen is submitting his full testimony electronically, but he’s also planning on attending Wednesday’s hearing and delivering a three-minute version. “I have not been this upset about service cuts since 1993, which was the last time I testified at a hearing,” he told Sheepshead Bites.

He urges all of Sheepshead Bay’s residents to attend the hearing or send comments by e-mail, because he says the MTA is attempting to “overwhelm” with cuts and make it impossible to fight.

Below I excerpt pieces of Rosen’s post, but I strongly advise residents to read his entire testimony.

Read Allan Rosen’s testimony about MTA Bus cuts

Traffic backs up to Neptune Avenue, forcing the DOT to remove parking spots at Avenue Z

This Wednesday, Department of Transportation workers arrived on Coney Island Avenue and Avenue Z and sawed down parking meters in front of the 99-Cent Store. The spaces are being used as a right turn lane for the duration of the Guider Avenue/East 8th Street Bridge reconstruction project.

The city made the move to replace the meters with “No Standing Anytime” signs after community complaints poured in about traffic backups all the way to Neptune Avenue. Because of construction on the bridge, commuters seeking Belt Parkway West are being detoured over the Coney Island Avenue bridge to Avenue Z.

North-bound Coney Island Avenue now has four lanes – two continuing north, one left turn, and one right turn. The project is scheduled to last from 12 to 18 months.

In the two days since the change has been in effect, we’ve heard that it has only been a minor improvement, as the bigger problem comes from people attempting to use the 99 cent store parking lot. Cars going in and out block off traffic coming from the Volkswagen garage and Shore Parkway North. We’ve also heard that at the worst times, traffic is still backed up to Neptune Avenue.

As most know, the Metropolitan Transit Authority has proposed yet another series of cuts that will drastically alter service. With $40 million in cuts to Access-A-Ride, ten bus routes being eliminated, weekend service cuts to be implemented, and reduced service expected to take effect, the crowds of people waiting to huddle into a urine-soaked car will start to become even more inhospitable than it presently is.

With many of the route cuts affecting express lines and buses that service the Downtown Brooklyn area, it’s easy to think Sheepshead Bay residents needn’t bother opposing this. But they’re wrong.

Nearby train lines D, F, and A lines will all be affected by reduced service, while express buses X29 and X38, which service Coney Island/Seagate, will be eliminated. The B4 bus will no longer travel along Emmons Avenue/Shore Parkway – forcing some Bay residents to walk more than a mile to the nearest bus line.

Perhaps the most devastating cut will be the elimination of Student MetroCards, a luxury that has accommodated NYC youth (and predated by the illustrious bus pass) for ages. With the increased cost of transportation in recent years, the flawed logic of this plan is evident to just about everyone.

Christine Quinn of the New York City Council is encouraging Brooklyn residents to sign her petition, available here . You can also become involved by working with NYPIRG’s Straphangers Campaign or signing up to volunteer (contact Nick Rolf NROLF@council.nyc.gov.).

Of more immediate importance, a public hearing will be held on Wednesday, March 3, 2010 at the Brooklyn Museum’s Cantor Auditorium at 6 p.m. There’s strength in numbers, so even if you don’t plan to speak, show them that the issue was important enough to bring you out in the cold weather.

Assemblyman Steven Cymbrowitz is urging Governor Paterson and the state legislature to rekindle discussions about congestion pricing or the commuter tax in an effort to stave off increases to the MTA mobility tax.

The governor’s proposal includes a 60 percent increase in the mobility tax levied on area businesses.  The tax was first enacted last year and is now being expanded to fuel revenues and close the MTA’s massive budget shortfall.

Cymbrowitz says the tax unfairly penalizes employers in the five boroughs, which will be asked to pay .54 percent per $100 of payroll, while suburban businesses get away with paying only .17 percent per $100 of payroll. Currently, inner-city businesses pay .34 percent.

“Pitting New York City’s businesses against suburban firms might make political sense for the governor, but is likely to become an economic calamity. The commuters from Nassau, Suffolk, Westchester and the other nine counties that fall under the MTA mobility tax use our mass transit system just as my constituents and other New York City residents do. So, why should businesses in the suburbs have less of a responsibility to the MTA than those in the City?” Cymbrowitz wrote in a press release.

The assemblyman is asking his Albany colleagues to begin debating alternatives – including the commuter tax and congestion pricing – immediately.

