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.

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

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.

Image courtesy of TheGirlsNY via Flickr

In addition to the subway snafu making travel out of the Sheepshead Bay-area difficult, the MTA released details of bus service cuts late last week. Many of the cuts were already well-known and already facing protests from hard hit communities like Dyker Heights. But the new details reveal an increasingly strangled Sheepshead Bay community, beginning this July.

Most significant of the new bus cuts in our area is the “shortened” service of the B4, which completely removes the only bus that runs along the Sheepshead Bay waterfront and to the United Artists movie theater. Though the bus line was never great to begin with, it remains the only line Plumb Beach residents can rely on to take them laterally across Brooklyn. Now, though, all service between Coney Island Avenue and Knapp Street has been cancelled.

Other local bus lines affected include the B1, B2, B3, B9, and B31. BKSouthie.com has a good report summing up the changes across Southern South Brooklyn.

Just a quick thought that came to me as I wrote this: it appears almost all of the affected bus lines run east-west, lines that connected Brooklyn communities with other Brooklyn communities rather than bring commuters in the general direction of Manhattan. It almost seems as if the bureaucrats designing this mess think the desirable place to go is Manhattan, almost a total reflection of their Manhattan-centric mentality. Almost.

As we informed you last week, the Avenue U and Neck Road train stations have reopened their Coney Island-bound platforms after more than one year.

Featuring wider platforms and wood-ish paneling, the station had its first commuters yesterday and were caught by photographer Paul Anderson.

Below you’ll see photos of the new station – a sign of things to come all along the B/Q line – which is not yet totally complete. You’ll see work is still being done on the stairwell and on the platform itself. The station’s signs appear to also be in commute, as workers temporarily placed dirty, tagged up signs from the other side of the tracks until new ones are installed.

So… we await your photos of gummed up platforms and graffiti’d walls…

And now the photos

Construction inside the planned Starbucks location has been stalled for months

Bad news for those salivating in anticipation of the new drive-through Starbucks on Nostrand Avenue: their planned opening date has been pushed back by several months.

We reported back in July that the 3454 Nostrand Avenue (corner of Gravesend Neck Road) location would open this month. Unfortunately, Metropolitan Transportation Authority officials have slammed the brakes on the project over concerns of the location of the drive-through curb cut, according to Howard Weiss, an attorney for the property owner.

Weiss said that after the Board of Standards and Appeals granted a variance giving permission to construct a drive-through in May, construction kicked off and all seemed good. But he said the MTA renovated the B36 and B44 bus shelter there, moving it closer to the corner several feet.

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Photo by Arthur Borko

It’s a rare sight indeed, but construction workers at the Avenue V subway overpass were photographed working earlier today. The work at Avenue V is part of the rehabilitation projects at the Gravesend Neck Road and Avenue U train stations that started almost exactly one year ago. The work on this side was scheduled to be finished by now and construction on the Manhattan-bound tracks are next. But, unsurprisingly, work has been delayed and now the MTA says work on the Coney Island-bound side will finish by “Early 2010.”

Regarding the overall project affecting the entire line this side of Prospect Park, the MTA has not yet responded to our leaders’ requests for more information. Politicians and organizers for the area met with MTA officials in October 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. Sheepshead Bites is offering $100,000 (in Monopoly money) to anyone who can snag a photo of an MTA executive at work.

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.

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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)