As I mentioned briefly on Friday, the MTA does not anticipate reopening the Smith/9th Sts. station stop until the fall. Originally slated to open this month, the 78-year-old station has been the host of “especially challenging conditions,” according to a Transit spokesman, and its reopening will have to wait. Business owners and residents who are effectively cut out of from their subway stop are not happy, The Daily News reported today, and I don’t blame them.
“I really might have to close my whole business down because of this,” Abdul Zaokari, the owner of the deli that sits beneath the viaduct, said. “I’ve asked MTA to give me a break since I pay them for my rent, but they don’t listen. And even worse, they don’t realize how many customers used to come here in the morning, for lunch and even for a quick dinner. I’ve lost 80 percent of those customers. I really don’t know how my business can survive until November when they say the subway will be finished.”
Other shop owners say the crowds that used to accompany the F and G trains at the closet station to parts of Carroll Gardens and Red Hook are completely gone and won’t return for six to eight months. Now, I want the Viaduct to last another 75 years, but at a certain point, it’s understandable when people get upset. It is routine practice for the MTA to say a rehabilitation project will cost a certain amount and go on for a fixed period of time. In the end, the project usually costs more and takes longer than the MTA first promises, and people dependent upon the subway for travel and its crowds for a livelihood are the losers.
Had Zaokari known the full extent of the outage last year, he could have better prepared for it. Instead he has to weather another six unanticipated months of this storm while Red Hook residents will have to hike to the nearest open stop or continue to rely on one of Brooklyn’s least reliable bus routes. The wait continues.
9 comments
Maybe this is slightly off-topic, but it’s part of the same general issue. This week, they were making a big deal about the upcoming centennial of Grand Central Station early next year, and even making a big deal over the new LOGO for Grand Central, as if most people could CARE about the logo. BUT, not a word about when they will open up that new entrance to Grand Central on 47th St. between Park and Lex. Just like Smith-9th Sts., it was supposed to be finished by now.
Maybe whenever a major construction project like this is done, eminent domain should be use to seize all the commercial properties within a certain range of the area, not just the ones needed for the work. Then once the construction is done the MTA could sell the seized properties at a profit. At least that way the business owners would receive some compensation and cut their costs, as opposed to struggling through the construction and closing anyway.
Can you imagine the legal ramifications of what you just posted? ED cases would tie up the courts for years if not decades & cause MTA construction to come to a vertual halt.
Why would the business owners get compensation in that situation? They’re renters, so nothing would change for them unless the MTA released their leases.
I share the concerns of fellow replies, but want to add that Lhota has talked about expanding the use of tax-increment financing with the Capital program, so your fundamental premise– of MTA profiting off improvements to the system– is certainly one that is being discussed at the highest levels.
I do wish the MTA would stop handing out contracts to the same slow and careless mob contractors.
Yeah. NYC seems to have *extraordinary* delays on projects. I mean, utility relocation I understand, nobody knows where those things are and there’s twenty different organizations to deal with. Likewise, I get it when the eminent domain / property acquisition phase takes forever. And I understand when “test bores” discover the unexpected… but that should be done BEFORE closing the station.
But there seem to be delays and defective work (South Ferry?!?) even after all the “difficult” bits are dealt with. Which is just a sign of bad contractors or bad project management.
I certainly think the guy quoted in the article who is renting from the MTA did get a shitty break. They should give him a break on the rent when they have closed the station that he is renting at. Obviously the space isnt worth remotely the same amount while the station isnt operating.
Give the guy a break on his rent, MTA! How low can you go…