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That’s the
ticket!
Coney Councilman
introduces bill to
ax transit fares
BY ROSE ADAMS
A Coney Island lawmaker
is recommending that state
legislators eliminate fees
for city buses and subways,
opening up the transit system
to all New Yorkers.
Councilman Mark Treyger
(D-Coney Island) introduced
the non-binding resolution
in City Council on
Tuesday, claiming the measure
could help reduce income
inequality and mitigate
climate change.
“There is a real opportunity
to reimagine mass transit
in New York.,” Treyger
said in a statement. “With a
single measure, we can take
a big bite out of poverty, income
inequality, mass incarceration,
and our impact on
climate change.”
The recommendation
would require the state to
fork over nearly $5 billion to
the MTA per year in order to
make up for the revenue generated
by fares — a reality
that one MTA rep said Treyger’s
bill fails to address.
“Farebox revenue from
subways and buses yields
more than $4.8 billion annually
and accounts for a
signifi cant portion of the
MTA’s operating budget,
which is already strained to
the bone,” said MTA spokesman
Tim Minton. “Any serious
proposal on this matter
would have identifi ed alternate
sources of funding for
the system that serves as the
lifeblood of New York city’s
economy.”
But the Coney Island law-
MTA workers began installing new signs for the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge that correctly spell the name of the bridge’s namesake.
Photo by MTA Bridges and Tunnels
MTA catches some ‘ZZ’s
Transit offi cials hang fi rst correctly-spelled ‘Verrazzano Bridge’ signs
BY ROSE ADAMS
Transit authorities hung
new signs on Feb. 5 that corrected
the spelling of the Verrazzano
Narrows Bridge for
the fi rst time in 54 years, delighting
elected offi cials who
fought for the spelling correction.
“This is a victory for Italian
Americans and also the
taxpayers because that extra
Z won’t cost us a dime,” said local
Councilman Justin Brannan
(D-Bensonhurst).
Built in 1964, the Verrazano
Narrows was named for
Giovanni da Verrazzano, the
fi rst European explorer who
entered New York harbor in
1524, but the name was only
spelled with one “z” because
of an error in the bridge’s construction
contract.
Italian-American residents
began pushing to correct the
spelling in 2016, when Dyker
Heights activist Robert Nash
circulated a petition calling on
the name change that racked
up more than 650 signatures.
The movement soon gained
the support of local pols, who
spearheaded a statewide push
for the name change. In 2016,
former State Senator Marty
Golden (R-Bay Ridge) sponsored
a bill to add the “z” to the
offi cial name, which passed
unanimously in June of 2018.
Governor Andrew Cuomo approved
the bill in October of
that year, claiming that the
change was an important win
for Italian-Americans.
“We are correcting this decades
old misspelling out of
respect to the legacy of the explorer
and to New York’s heritage,”
Cuomo said in a statement.
The MTA long held off on
changing the bridge’s name,
arguing that it could cost millions
to replace misspelled
signs, maps, and brochures.
However, the 2018 legislation
mandated that the MTA would
only install new signs when
the old ones needed replacement,
reducing the project’s
costs, the Associated Press reported.
Crews for Metropolitan
Transit Authority Bridges and
Tunnels, which has jurisdiction
over the bridge, installed
the fi rst 19 new signs with corrected
spelling on Feb. 5, and
workers will continue installing
signs as needed, according
to MTA spokesman Aaron
Donovan.
The installation comes two
months after federal legislation
created two-way tolling on
the Verrazzano Bridge, scrapping
the decades-long, one-way
tolling system that charged
drivers entering Staten Island
$19, and let in Brooklyn-bound
motorists for free. Proponents
argued that the two-way system
would help reduce pollution,
ease traffi c, and steer
trucks away from the southern
Brooklyn without raising the
round-trip toll.
Continued on page 22
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