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BROOKLYN WEEKLY, SEPTEMBER 29, 2019
ALL ABOARD!
MTA unveils ambitious plan to overhaul 21 stations to meet federal disability guidlines
BY KEVIN DUGGAN
The Metropolitan Transportation
Authority announced
plans to make 21
Brooklyn subway stations
wheelchair-accessible over
the next fi ve years.
The Authority is reserving
the upgrades for
heavily traffi cked stations
located in accessibility deserts
throughout Brooklyn,
which remains one of the
most diffi cult borough to
traverse for disabled straphangers,
according to one
disability advocate.
“Brooklyn is really
poorly served when it
comes to ADA in the subway
system, so this is a
good start,” said Joe Rappaport,
head of the Brooklyn
Center for Independence of
the Disabled.
Some Brooklyn subway
lines disenfranchise entire
neighborhoods of disabled
commuters, such as the R
line in Bay Ridge or the F
train between Kensington
and Coney Island.
Workers are currently
laboring to enhance accessibility
along the R line
— installing elevators at
59th, 86th, and 95th street
stations — and have plans
to upgrade the transit hub
at 36th Street, where local
riders can transfer to the
N and D trains, under the
new plan.
The announcement also
includes new elevators for
four stops along the F train
in central and southern
Brooklyn, elevators for the
L, J, and Z trains platforms
at the Broadway Junction
stop in Cypress Hills,
where straphangers are
forced to ascend a vertigoinducing
series of escalators
and staircases, and a
new elevator at the Hoyt-
Schermerhorn station
in Downtown Brooklyn,
where the developer of a
neighboring building constructed
a street-to-mezzanine
elevator last year, but
The Hoyt-Schermerhorn stop would get new elevators under the
MTA’s plan . Photo by Kevin Duggan
‘Rick and Morty’ truck makes Coney pit stop
BY ROSE ADAMS
Coney Island got schwifty!
A giant truck made to resemble
Rick Sanchez from the hit television
show “Rick and Morty” made
its debute journey to the People’s
Playground on Sunday, selling tshirts
and trinkets from the sci-fi
series.
The 25-foot-long Rickmobile depicting
the super-genius, dimension
hopping, alcoholic crouching
on the truck bed was stationed in
Luna Park’s Scream Zone between
W. 12th Street and Stillwell Avenues,
when it offered fans the chance to
buy exclusive T-shirts, bottle openers,
kites, hats, and more.
The event also featured activities,
like Rick and Morty-related
trivia and dance-offs. And fans
in costume were offered special
prizes, according to a spokesman.
“We strongly encourage fans to
dress up,” Randall Byers said.
The promo truck visited Kings
County once before in 2017 when it
pulled up to a bar in Williamsburg.
OH GEEZ: A truck carrying a 13-foot-high statue of Rick Sanchez from the hit sci-fi
show “Rick and Morty” will stop in Coney Island on Sunday. Rickmobile
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which requires riders to
descend a fl ight stairs to access
access the platforms.
A full list of the stations
earmarked for accessibility
upgrades can be found
on the MTA’s website .
The transit agency
named a citywide total of
44 subway stations in its
accessibility master plan,
which is one part of a record
breaking $51.1 billion
2020-2024 capital plan.
Those stations are in addition
to four pending accessibility
upgrades included
in the Authority’s 2019
capital plan, bringing the
grand total of accessible
stations to 48, according to
the city’s transit tzar.
“These 48 stations are
a terrifi c fi rst step,” said
Andy Byford, the Authority’s
head of New York City
Transit.
The agency has earmarked
$5.2 billion of the
upcoming fi ve-year plan’s
budget to make a total 66
stations accessible citywide
— only about a quarter of
the subway’s 472 stops currently
have elevators.
Rappaport’s group is
one of a cadre of disability
advocate organizations
that fi led lawsuits against
the agency demanding all
major station projects be
accompanied by accessibility
upgrades. The advocate
said he’ll wait until there’s
a deal in writing before celebrating
the upcoming enhancements.
“Anyone who deals with
the MTA... knows that the
MTA doesn’t always keep
it’s promises,” he said.
Agency spokeswoman
Amanda Kwan said that
the Authority’s accessibility
list has not been fi -
nalized, and the enhancements
remain dependent
on the agency’s ability to
cash in on various funding
streams, including the
state’s proposed congestion
pricing tax.
The Authority plans to
add 22 additional stations
to it’s accessibility master
plan after taking public input,
before a review board
with reps from city and
state governments green
light the scheme sometime
between early October and
the end of the year.