Read the assemblyman’s press release

From Sustainable Flatbush:

Do you depend on the B44 Nostrand Avenue bus to get around Brooklyn? Do you wish you could? Come to the Department of Transportation’s Community Advisory Committee meeting on Tuesday December 8th! The DOT is especially looking for input from bus riders, who are often under-represented at these meetings.

Continue Reading »

MTA will not raise fares in 2010, but is considering cutting services and staff to close the budget gap

MTA Chairman Jay H. Walder told reporters yesterday that the agency will avoid jacking prices next year, despite a $140 million cut from its budget.

“It is my intent to stay with the schedule of fare hikes that was agreed with the Legislature in May, which does not call for a fare hike in 2010,” he told reporters after a three-hour hearing in Lower Manhattan on the authority’s capital plan. “It is my intent to stay with that.”

Instead, the authority is looking at ways to tighten the belt in-house, and is weighing service cuts, worker layoffs, and maximizing other revenue sources to fill the gap.

Still, Walder says the agency will look to raise fares 7.5 percent in 2011 and 2013, as approved by Legislature.

(Photo courtesy of via William Darhy Flickr)

Just one month shy of the first-year anniversary of construction at the Avenue U and Gravesend Neck Road train stations, the sites reek of the failures soon to ail the rest of the line.

Artist's rendering of completed station rehabilitation at Neck Road. The station will have wider platforms, larger stairwells, more exits, and vision panels.

For those who don’t take the train often, above is a photo of the Avenue U train station taken from the platform. They began putting up new frames that will hold the walls here and at the Neck Road train station earlier this week. Work began on the two stations in December 2008, and the MTA said that they finish the Coney Island-bound sides by the end of 2009. Then they’d switch to the Manhattan-bound side, polishing off the project in 2010.

Well, that was the original plan. The MTA changed the Brighton Line Rehabilitation website to reflect the fact that these sites ain’t gettin’ done on time. The tentative date for completion for the Coney Island-bound side is now “Early 2010″, and the full project will be done in “Early 2011.”

If you haven’t noticed, this is the same “Two year plan” that has been extended to the rest of the local stops between Newkirk Avenue and Kings Highway. One year work on the Coney Island side, then one year on the Manhattan side. Gee, you think they’ll honor those schedules?

By the by, for anyone keeping track, the MTA has not yet responded to our leaders’ requests for more information. Politicians and organizers for the area met with MTA officials a month ago to ask for alternatives to the work and guarantees of the timetable. MTA told them they would be in touch in a few days after they had gathered relevant data. Apparently there are delays on that, too.

(Photo courtesy of Pamela Amri)

Local leaders pressed MTA officials and the agency’s contractor for proposals and promises from the authority this morning, but the biggest payoff appears to be for residents of Gerritsen Beach and communities east of Sheepshead Bay.

“Did a magic bullet appear? No,” said Councilman Lew Fidler of the meeting. “The thing that probably will come out of it – and we’re optimistic will come out of it – and it doesn’t affect a whole lot of people, but it does affect Weinstein’s constituents and mine – there was some willingness to consider reversing some of the service cuts on the BM3 and BM4 buses. That’s the thing we’re most optimistic will happen, but obviously it doesn’t help the vast majority of people affected by the construction.”

It appears the MTA came unaware of the demands and complaints awaiting them.

“They were there to tell their side of the story, and I think that’s all they thought they were there for,” said George Broadhead, president of the Gerritsen Beach Property Owners Association. Broadhead said they came to discuss the construction plans, not alter them. However, the meeting changed direction when Broadhead brought up the recent service changes to the BM3 and BM4 buses, which provide alternative Manhattan-bound service to Gerritsen Beach and the eastern portion of Sheepshead Bay. Those bus routes now leave many riders with only the handicapped B/Q line.

The MTA officials present only represented the subway service, and according to sources at the meeting, they were unaware of the bus division’s actions and dismissed it as the other branch’s responsibility.

“[State Senator Carl] Kruger blew his top,” said one source who asked not to be named. “[The MTA was] there to really apologize for all the bullcrap. But I think they got a taste of it from Kruger.”

Kruger scolded the MTA for its dismissive attitude towards bus alternatives, reportedly saying, “We bailed you out with billions of tax-payer dollars, and now you’re telling me the right hand doesn’t know what the left hand is doing?” Continue Reading »