BY BEN VERDE
The 7th Avenue stop in
Park Slope is fi nally slated for
an elevator, the Metropolitan
Transportation Authority announced
this month — after
years of grassroots advocacy
from neighborhood residents.
The station will receive
three elevators at the intersection
of Ninth Street under
the current plan, a project
residents and local elected
offi cials have pushed for for
over six years.
“When we got word the
other day it was unbelievable
— we were so thrilled,” said
Joyce Jed of Good Neighbors
Park Slope, a group of older
adults who have advocated for
the lift since the beginning.
Organizing efforts started
in earnest with an online petition
in 2014. The sign-up
sheet, created by Jed and Jasmine
The Saghir Lewis Team
COURIER L 6 IFE, JANUARY 1-7, 2021
Melzer, quickly grew
into a multi-organization effort
to bring an elevator to the
train station closest to Methodist
Hospital.
But that wasn’t the fi rst
mention of a 7th Avenue station
elevator, according to
Councilman Brad Lander,
who said he remembers hearing
about it when he fi rst ran
for offi ce in 2010.
The years-long effort included
lobbying at MTA board
meetings, petitions, rallies,
and the use of the Participatory
Budgeting process for a
$250,000 down payment on the
elevator, a small drop in the
bucket towards the millions
the elevator will cost to build.
“I think this was the fi rst
project like that, where the
funding was not all in evidence,”
Lander said. “I think
the only reason that happened
Supporters of the elevator rallied outside the station back in 2018. Photo by Colin Mixson
was that the campaign
already existed, and the folks
involved in it had a pitch to
make about how the down
payment idea really would
help show the neighborhood’s
commitment to and support
for this campaign.”
The station is perfectly
situated for an elevator, advocates
have long argued, due
to its location in between two
stops that already have them
— Church Avenue to the south
and Jay Street Metrotech to
the north — and its proximity
to both Methodist Hospital
and the Park Slope Center for
Successful Aging.
For years the Authority
maintained that it could not
add any stations to its roster
to receive accessibility
upgrades until it completed
its existing list of elevators
they had been working on for
roughly a decade.
Advocates focused their efforts
on having the Park Slope
station named along with the
next round of stations.
“Our main goal as Good
Neighbors of Park Slope, was
the next time the MTA did
a list of stations to be made
accessible, we wanted to be
on it,” said Melzer, of Good
Neighbors. “It got to the point
where I’d go to a CB6 meeting,
and if Brad Lander was there
he’d be talking about transit,
bus lines or something, and
he’d look at me and say ‘and I
know, you need an elevator.’”
The 2018 capital plan unveiled
by then-New York
City Transit President Andy
Byford inspired hope for elevator
advocates, due to the
plan’s calls for an ambitious
expansion of accessibility
projects throughout the station.
A rally staged by accessibility
groups and local
elected offi cials outside the
station in November of 2018
called for it to be included in
the next round of accessibility
upgrades included in the
capital plan, which at that
point included no details on
what stations were slated for
upgrades.
On the rise
Advocates look back on
years-long campaign for a
7th Avenue station elevator
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