12 AUGUST 15, 2019 RIDGEWOOD TIMES WWW.QNS.COM
MTA has been crumbling long enough
Two reports released by State
Comptroller Tom DiNapoli and
City Comptroller Scott Stringer
this week highlight the woeful
conditions that Queens commuters
who rely on subways and commuter
rail lines can attest to daily.
And while it’s easy to see the neglect
and incompetence, it seems much
harder to fi nd a way to fi x the damage.
DiNapoli announced the results of
a study that revealed something that
seems obvious by now: most New York
City subway stations are crumbling.
That Queens had the largest number
of stations with “worn or damaged
structural components” — 44 percent
of all the borough’s subway stops, as
measured in an analysis of MTA data
from 2017 — was rather startling.
These components include
platform edges and ventilators, both
of which are quite obviously key to
rider safety. Broken platform edges
increase the risk of potentially tragic
slips and falls, and malfunctioning
ventilators are both short- and longterm
health hazards for anyone who
sets foot on an underground subway
station platform.
EDITORIAL
The second half of this one-two
transit punch came from Stringer’s
letter to Long Island Rail Road President
Phil Eng criticizing the commuter
rail line for its own station problems,
namely a lack of accessibility.
Just fi ve LIRR stations in Brooklyn
and Queens meet federal ADA
(Americans with Disabilities Act)
compliance, and yet, the LIRR has
either dragged its feet on — or scrapped
altogether — projects designed to bring
the stops up to code.
The LIRR and MTA quietly removed
funding in its most recent capital
plan for improvements to the Hollis
and Hunterspoint Avenue stations,
and construction of new stations in
Elmhurst and Sunnyside. Moreover,
efforts to build elevators at the
Murray Hill station have been delayed
over and over again, and now the
project is way over budget, according
to Stringer.
That’s not to mention the continued
neglect at the Woodside-61st Street
transit hub, which The Queens Courier
profi led back in March. The MTA has
seemingly done the bare minimum
to improve conditions there, mainly
taking steps to prevent debris from
falling off the elevated 7 line onto cars
and people.
The falling debris problem
apparently isn’t confi ned to Woodside,
either. Earlier this month, City
Councilman Costa Constantinides
urged the MTA to install protective
netting under the elevated N/W line
in Astoria aft er a worker’s fl ashlight,
somehow kept on the apparatus
above, came crashing down to the
pavement below.
Add it all up, and the portrait of the
MTA in 2019 is far from fl attering.
Politicians have been quick to
condemn the MTA and promise
reform and “transformation” to make
everything better. We’ve heard this
before, and the end result has always
equated to reshuffl ing deck chairs on
the Titanic.
Meanwhile, Queens residents
are stuck with terrible bus service,
delayed subway trains and crumbling,
inaccessible stations.
City and state leaders should
streamline the authority’s overhead
and empower it (financially and
politically) with the means to get
things done — and then do them.
We don’t need another Robert Moses
— an all-powerful master builder who
treated the public with contempt — but
rather leaders who can at least get
the MTA and the riders it serves out
of this mess.
Enough talking about it. Let’s get the
MTA moving toward progress again.
THE HOT TOPIC
ESTABLISHED 1908
Co-Publishers
VICTORIA SCHNEPS-YUNIS
JOSHUA SCHNEPS
Editor-in-Chief
ROBERT POZARYCKI
Classifi ed Manager
DEBORAH CUSICK
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MARLENE RUIZ
Reporters
EMILY DAVENPORT
MARK HALLUM
CARLOTTA MOHAMED
BILL PARRY
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Inspection crews beneath the 61st Street - Woodside Station.
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