Dancing, democracy, diversity
PHOTO BY TEQUILA MINSKY
State Senator Brad Hoylman trumpeted democracy
along the March route.
At Sunday’s Pride March, City
Council Speaker Corey Johnson
once again earned his title
as “The Hardest Working Man at the
March,” as he danced and sweated up a
storm along the route.
Keeping up his own tradition, state
Council Speaker Corey Johnson got down to the music.
Senator Brad Hoylman and his husband,
David Sigal, again handed out copies of
the U.S. Constitution — a very useful
document in these turbulent times.
This year’s Pride was larger than ever
due to it being the 50th anniversary of
the Stonewall Riots and New York’s being
tapped as the city for WorldPride,
drawing L.G.B.T.Q. celebrants from
around the world. The usual number of
marchers tripled to 150,000.
This year’s procession kicked off at
noon near Madison Square Park, then
went down Fifth Ave. to the Village,
PHOTO BY TEQUILA MINSKY
past the Stonewall Inn, then up Seventh
Ave., passing the New York City AIDS
Memorial Park at St. Vincent’s Triangle,
to fi nish at W. 23rd St. in Chelsea.
The last groups only got underway at
11 p.m., and the March did not fi nish
until 12:30 a.m.!
Judge blocks 14th busway, demands data
BY LINCOLN ANDERSON
Hold your horses!
Despite the city’s effort to
fast-track a fi rst-of-its-kind nocars
“busway” on 14th St., a judge on
Friday morning slammed the brakes on
the scheme — just three days before it
was set to start — saying that data justifying
the sweeping changes is needed.
The city had planned to radically
transform traffi c on 14th St. starting
Mon., July 1, by implementing a novel
“Transit/Trucks Priority” lanes plan.
The idea — pitched as an unusually
lengthy 18-month pilot plan — has not
been done anywhere else in New York
City to date.
Under the change, cars would have
been banned from 14th St. daily between
the hours of 6 a.m. and 10 p.m.,
with moving traffi c squeezed down to
just one lane eastbound and one lane
westbound for buses and through
trucks. The idea was to speed up buses
on the M14 route — with Select Bus
Service also set to kick off on July 1.
But two weeks ago, Village activist
attorney Arthur Schwartz — representing
a slew of Chelsea and Village block
associations, plus several large co-op
buildings on W. 14th and W. 13th Sts.
— sued Polly Trottenberg, the commissioner
of the Department of Transportation,
over the plan, lambasting it as
“arbitrary and capricious.”
Friday morning, state Supreme
Court Justice Eileen Rakower ruled on
Schwartz’s request for a temporary restraining
order, or T.R.O.
Basically, the S.B.S. can start on 14th
St., since that was not part of the lawsuit.
New ticketing kiosks have been installed
along the M14 route, so that bus
riders can prepay their fares and board
more quickly.
“She barred them from implementing
the busway — but she didn’t bar
them from implementing S.B.S. because
we didn’t ask for that,” Schwartz
said afterward.
According to Schwartz, who is also
the Village’s male Democratic district
leader, Rakower said D.O.T. had not
submitted data to back up why the plan
was needed. When the city was pitching
an earlier form of the busway to
offset the “L-pocalpyse” (full L-train
shutdown), D.O.T. provided plenty of
data and “modeling” — but not this
time around, Schwartz said.
“That previous study showed a
50 percent increase in traffi c on 12th,
13th, 15th and 16th Sts.,” he noted.
Rakower set Aug. 6 as the next date
to hear arguments, and both sides were
given July dates for submitting additional
paperwork.
The lawsuit also asked the court to
rule on the new crosstown protected
bike lanes on W. 12th and W. 13th Sts.
The lanes were added in anticipation of
the full L-train shutdown, which has
since been drastically scaled back to a
“slowdown,” with repair work on the L
tunnel now being done on nights and
weekends, with L-train service never
completely interrupted.
“We didn’t discuss the bike lanes,”
Schwartz said.
He said the lawsuit is not asking for
a T.R.O. on the bike lanes, but an “ultimate
ruling,” which might be to narrow
down the buffer zone next to them.
As this paper reported, the activist
attorney also plans to sue the New York
City Transit Authority over its intention
to eliminate bus stops on the M14 as
part of implementing S.B.S.
In that case, he will be representing
plaintiff Disabled in Action, a group
advocating for disabled New Yorkers.
Judy Pesin, a leader of the 14th St.
Coalition — a group of Village and
Chelsea block associations and apartments
buildings opposed to the busway
— was among the handful of opponents
present when Rakower ruled.
“D.O.T. implied that starting the
busway July 1 was critical because it
was tied into the M.T.A. and the bus
routes and the bus plan,” Pesin said.
“The judge basically said, ‘Just do the
S.B.S. and see what happens.’
“A lot of what she was talking about
was, ‘Let’s see the data.’ There was a
lot of data a year ago,” Pesin added.
A year ago, the city said 50,000 straphangers
who use the L train on 14th St.
daily would be impacted by a full shutdown
of the line in Manhattan.
Pesin added she supports S.B.S., and
that the opponents want to see if M14
bus speeds will increase with it, even
without a no-cars busway. S.B.S. on
the M14 would still start on July 1, a
D.O.T. spokesperson said.
“Today’s disappointing ruling will
affect tens of thousands of M14 bus
riders each day,” said Scott Gastel. “We
understand from M.T.A. that M14 Select
Bus Service will be moving forward
this Monday, but the ruling means that
for the fi rst time ever, S.B.S. will operate
without the trademarked dedicated
lanes that have dramatically increased
bus speeds and reliability on S.B.S.
routes around the city.”
Meanwhile, Riders Alliance, a public
transportation advocacy group,
blasted the busway opponents.
“The 14th St. hypocrisy has got to
stop,” spokesperson Danny Pearlstein
said. “New York’s working people can’t
afford to litigate their right to decent
bus service.”
Schneps Media CNW July 4, 2019 3