Second Ave. Sagas

Category: MTA Absurdity

  • Straphangers bemoan $89k Second Ave. photo-op

    I love stories like this one in today’s Times.

    William Neuman, transit beat writer for The Times, discovered that the groundbreaking for the Second Ave. subway cost a cool $89,000. He decided to share that price tag and ask straphangers how they felt about footing the bill. The responses are, of course, classic.

    Whether $89,000, a minuscule amount of the $4 billion budget for the subway project, seems like a lot or a little may depend on your perspective. In simple terms, it is the equivalent of about 1,171 30-day MetroCards.

    “I object,” said Randi Kornreich, who was waiting yesterday for a No. 6 train at 96th Street and Lexington Avenue. “I’m a penny pincher, and I think any time they can save money they should and pass it along to the citizen who pays enough in taxes already.”

    The MTA of course defended their “historic event,” and, really, who can blame them? While Jeffrey Soffin’s rationale behind the event — “it is important to expose the public to our infrastructure to better understand the transit system that drives the regional economy” — sounds fairly unimpressive, it is important to put one’s best foot forward for something that truly could be an historic event.

    But what did the Authority get for $89,000? Well, an outside contractor earned $61,000 to clean and renovate the existing tunnel and to build a stage for the event. The authority spent $1,5000 on 300 copies of a promotional DVD and $1,500 on minature miner’s picks inscribed with the date of the groundbreaking. The cost to wire the tunnel for lighting and electrical hookups cost $16,000. Sounds like money well spent.

  • Local service from Shea nearly as painful as recent Yankee efforts

    Subway Series Once again, it’s time for three regular season baseball games in the middle of May to take on some grand importance as the New York sports media fawns all over this Grand Supreme Battle for New York.

    And, boy, is the MTA proud of themselves for their Subway Series service. First, they released a press release proclaiming New York City Transit “set for the Subway Series.” Then Elliot Sander, the MTA CEO himself, penned a piece for Metro’s blog extolling the virtues of taking the train to Shea. Awww. How cute. A blog.

    Now, my loyal readers know to take the subway to Shea. Why would you want to battle rush hour traffic only to find that you have to park at the Unisphere, 15 minutes away from the stadium, because the Mets are erecting a new stadium in their parking lot? With, as the MTA itself proclaims, 7 trains running every two to three minutes after the game, it’s easy in and easy out.

    But there’s a catch. With the MTA, there’s always a catch. These trains, running from Willets Point to Times Square, will run local all the way to the wall. That means up to 19 stops of packed-subway bliss; that’s 19 potential stops riding next to vacant express tracks while no one gets on or off the train at 111th St., 103rd St, 82nd St, and so on.

    Now, this all sounds like small beans, right? No express service. Cry me a river. Well, hold on. It takes around 30 minutes to get from Manhattan to Shea when the train runs express. But that local train takes 50 minutes to an hour depending on track congestion. Since nearly everyone on the 7 from Shea heads to Manhattan or Queensboro Plaza, why can’t every other train on the express tracks and make express stops?

    Well, amNewYork’s Michael Clancy asked this exact question two weeks ago, and the answer is sure to inspire frustration and madness:

    New York Transit spokesman Paul Fleuranges said adding express service from games is easier said than done. Without increasing manpower and trains, wait times would increase on the local and express tracks, Fleuranges said. And with more people waiting to board the subway, crowded conditions would make it difficult for those trying to get to parking lots or the LIRR.

    “We provide a very high level of service for Met and Yankee games,” Fleuranges said. “That’s a cost to us and we have to balance the needs of the entire system and weigh that against the needs of the entire system.”

    COME ON, PAUL! The MTA is already expanding 7 service, and you would alleviate overcrowding on local trains by running express trains. Everyone destined for Queensboro Plaza or Manhattan would ride that express. Those folks bound for 74th St.-Broadway could take an empty local, and I know the platform wouldn’t be overcrowded. Problem solved.

    So tonight, as your eyes start glazing over during the interminable local ride from Shea Stadium to Manhattan, just know there is no express service because the MTA is not creative. And that is just a sloppy excuse for poor post-game service.

  • Kicking it in the subway, preschool style

    A tip o’ the hat to my friend at No Strategy, Just Bravado…

    [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ceNf-11-ddI]

    Seriously, tourists. Watch your children in the crowded stations. It ain’t that hard.

  • Alarm boxes finally repaired, 338 days later

    Sometimes, bad news hits the press on Saturday or Sunday, and no one notices. Luckily for the MTA, the news about their alarm boxes and the safety of track workers did just that as word came out yesterday that nearly 10 percent of track alarm boxes are out of service.

