FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM OCTOBER 24, 2019 • THE QUEENS COURIER 35
Constantinides reveals plans for a more accessible Queens
BY ANGELICA ACEVEDO
Councilman Costa Constantinides,
who is running for borough president,
revealed his plans for a more accessible
Queens during a press conference in front
of the Hunters Point Library on Tuesday.
“We’re here today to say that we
want to get things right the fi rst time,”
Constantinides told the Queens Courier.
“Too oft en we spend city capital dollars
without asking, ‘Are these spaces accessible?
Photo: Angélica Acevedo
Councilman Costa Constantinides with members of the community at a press conference on Oct. 22.
Are all of our friends and neighbors
able to enjoy them?’”
Th e Astoria native said that as borough
president, he would have a “borough
wide sensibility coordinator” who
would be in charge of talking about issues
like accessibility on a consistent basis.
Constantinides used the Hunters Point
Library in Long Island City — which was
stalled for almost two decades but opened
its doors in September — as an example
of developments that are not suitable for
people with wheelchairs, seniors and parents
with strollers.
Th e impressive building stands out for
its modern design, featuring light brown
wooden stairs that allow patrons to marvel
at a beautiful view of the Manhattan
skyline and the East River.
Architect Steven Holl designed the interior
“in ascending tiers,” according to
CBS.
“I think that we should be talking about
these issues in a larger way, we should be
making sure city capital projects are being
funded with accessibility in mind, and we
should be holding the MTA accountable,”
Constantinides said.
Th e councilman also mentioned the
MTA’s lack of accessible train stations,
and how the transit agency recently
announced that it will be adding elevators
to stations across the city, including
Broadway Junction at the L and J/Z lines.
But Constantinides said that he and
members of the community have asked
the MTA for more wheelchair- and stroller
friendly train station entrances for
years.
“Rather than retro-fi tting, rather than
having to go back and revisit these types
of projects and saying, ‘How do we accommodate
it?’ — It shouldn’t be a, ‘How do
we accommodate?’ it should be a, ‘How
do we make them get it right the fi rst
time?’” he said.
Constantinides was joined by community
leaders and accessibility advocates
during his press conference.
Edward Funches, founder and president
of Inclusion Marketing and
Advertisement Group Inc., said he trusts
that Constantinides will work toward a
more inclusive system.
“We’re not being included, that’s the
problem,” Funches said. “We are never
included when it comes to the decision
making. Th ey think something is
accessible because there’s a handicap sign,
but it’s not.”
Funches, an advocate for those who are
disabled, pointed at a motorized wheelchair
and explained that it’s not at all the
same as the manual one that he uses.
“Th ey’ll look at a wheelchair and think
it’s the same. We have motorized wheelchairs
and we have manual wheelchairs,
and the dimensions are completely diff erent,”
he said. “We just want to be included.”
Franklin Brooks, who uses a walker,
agreed that it’s hard for people in wheelchairs
and walkers to get around the subway
system. Th e 67-year-old oft en commutes
from Manhattan to Queens, where
he goes to church.
“Th e main thing is as Constantinides
says, when you do something, do it right,”
Brooks said.
Constantinides thinks that if the city
thinks about accessibility before developing
projects and fi xing MTA stations, it’ll
save more money in the long run.
“Th at’s what I’m calling for today: just
getting things right the fi rst time so that
we’re not constantly scrambling to come
up with half-hearted solutions to deal
with issues that should’ve been thought
about in the very beginning,” he said.
Transit union launches contest for angry
NYC subway riders fed up with fi lth
BY VINCENT BARONE
Th e union representing MTA subway
and bus workers wants pictures of your
dirty subway car.
TWU Local 100 is off ering a $500
prize to the commuter who submits a
photo of the most disgusting subway
train through its new #trashtrain contest.
Contestants must submit photos to the
union’s trashtrain.net website.
Th e nasty contest is a novel approach
to highlighting union issues as TWU
Local 100 continues an even nastier contract
negotiation with the MTA. Union
workers have been clocking in without a
contract since this spring.
“Since the authority is not listening to
the union, they should hear from the riding
public. It’s not a secret; these trains
are a lot dirtier,” said Nelson Rivera,
the administrative vice president at the
union and veteran car inspector at the
MTA. “I’m not talking just trash. I’m
talking feces, blood, vomit — all that
kind of stuff .”
Th e union will run the contest through
the end of November, when it will
announce its winner.
Rivera said subway trains have gotten
dirtier over the last decade as the
MTA executed cuts to cleaning crews
and schedules. Th e issue has been compounded
by the city’s homeless crisis,
which has forced more people to seek
shelter underground, he said.
“Maybe they’ll see this and invest the
money in the right places,” Rivera added,
of the MTA.
Th e transit authority runs nearly 600
trains through its subway system every
day. MTA Spokesman Tim Minton said
the authority took cleaning each of those
trains seriously.
“All 591 MTA subway trains in service
f you see a fi lthy train car like this one during your commute, the TWU Local 100 wants you to snap
a photo and enter it into their “Trash Train” contest.
every day — more than 5,000 train
cars — are routinely cleaned multiple
times throughout the day,” Minton said
in a statement. “NYC Transit mobile
wash teams and daily cleaning staff are
Courtesy of TWU Local 100
deployed to all 473 NYC Transit stations
to address platforms. Beyond that, the
MTA is focused on reaching a fair contract
agreement with TWU Local 100
and we will not negotiate in the press.”
/WWW.QNS.COM
/trashtrain.net
