Should MTA cash in on railyards to boost
its coffers? One lawmaker says yes
Sunnyside Yards.
BY MARK HALLUM
Manhattan Councilman Ydanis
Rodriguez wants to see more selfsuffi
ciency in the MTA in the longrun
as the COVID-19 pandemic has proven
that fare and tax revenue may not be reliable
when the agency needs funding most.
This has become more abundantly clear
PHOTO BY MARK HALLUM
as the White House administration and
the Republican-led Senate has declined
for months to deliver a second stimulus in
the crisis ongoing for eight months now,
which Rodriguez called for a change to on
Thursday morning in Washington Heights.
Rodriguez’s suggestion to the city and
the MTA? Use real estate rail yards to create
affordable housing as a revenue source
for transportation and diversify income for
the agency’s overall funding.
“We always have to take the responsibility
to deal with a crisis but also take the moment
to plan for the future. I feel that what
we need to do when it comes to the MTA
is continue advocating for more legitimate
resources and that it should come from
the city,” Rodriguez said. “Working from
the private and public sector together, the
MTA should be able to use the rail yards to
bring in economic development, especially
around technology and health and also use
some percentage of the site to build affordable
housing.”
With a $16 billion defi cit facing the MTA
by the end of 2024, Rodriguez told am-
NewYork Metro that the recommendation,
if adopted by the powers that be, would not
happen soon enough to pull the agency out
of its current state of fi nancial crisis.
But it could help stabilize revenue in the
long run.
Proposals for housing above rail yards
is not necessarily new, the de Blasio administration
has long planned to build a
deck over Sunnyside Yards for housing
and recreation. This, Rodriguez says, has
potential for affordable housing and is a
concept that could work in several locations
across the city including the 207th
Street Metro-North facility in Inwood that
is up to 40 acres.
The proposal to build over Sunnyside
Yards, however, has not been welcome with
open arms by many housing advocates who
are not convinced the developments will
be truly affordable for the surrounding
communities in Queens and could drive
gentrifi cation.
Other residents in surrounding neighborhoods
have said at workshops that
they worry about being in shadow of tall
buildings made taller by being built upon
a platform.
Since the beginning of the COVID-19
crisis, the MTA has lost over half of its
operational funds after the disease ran
about 90% of riders from the system.
While these numbers hang at about 30%
of pre-pandemic levels as the city has
begun its phased reopening, the MTA has
put “everything on the table” for operating
within their means.
The MTA has said this could come in
the form of service cuts of 40% and a fare
hike of up to a dollar.
The agency has been petitioning the
federal government for $12 billion just to
fund operations at their current level until
the end of 2021.
BY ROBERT POZARYCKI
A federal lawsuit fi led in
Manhattan on Monday
morning accuses Mayor
Bill de Blasio, Police Commissioner
Dermot Shea and the
NYPD of violating the civil rights
of 11 marchers who were arrested
and/or assaulted by cops during
the George Floyd protests earlier
this year.
The New York Civil Liberties
Union and the Legal Aid
Society fi led the suit on behalf
of individuals who participated
in protests that broke out across
the city between May 28 and June
28 in the aftermath of Floyd’s killing
at the hands of Minneapolis
police offi cers.
The lawsuit accuses NYPD
offi cers of employing “aggressive
techniques” against the marchers
in an effort to control the protests
— from dousing them with
pepper spray, to assaulting them
with batons, to “kettling” large
groups of marchers, blocking off
any means of egress and sparking
standoffs with armed offi cers.
Thirty-eight unidentified
members of the NYPD were also
Mayor, NYPD sued by protesters arrested and
assaulted during George Floyd marches
named as defendants in the lawsuit,
as the victims were not able
to identify all of them by name.
“When tens of thousands of
New Yorkers took to the streets
peacefully to protest police killings
of George Floyd, Breonna
Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery, the
NYPD unleashed an indiscriminate
and brutal wave of violence
to punish protesters for demonstrating
against police violence,”
said Donna Lieberman, executive
director of the NYCLU. “Instead
of holding the NYPD accountable
for the repeated abuses, the mayor
and the police commissioner
became the apologists-in-chief.
The city’s response to the righteous
wave of #BlackLivesMatter
protests is a stain on the city that
can’t be allowed to go unchecked,
especially as New Yorkers prepare
for the possibility of a new wave
of protest after the election.”
The lawsuit fi led in the Manhattan
based Southern District of
New York documents some of the
alleged civil rights violations that
Two young men were arrested at the Manhattan Bridge during
a protest on May 31, 2020.
protesters suffered at the hands of
NYPD offi cers during the spring
protests.
The NYCLU, Legal Aid Society
and the 11 protesters are seeking
financial compensation from
the city for damages infl icted,
but also acknowledgement that
the protesters’ First and Fourth
Amendment rights were violated.
They are also seeking “discovery
and disclosure from the city” to
reveal NYPD protest policies
PHOTO BY TODD MAISEL
“and the extent to which the
mayor and police leadership authorized
the brutal treatment of
peaceful protesters.”
“The world was rightly shocked
when the NYPD met demonstrators
against police harassment
and violence with the very abuse
they took to the streets to protest,”
added Corey Stoughton of
the Legal Aid Society. “Mayor de
Blasio and Commissioner Shea
encouraged and allowed this
violent response, a gross failure
of leadership that continues a
longstanding pattern of promoting
of culture of impunity for
police misconduct primarily
affecting Black and Brown New
Yorkers, and failing to meet the
moment and address New Yorkers’
demands for change.”
When reached for comment
about the litigation, an NYPD
spokesperson replied, “We will
review the lawsuit if and when
we are served.”
During his Monday morning
press conference, de Blasio
declined to go into the details
of the lawsuit, but said that the
NYPD is committed to improving
relationships between police and
the communities they serve.
“Clearly, what we want and
what we believe in is a better
and more peaceful relationship
between the NYPD and the community,”
de Blasio said. “I’m not
going to speak to the details of the
lawsuit, but I think the underlying
concept just isn’t fair.”
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