    A report in The New York Post noted that the MTA had finally fixed the alarm box near 59th St.-Columbus Circle, three weeks after Daniel Boggs died after getting hit by a train and a whopping 338 days after a repair order for the box was first submitted. The boxes themselves act to immediately cut power to the third rail in a 1000-foot length of track thus allowing workers three minutes to contact command control before the power is restored. The problem at 59th St. centered around a communications cable that had knocked out power to six surrounding alarm boxes. The Post has more on this problem:

    A repair order was issued on June 13, 2006, for at least one of the emergency alarms at the Columbus Circle subway station. That’s where Daniel Boggs, 42, was struck by a train and pushed against the third rail last month, on April 24. Witnesses said his body was smoldering by the time the power was turned off.

    Last Sunday, a repair crew replaced the burned-out communications cable that had knocked out six alarm boxes along a stretch of track. The same faulty cable had rendered at least two emergency phones useless. It’s not known whether Boggs died upon impact or after coming in contact with the 600-volt third rail. Afterward, the agency admitted that 70 emergency alarm boxes were out of service and said crews were working to catch up with the glut of repair tickets.

    But documents obtained by The Post showed that 188 emergency boxes – more than double the NYC Transit estimate – were out.

    Had these alarm boxes been functioning properly, one of Boggs’ fellow crew members could have cut power before Boggs came into contact with that dangerous third rail. More alarming for MTA construction workers are those other 188 boxes still out of service. As Howard Roberts, NYCT’s president, tries to play up the MTA’s commitment to worker safety, his first step ought to be repairing this alarm boxes. It’s a no-brainer.

  • City may discontinue condom giveaway for all the wrong reasons

    So this whole condom thing, it’s good public health policy. In an age where those in the White House preach an ineffective abstinence- only program, New York City is encouraging safe sex by distributing millions of free condoms to New Yorkers. Since people will always have sex anyway, those in charge may do their best to make sure it’s safe sex.

    But then why is this city considering putting an end to this program? Well, for all the wrong reasons, it seems.

    The Kaiser Network, in its daily HIV/AIDS report, notes that the subway-themed condom giveaway may be in danger:

    New York City Health Commissioner Thomas Frieden on Monday said that the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene could discontinue a condom-distribution program if it is found that the program is not increasing safer-sex practices among high-risk groups…The health department in January approved a $1.57 million contract to deliver Ansell Healthcare’s Lifestyle condoms and packets of lubricants to organizations and venues in the city to help curb the spread of HIV and other sexually transmitted infections, as well as to prevent unplanned pregnancies…

    Frieden said that it is unclear whether the condoms are reaching target groups, such as men who have sex with men. “If we find launching this brand didn’t increase at all safe sex among the groups at highest risk, we may stop it entirely,” Frieden said.

    So the Department of Health may end the promotion all together because they aren’t totally sure the condoms are reaching the intended targets? The logic behind this decision is completely backwards.

    Right now, AIDS awareness efforts and other similar public health campaigns are neglected and underfunded. While the City has come under religious scrutiny for this program, the condom giveaway benefits everyone. It brings STD awareness and safe sex practices to the forefront, and we shouldn’t be giving up on it just because it’s not reaching the right population niche.

    Refine the campaign, I say. If it’s supposed to target sexually active gay men, tailor the campaign in such a way to reach them. Don’t just throw in the towel because everyone wants to own a subway-themed condom, the greatest free novelty item produced by the City. Hopefully, these condoms will live another day.

  • What becomes of the broken elevator?

    365890512_f1a3168b89.jpg I have no problems taking elevators. I’ve lived in, worked in and visited tall buildings for much of my life, but I do know people suffering from fear of elevators. A few months ago, when I exited the IRT at the Clark St. station for the first time in my life, I finally understood this fear of elevators.

    The Clark St. station is the first stop in Brooklyn on the 2 and the 3. This station — which is basically the end of the tunnel under the East River — is 100 feet underground, and the only way to get from the trains to the surface is via a cattle car of an elevator that is enough to drive anyone to walk up any distance. It is, in a word, terrifying, and I would rather walk from the Borough Hall stop than ever use that elevator again.

