LOCAL NEWS OP-ED
New York City Transit
ready to spring ahead
BY CRAIG CIPRIANO
Spring is finally on the
horizon, and I am
hopeful with spring
comes the return of baseball
and my beloved Yankees.
But I am not only
hoping that the new season
brings a new and invigorated
team— I am optimistic
it will be the start of a
new chapter for New York
City Transit and the city at
large.
After a challenging two
years, culminated this
winter where we were frequently
tested by Omicron,
crew shortages and falling
ridership, indicators are
once again positive and
trending strong.
Weekday subway ridership
surpassed 3 million on
several days this month for
the first time since early
December. That’s an increase
of almost 50% over
the lowest point of the COVID
surge. Buses are regularly
carrying 1.3 million
customers a day, with more
than 20,000 daily trips on
Paratransit.
At the same time, service
delivery has shot up
to 92.2% on the subways,
which puts us back on the
upward trajectory that
started last fall. Compared
to pre-pandemic levels, Additional
Train Time (due to
delays en route) was 20
seconds less and Additional
Platform Time (waiting
for trains to arrive) was
just two seconds longer
than in February 2020.
Satisfaction with service
doesn’t come without a
strong focus on safety. The
Governor’s and Mayor’s
announcement on Friday
is a great step forward and
we have already started to
see an increased NYPD
Scrappy
request
Hoylman introduces
bill to expand NYC
composting program
BY KEVIN DUGGAN
This pol is not taking the Mayor’s scrap!
A day after Mayor Eric Adams published
plans to halt the expansion of the city’s curbside
organics program, a state lawmaker introduced
a bill Feb. 17 that requires the city to create
a composting collection service for all New York
City homes.
Manhattan state Senator Brad Hoylman’s
Feb. 17 law would make the Big Apple provide
food scrap pickups for every building with residential
units, unlike the current program that is
limited to only a few neighborhoods, and which
still sends organic waste from most of the Five
Boroughs to landfi lls.
“New York needs to make landscapes, not
landfi lls,” Hoylman said in a statement. “Right
now we’re letting all this waste go to waste, instead
If passed, the bill would give any city in the
state with a population of one million or more
— in other words, New York City — one year to
establish the service.
The city would also have to start fi ning landlords
and building managers who don’t comply
with the program, according to the bill text.
Gotham’s current food scrap pickups restarted
in the fall after a year-long hiatus due
to COVID-19 budget cuts under Mayor Bill de
Blasio, but the latest iteration is limited to largely
wealthy neighborhoods in six community
boards of Brooklyn, Manhattan, and the Bronx.
The Department of Sanitation had planned
to roll out the scheme to more neighborhoods
based on demand and signups by residents this
year, but Mayor Adams’s preliminary budget
proposal cuts funding for those efforts in order
to save costs.
Adams claimed Thursday that he wants to
scrap the plans so his team can come up with
a better alternative, as the current program is
still widely underused in the areas it’s available.
Organics make up more than 30% of the
FILE PHOTO
State Senator Brad Hoylman speaks
in Albany.
residential waste stream in New York City and
when dumped in landfi lls the scraps can emit
the harmful greenhouse gas methane, contributing
to climate change.
Keeping the wetter and heavier food waste in
latched brown bins also helps deter rats, noted
one composting advocate.
“Setting organics aside into latching containers
will reduce access to this food source for
the City’s massive rat population, and will take
our City one massive step closer to running
in an environmentally responsible way,” said
Meredith Danberg-Ficarelli, executive director
of the group Common Ground Compost, in a
statement.
The Villager, Villager Express, Chelsea Now, Downtown Express and Manhattan Express
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presence in the subway. To
support these efforts, we
continue to deploy private
security officers and MTA
Police at certain stations.
Security cameras, thousands
of which are now
visible across all stations,
add another layer of security.
Transit has processed
thousands of downloads
since the cameras went
live, helping police make
arrests on crimes ranging
from vandalism to armed
robbery, arson, and even
more serious violations.
We’re doing everything
we can to make the system
as appealing as possible as
the city moves into the next
phase of recovery. Starting
next week, subway and local
bus customers using
OMNY will be able to take
advantage of fare-capping
for the very first time—
eliminating the decision of
whether to pre-purchase an
unlimited ride plan at the
start of the week vs. paying
per ride. You’ll automatically
get the best deal
based on how often you use
the system in a given week.
Bus customers can
also look forward to the
promise of new bus lanes.
Mayor Adams has pledged
to build 150 miles of new
lanes over the next four
years. When added to the
existing 140 miles of lanes,
it will create one of the
largest such networks in
the world, and we thank
the mayor for his commitment
to faster buses.
We can’t wait for you to
experience all these improvements
and look forward
to seeing you soon.
Spring is right around the
corner.
Craig Cipriano is MTA
New York City Transit
President.
Member of the National
Newspaper Association
Member of the
New York Press Association
Member of the Minority
Women Business Enterprise
of composting it.”
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