WWW.QNS.COM RIDGEWOOD TIMES APRIL 23, 2020 3
Holden leads call to shut down mass transit
BY MARK HALLUM
MHALLUM@SCHNEPSMEDIA.COM
@QNS
A letter to Governor Andrew
Cuomo to shut down the city’s
subways and buses as a measure
against the spread of COVID-19
was not met with agreement by
the parties involved on Sunday
morning.
Councilman Robert Holden’s offi ce
penned the letter that Holden and three
other City Council members signed —
Eric Ulrich and Peter Koo of Queens,
and Mark Gjonaj of the Bronx.
The lawmakers said that the striking
number of transit worker deaths,
as well as the prolifi c spread of the
disease being something unique to
New York City, should be considered.
They also called on the city to suspend
all parking regulations.
Holden’s offi ce did not immediately
respond when asked for a copy of
the letter, but posted the letter to
Facebook aft er our deadline for this
story.
The MTA said on April 19 that the
request was a non-starter.
“What these council members don’t
realize is that shutting down mass
transit during this unprecedented
crisis would be dangerous and could
lead to even more deaths,” an MTA
statement said. “Even with subway
ridership down more than 90 percent,
we are making it possible for
doctors, nurses, first responders,
grocery and pharmacy workers,
and other essential personnel, to
get to work and save lives. The MTA
has led the nation in its eff orts to
protect its employees and customers,
disinfecting its stations and rolling
stock daily and even breaking away
from federal guidance and providing
hundreds of thousands of masks to
our heroic workforce before the CDC
recommended it.”
While one of the prominent
arguments for Holden’s letter was
in defense of transit workers who
have suff ered unlike other frontline
workers with 68 deaths as of Saturday,
the union representing the men and
women of the MTA did not agree.
Transport Workers Union President
John Samuelsen, during a WORAM
radio appearance on April 14,
rejected the notion of shutting down
the transit system, recognizing that
their members are concerned but
understand what’s at stake.
Going a step further, Samuelsen
said the crisis would be much worse
if the transit system had completely
shut down.
“But nonetheless, we see ourselves
as this vital cog in the societal fi ght
back against COVID-19. We are as as
you said, we are the system that gets
the blue-collar responders to the
frontlines with this battle — nurses,
home aides, food service workers — if
it weren’t for this system, there would
be no battle against COVID-19 in New
York and across the country,” Samuelsen
said. “New York would not
have been able to get fi rst responders
to the front lines. We wouldn’t have
food in some cases. We wouldn’t have
food workers at work. We wouldn’t
have nurses at hospitals. We wouldn’t
have home aides taking care of our
elderly, in houses, but not for the
public transit system.”
Read more at QNS.com.
Trains are mostly empty at Barclays Center station during rush-hour on
April 15, 2020. Here, a train motorman wears a mask while pulling into
the station. Photo by Todd Maisel
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Thank you.
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