Locals sue to stop 14th St. bus plan
BY LINCOLN ANDERSON
Not so fast!
The city is determined to
make 14th St. a transportation
“experiment” by banning cars to speed
up bus service. The changes are set to
start July 1 in what’s being dubbed an
18-month “pilot project.”
But slamming the transit scheme as
“arbitrary and capricious,” a Village activist
attorney last Thursday has sued
in State Supreme Court to stop the plan
in its tracks — and bus lanes.
Democratic District Leader Arthur
Schwartz fi led suit on behalf of 16
plaintiffs, including Chelsea and Village
block associations and large co-op
apartment buildings, plus several individuals.
Schwartz is one of the latter
in his capacity as male district leader
for the 66th Assembly District, Part A
(Greenwich Village). He’s also a W.
12th St. resident.
It’s an Article 78 lawsuit, meaning
it challenges a city decision. And it’s
fi led against one individual: Polly Trottenberg,
commissioner of the city’s Department
of Transportation.
In addition, Schwartz said he would
fi le suit this week against the New York
City Transit Authority’s plan to cut bus
stops on the M14 route to transform it
into Select Bus Service. That suit —
with Disabled in Action as plaintiff
— will argue that slashing stops would
harm people with disabilities.
The fi rst lawsuit asks for a temporary
restraining order, or T.R.O., to
be enforced against the 14th St. socalled
Transit/Truck Priority lanes
plan — a.k.a. the “busway” — as well
as against the new crosstown bike lanes
on 12th and 13th Sts. The plaintiffs argue
that both the 14th St. plan and the
bike lanes must be reviewed under the
State Environmental Quality Review
Act (SEQRA) and the City Environmental
Quality Review (CEQR) — and
that the bike lanes and their respective
protective buffer areas must be narrowed
to allow a 16-foot-wide roadway
for moving traffi c, increasing from the
10 feet left after the lanes’ installation.
The lawsuit contends both the 14th
St. plan and the bike lanes need an environmental
assessment and, if necessary,
a more rigorous environmental
impact statement, or E.I.S.
More to the point, the suit charges,
the scheme cannot be allowed to proceed
unless “some modicum of rationality”
is shown to justify it.
Under the city’s plan, 14th St. from
Third to Ninth Aves. would be reduced
to one lane of moving traffi c in each direction,
and cars would be banned on
the street daily from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m.
Buses, through trucks and emergency
vehicles would be allowed to travel
along the major Downtown crosstown
artery. Cabs and for-hire vehicles
would be permitted to come onto 14th
A year ago, attorney Arthur Schwartz, left, announced a community lawsuit against the 14th St. “busway”
plan, with Edith Prentiss, of Disabled in Action, center, and Judy Pesin, of the 14th St. Coalition, right. Now
Schwartz has filed a new suit against a slightly retooled busway plan. He also intends to sue on behalf of
Disabled in Action over the New York City Transit Authority’s plan to slash bus stops on the M14 to implement
Select Bus Service as part of the changes.
St. for drop-offs but would then have
to take their fi rst right turn off of 14th
St. Similarly, for-hire cars would be allowed
to come onto 14th St. for pickups
— though yellow taxis would be
banned from doing so. Cars would also
be allowed to access parking garages.
The current busway scheme is a version
of the one the city pitched when the
L train was going to be shut down for
15 months for repairs. At that time, the
Metropolitan Transportation Authority
estimated that, with the L shutdown,
an additional 30,000 commuters per
day would take the M14 bus crosstown,
while D.O.T. said an additional 2,000
to 5,000 cyclists would be biking crosstown.
But this January, Governor Andrew
Cuomo declared the L train repairs
could be done on nights and weekends,
avoiding a full shutdown, with partial
L service always maintained. It seemed
the busway was done for.
Yet, in April, the plan was revived,
with trucks now allowed to use 14th
St., too. (During the plan’s earlier version,
residents had raised the alarm that
trucks would be pushed onto their side
streets.) And it was announced the bike
lanes — previously pitched as temporary
during the expected “L-pocalypse”
— would now be permanent.
Meanwhile, the same complaints
that led Chelsea, Village and Flatiron
residents to sue over the busway a year
ago remain. Among the biggest concerns,
the suit says, is that neighboring
side streets from 12th St. to 20th St.
would be fl ooded with car and truck
traffi c displaced from 14th St., with
the vehicles’ “vibrations endangering
the 19th-century buildings which line
these blocks, challenging the character
of Greenwich Village, Chelsea and
Flatiron communities... .”
While the plan itself has not changed
much from before, its justifi cation has.
As the lawsuit notes, “D.O.T. has
switched its motivation for reworking
14th St. from accommodation of riders
inconvenienced by the L train to a need
to make cross-14th St. buses ‘run faster.’
No new rationale has been stated
for the two bike lanes constructed before
the L-train shutdown was called
off, which were supposed to be ‘temporary’
and were designed to serve Ltrain
riders who chose to bicycle across
Greenwich Village.”
Community Board 4 (Chelsea/Hell’s
Kitchen), earlier this month, voted 45
to 0 to oppose the 14th St. changes due
to lack of “inclusion of a comprehensive
mitigation plan for the adjacent
residential streets.”
In March, Community Board 3 (East
Village/Lower East Side) said it would
not support removing M14 S.B.S.
stops, “which will be a terrible burden
to underserved residents of C.B. 3 and
institutions of the Lower East Side.”
Although the new rationale for the
14th St. plan is to speed up the buses,
the suit notes that it is, in fact, one of
two crosstown streets in Manhattan
that “has a subway running across almost
its entire length” — the other being
42nd St.
Schwartz also included as exhibits
50 photos he took showing vehicles
blocking the bike lanes — plus one of a
ladder blocking the bike path.
“If an oil truck is making deliveries,
nothing will be able to pass,” the suit
asserts, adding that garbage trucks and
fi re trucks are 9 feet wide. In all, 550
parking spaces were eliminated to create
PHOTO BY LINCOLN ANDERSON
the new bike lanes, according to the
suit.
More serious, however, the litigation
charges, “Traffi c delays on streets
heading eastbound could be life-threatening.”
Because there is no hospital on the
“west side of the 14th St. Corridor,” the
Lenox Health Greenwich Village standalone
emergency department, at 12th
St. and Seventh Ave., often transports
patients by ambulance to hospitals for
higher-level care, such as to Mt. Sinai-
Beth Israel, on the East Side.
The plaintiffs further fear that the
alleged 18-month pilot project would
become permanent.
However, a city Law Department
spokesperson said the lawsuit has “no
merit.”
D.O.T. “followed all applicable procedures
and should be allowed to complete
this initiative,” Nicholas Paolucci
told the New York Post.
Schwartz said he’ll be in court Fri.,
June 28, at 71 Thomas St., at 10 a.m.,
and — based on his initial talk Monday
with Justice Eileen Rakower — feels
hopeful about snagging a T.R.O. He’s
urging a big community turnout.
Meanwhile, the Riders Alliance derided
the legal challenge as “Not In My
Backyard’ism.”
“The 14th St. NIMBYs behind this
lawsuit fashion themselves latter-day
Jane Jacobses,” said R.A. spokepserson
Danny Pearlstein. “But they are actually
belated Robert Moseses, promoting
private cars, driving, creating choking
pollution and debilitating congestion to
the exclusion of public transit and transit
riders.”
6 June 27, 2019 CNW Schneps Media