Groups appeal to Blaz to keep ‘Open Streets’
BY MARK HALLUM
An open letter to Mayor
Bill de Blasio from the
Open Streets Coalition is
calling for greater improvements
to the popular program that will
connect them to transit hubs,
install amenities for communities
in the closed roadways and
impose traffi c calming measures,
especially around outdoor seating
for restaurants.
Transportation Alternatives,
who leads the coalition of 63
community groups, is asking the
mayor to expand the Open Streets
program to communities in Staten
Island and bring back corridors
that have closed over the winter,
while also lowering the speed
limit in and around these spaces
to fi ve miles per hour.
“Open Streets allowed us to
rethink how we use our streets,
not just as space for transportation
and storage of vehicles, but
as space to meet our neighbors
and stroll, socialize, dance, and
relax safely,” the letter stated.
“Prioritization for motor vehicles
in our public space has resulted in
People walk by restaurant’s outdoor patios in Little Italy last August.
thousands of senseless deaths and
injuries caused by traffi c violence,
and respiratory illness caused by
carbon pollution.”
Open Streets, a now-permanent
program launched by the de
Blasio administration to facilitate
social distancing, has become
popular in communities like Jackson
Heights where 39th Avenue
made up for a lack of parkland
or in Lower Manhattan where it
gave business safe space to operate
in the pandemic.
PHOTO BY REUTERS/ANDREW KELLY
“Open Streets have transformed
our city’s urban landscape
for the better, and we’re proud to
make them permanent,” mayoral
spokesman Mitch Schwartz said.
“Building a recovery for all of
us means putting equity and
inclusion fi rst. We’ll do everything
we can to ensure communities
have the resources they need
to support the Open Streets they
deserve.”
Earlier in March, Transportation
Alternatives called on the
city to set aside 25% of the roadway
for cyclists and pedestrians,
effectively creating up to 1,000
miles of Open Streets by 2025.
At the time, the mayor said he had
not seen the proposal himself, but
supported the expansion of the
program in general.
“While New York City is
home to the biggest Open Street
program in the nation, there are
still neighborhoods that do not
have access to this valuable
program,” the Open Streets
Coalition continued. “Communities
such as the South Bronx
and the North Shore of Staten
Island still lack corridor-wide
Open Streets. Even more, some
Open Streets that were open in
2020 have since been closed.
While some have received confi
rmation that they will return
this spring, the fate of others is
uncertain.”
More pols on board against MTA cuts to C, F lines
PHOTO BY MARK HALLUM
BY MARK HALLUM
City offi cials are getting into the
weeds with the Metropolitan Transportation
Authority in urging them
to restore full service on the C and F lines,
which were subject to cuts and longer wait
times at the outset of the pandemic.
Now, after a judge ordered the MTA to
hold off for two more weeks on making
the changes permanent, Manhattan Councilman
Ydanis Rodriguez and Brooklyn
Borough President Eric Adams are joining
the Transport Workers Union Local 100
and other elected offi cials in calling the cuts
a public health hazard in the waning days
of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“As we begin seeing a steady increase in
riders returning to our subways, we need
to make sure that our trains are running
consistently and reliably to avoid crowded
platforms,” said Rodriguez, chairman of
the City Council Transportation Committee.
“The MTA is constantly reminding us
that their main priority has been to keep
riders safe. Crowded subway platforms will
only jeopardize the health of straphangers
and transit workers.”
TWU leaders have retained bus lane
opponent and city council candidate
Arthur Schwartz as an attorney in their
lawsuit to place a temporary restraining
order on the MTA’s plan to make the cuts
permanent. Schwartz said the judge had
ruled in his favor allowing for a two-week
stay of execution for C and F line cuts, or
until about April 7.
The MTA, on the other hand, is undeterred
by the case.
“As we have said, nothing has changed for
customers on the C and F lines since nearly
a year ago, and we continue to run 80%
of service for approximately 30 percent of
pre-pandemic ridership,” MTA Chief Communications
Offi cer Abbey Collins said
last week. “Beyond that, we will vigorously
defend against these claims in court.”
With headways on the C train going from
eight or nine minutes to 12 minutes during
peak hours while on the F line wait times
went from four minutes to eight minutes,
fears abound that an increase in riders into
the subway will create crowded conditions
on trains and platforms.
“We have a long way to go for our transit
system to fully recover from the pandemic,
but the picture looks better than it did even
a few months ago, with federal aid on the
way and ridership increasing. That is why
we must speak out against any service cuts
in the system. We support the lawsuit by
the TWU to reverse service cuts made last
summer on the C and F lines. With our
recovery process underway, now is not
the time to cut service underserved New
Yorkers rely on,” Adams said.
Schwartz said in a March 18 press conference
that in making these cuts permanent,
the MTA would be taking advantage
of emergency powers made necessary by
COVID-19 and skipping transparency
procedures.
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