Benedetto supports plan for inter borough rail
Activist Carmen Vega-Rivera. Photo Courtesy Taina Rivera
BRONX TIMES REPORTER, DECEMBER 2 BTR 7-JANUARY 2, 2020 3
Tenant activist, community
leader Vega-Rivera passes, 65
BY JASON COHEN
A woman who fought for tenants
and housing advocacy for several decades
lost her battle with multiple
sclerosis on Wednesday, December
12.
Carmen Vega-Rivera, 65, a resident
of Grand Concourse, was an activist
for 40 years in the Bronx and
Harlem.
Vega-Rivera was a team leader at
CASA, (Community Action for Safe
Apartments), served as executive director
of the East Harlem Tutorial
Program, was active with Say Yes to
Education, the Bronx Museum of the
Arts, Jerome Avenue Public Health
Taskforce, served on the board of
Planned Parenthood, was president of
the Tenant Association at 888 Grand
Concourse, a member of the board of
directors for Hostos Community College
Foundation and participated in
many other organizations.
“We are deeply saddened to announce
the passing of our beloved
CASA leader Carmen Vega-Rivera
was an incredibly powerful organizer,
activist, and educator that
touched the lives of many of us and
her community,” CASA said on its Fa-
cebook page. “Her spirit and energy
was contagious, her passion endless,
her wit razor sharp, her commitment
to the Bronx deep, and she fi ercely
believed and demanded that another
world was possible.
“Carmen leaves us with the profound
knowledge and belief in ourselves
that through organizing, we
are an unstoppable force. Our CASA
family will continue to organize relentlessly
and true to her legacy:
a lifelong dedication to social justice
and building the leadership and
power of the Bronx. Rest in power, ”
it concluded.
Vega-Rivera is survived by her
husband, Juan Rivera, her daughter,
Taina Rivera, 44, son, Jaime-Juan Rivera,
34, fi ve grandchildren and one
great-grandchild. On Wednesday, December
18, her daughter launched a
GoFundMe to help offset the costs of
the funeral. As of press time, it had
raised $5,800.
Rivera said growing up her mom
wasn’t always home because she was
out fi ghting for others. As a child she
didn’t understand completely, but today
she fully grasps what her mom
was doing.
“She always made sure my brother
and I had everything we wanted
and needed,” she said. “She always
wanted us to have our education and
travel the world.”
Her daughter explained that the
same passion and love her mom
showed at home was what she had for
the community. She recalled how her
mom took kids from the borough to
Disney World for the fi rst time and
helped them go to college and even
supported families in court.
During her last advocacy campaign,
Vega-Rivera navigated NYC’s
healthcare system and waged her
most challenging battle, seeking
medical best practices and viable
healing options.
Rivera told the Bronx Times her
mom taught she and her brother to always
stand up for themselves and be
proud of where they came from.
Even though she had multiple
sclerosis for 21 years, she never let it
affect her, she said.
“She was a multiple sclerosis warrior,”
Rivera stressed. “She always
wanted people to move forward. Everything
she did she did with a purpose.
My mother was selfl ess and everything
she did was.”
BY JASON COHEN
Imagine traveling to other boroughs
via train and bypassing Manhattan?
Well, one elected offi cial is trying to
make that happen.
On Wednesday, December 18, Assemblyman
Michael Benedetto, along
with Queens asemblyman Michael
DenDekker, spoke about the proposed
plan to build a 24-mile train line on
existing right of way rails from Coop
City through Queens to Bay Ridge,
Brooklyn.
This model, which was created by
the Regional Planning Association,
will be called the Triboro.
New York City subways were originally
built to connect people to Manhattan,
but according to Benedetto,
more than 50 percent of New York’s
job growth has occurred outside of the
city in the last 15 years.
“When we fi rst developed the NYC
transit system everything was Manhattan
centric,” he said. “People now
travel from borough to borough. It’s a
revolutionary new idea that is being
presented for the Bronx, for Queens,
for Brooklyn and for the city of New
York that will help the commuters in
the outer borough.”
In these boroughs, workers spend
an average of 53 minutes traveling to
Manhattan, but travel for work to adja-
cent boroughs is longer.
A trip from the Bronx to Queens
takes 68 minutes each way for the average
worker. A trip from Brooklyn to
Queens takes 63 minutes for a typical
public transit commuter.
He stressed that this new form of
travel, “The Triboro,” will allow commuters
to move between boroughs
without having to go into the Big Apple.
According to Benedetto, The Triboro
would connect to the four new
Bronx stations that Metro North is developing
in the next two years, including
one in Co-op City.
He proposed that once the Triboro
line leaves the Bronx and reaches
Queens it would use existing abandoned
tracks and go into other parts of
Queens and Brooklyn, skipping Manhattan
all together.
“Why should commuters go into
Manhattan to go to another train?” he
asked. “We’re calling upon the MTA
to allocate money in their new capital
plan to study this idea.”
The Triboro has the potential to offer
100,000 riders transit service every
fi ve to 15 minutes at more than double
bus speeds. Of the 22 possible stations
identifi ed, half would link to subway
lines. Thousands more riders could
be drawn to the Triboro to connect to
the subway system rather than rely on
transfers from slow bus routes.
The proposed project will cost about
$1.5 billion, but will be much less than
creating an entirely new of train line.
Elected offi cials and RPA president
Tom Wright sent a letter to the MTA in
September asking for them to look at a
feasibility study for the plan.
“RPA has completed preliminary
research, conservatively estimating
that the line would initially serve
100,000 daily riders with a price tag of
between $1 and $2 billion,” Wright said
in the letter. “A formal study now needs
to be completed to determine the opportunities,
challenges, and feasibility
of the Triboro Line. The study should
also take into account the need to expand
freight capacity in the region and
how best to co-mingle services without
reducing freight movement or limiting
freight expansion goals. ”
Assemblyman Michael Benedetto and Assemblyman Michael DenDekker discuss the proposed
“Triboro” rail on December 18. Schneps Media Jason Cohen