Second Ave. residents fret as subway groundbreaking draws near

We’re just two days away from the Second Ave. subway’s third groundbreaking ceremony. While those of us rooting for another subway line are celebrating, those living in the path of the MTA’s plans are facing eviction. Needless to say, these New Yorkers are unhappy campers.

Over the weekend, The Daily News caught up with some of the residents who will be eminent-domained out of their Upper East Side apartments.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority informed [the retired Giorgio]Costa and his neighbors of the plan in 2004. They were greatly concerned but the panic was tempered by the knowledge that politicians and transit types had been promising to create the new subway line for decades without success.

The reality has finally sunk in.

Costa pays $605 a month in rent – far below the market rate in the neighborhood, where an influx of young professionals has driven rents beyond what most retirees can afford. MTA officials said Costa’s five-story building on the corner of E. 69th St. and Second Ave. must be demolished to make room for station exits and equipment. Thirty buildings will be knocked down for the $17 billion project, the MTA said.

Tamer El-Ghobashy’s article is fairly grim. While the MTA has acknowledged that, under federal law, it must find comparable replacement apartments, nearly everyone in New York knows just how tough the real estate market is. One representative from the Corcoran Group says the MTA won’t be too successful replacing these 400 units unless they can find “friendly landlords” which to me sounds something like a New York City oxymoron.

While some of the tenants facing eviction plan to move from Manhattan, a part of me has to wonder about the East Siders’ complacency. The MTA told them in 2004 that this subway line would be built this time; it’s been pretty much a reality since then. These residents chose not to find housing on their own and are now up a creek without a paddle. I’m sympathetic to their plight, but at the same time, they had three years to find suitable housing.

Later today, I’ll check in with Queens where some Sunnyside residents are less than happy with the East Side Access plans. It’s been a rough week as the MTA has learned that, in your efforts to please some of the people all the time, you’ll offend others all the time too.