BY BEN VERDE
Transit honchos are
planning to fast track repairs
at Clark Street subway
station in Brooklyn
Heights, but business
owners in the station say
they’re being left in the
dark.
The Metropolitan
Transit Authority plans
to shutter the station
for eight months while
conducting desperately
needed repairs on the
station’s three elevators,
which are the only methods
of reaching the deepunderground
station.
While agency offi cials
sent out a press release
on the decision on Feb.
14, shop owners in the station
say they were never
informed of the decision
— which they fear will be
catastrophic to their bottom
line, and force some
of them to close.
“They didn’t tell us
nothing now,” said Chan
Han, owner of Han’s Market,
a convenience store
housed in the station. Every
business owner interviewed
by the Brooklyn
Paper on Monday afternoon
said they were similarly
unaware.
Salahuddin Aziz, the
owner of a newspaper
stand inside the station,
said the station’s closure
would likely kill his business.
“Right now business is
bad, if they close for eight
months, I’ll be out of business,”
he said.
The eight-month closure
was one of three options
transit bigwigs presented
to the community,
and the one favored by
COURIER L 4 IFE, FEBRUARY 21-27, 2020
outgoing city transit czar
Andy Byford — who cited
the low costs and quicker
timeframe compared to
other options.
“We strongly feel our
approach minimizes the
impact that this disruption
will cause,” Byford
said in a statement.
The alternate proposals,
which multiple business
owners said they preferred,
would have kept
the stations open while
repairs were conducted.
One option called
for the elevators to be
worked on at different
times, while at least one
remained in service at
all times — although that
scheme would have extended
the project’s timeline
to two years. A third
plan would have kept the
station open during peak
Salahuddin Aziz, owner of a newspaper stand in the station. Photo by Ben Verde
hours only and work
would be done at other
times, which would have
taken a year to complete,
according to the MTA.
Transit offi cials presented
the proposals at
a community meeting
at St. Francis College
in September, and ultimately
decided on the
full-closure, which will
begin after a contract is
awarded, transit bigwigs
said.
The plan calls for the
mezzanine doors to be left
open during repairs, but
business owners doubt
that will be suffi cient to
maintain enough business
because the vast majority
of their business
comes from commuters
coming and going from
the train.
“Everybody goes to
work, they bring their
stuff with them, they
don’t have time to come
this way, they’ll go to
a business over there,”
said Fernando Costano,
an employee at Brooklyn
Heights Shoe Master, a
shoe repair shop in the
station.
Costano and Kim, who
pay rent to the Hotel St.
George above the station,
not the MTA, remembered
10 years ago when
the station was closed for
repairs for three months.
“This whole neighborhood
was dead,” Kim
said.
During that closure,
landlords offered businesses
a rent freeze for
the three-month period,
with the understanding
that they pay back the difference
once the station
reopened, according to
Costano.
But the businessman
didn’t think such a deal
would be possible during
a much longer project.
“How can I pay $25,000
for 8 months when there’s
no business?” he said.
Locked out
Clark Street business owners claim MTA
left them in the dark on station closure