    Today, I found out this fear is not without basis in reality. The Clark St. elevators fail at a pace greater than once every other day, according to reports released on Monday. But it gets better, as The Sun’s Annie Karni reports:

    Over the past two years, the three elevators at Clark Street have broken down almost 400 times, averaging a pace of almost one breakdown every other day. Riders have been trapped inside the elevators more than 20 times. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s maintenance crews have been sent out multiple times in single days to repair the same elevator, and temperatures inside the elevators have risen to 100 degrees…

    The only alternative to waiting is an 80-foot climb up a steep staircase used only in emergencies — and perhaps by mountaineers and marathoners in training. Over the past two years, the transit authority listed fuses blown due to high temperatures, brake failures, worn-out molding, and general “door problems” as the most common causes of the chronic breakdowns, according to documents obtained by The New York Sun.

    The story, of course, gets better. First, the MTA is often loathe to send out repairmen to the elevators because the workers need to be paid $41 an hour for an overtime accrued while making difficult repairs. Furthermore, the MTA won’t send its own crews out to fix new elevators because the Authority doesn’t want to risk voided the warranty.

    This elevator debacle is not a new problem for those who rely on Clark St. The old elevators — replaced in 2000 at a cost of $3.5 million — often broke down, and no one knew how to fix them because they were constructed out of leftover parts for a World War II aircraft. A lack of parts still plagues this station, and John Liu, head of the City Council’s transportation committee summed it best.

    “The most frequent excuse for broken elevators is a lack of parts,” Liu said. “What we need are Fords for elevators, and it seems as if they give us Maseratis. One has to question how these contracts are given out.”

    That they do, John. That they do.

    Photo of the Union Square elevator, seemingly out of service forever, courtesy of flickr user fmsparis.

  • The MTA really wants you to keep your pants on

    Flashing is a serious problem in the subways. Victims really don’t want to see some random guy whip out his…well, you know…and start waving it around a subway car. But it’s easy to laugh at it from a distance, especially when pictures exist like this frog here.

    Anyway, Peter Vallone, New York City Councilman, wants to get to the, um, bottom of this whole flashing thing. On Monday, Vallone’s Public Safety Committee heard testimony on legislation that would change public lewdness from a Class B misdemeanor to a Class A. For those of you who have no idea what that means, this new classification would double the possible fine from $500 to $1000, and the maximum jail sentence would increase from 90 days to one year. Furthermore, Vallone wants to add repeat offenders and those who expose themselves to minors under the age of 18 to the state’s sex offender roles.

    The Associated Press had more:

    Flashing and groping have long been a problem in New York City, especially on subway cars and platforms. Last year the New York Police Department launched “Operation Exposure” to catch flashers in the act by sending undercover officers into the transit system.

    The sting operation was conducted five separate times, resulting in 29 arrests. And in total for 2006, there were 556 arrests for public lewdness, up from 408 the previous year, according to Karen Agnifilo, general counsel to the city’s criminal justice coordinator.

    Now, in all seriousness, subway flashing is pretty graphic and disturbing. The impetuous for this bill was a recent incident in Queens where three children were flashed by a man who then assaulted a fourth, and a 2004 case gained City-wide headlines when the victim photographed her flasher in the act.

    Thao Nguyen, the 2004 victim, testified at the hearing today. “It feels like someone violated you when this happens,” she said. “If we don’t stop these sickos, these guys could go out and rape or sexually assault other women.”

    This law would be all well and good, but the subway sting operations netted just 29 arrests. Most, if not all, flashers would be hesitant to drop their drawers on a train full of other people. Most subway flashing incidents happen in deserted train cars. But at least those 556 people arrested would feel the full force of the law.

    Meanwhile, seriously folks, just keep your pants on. Waiting for the train isn’t that bad.

  • New MTA moneyman wonders ‘What if?’

    monopolymoney.jpg The MTA is notorious terrible with money. Maybe they don’t have enough and need to raise the fare. But, oh wait, an accounting error reveals the Authority had more than it thought. Maybe this project will come in under budget; maybe not.

    Yesterday, the MTA’s new CFO got in on the act, discussing finances and the dangers of relying on property tax. Gary Dellaverson, the former head of labor negotiations, spoke at length about the MTA and its tenuous (or not) funding situation. Metro’s Patrick Arden has more:

    The booming real estate market has resulted in large surpluses at the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, defying the agency’s attempts to make predictions. Yesterday the MTA announced real estate taxes brought in $185 million more than anticipated. But former labor negotiator Gary Dellaverson warned the good times can’t last forever, as he stepped into his new role of chief financial officer.

    In what he called “a pure ‘what if’ exercise,” Dellaverson showed a series of graphs charting the amounts the MTA has been raking in from real estate transactions. Taxes tripled from 1983 to ’87. “The sad part of that story is from ’87 to ’91 those taxes coming to the MTA lost 65 percent of their value,” Dellaverson said, noting a “pretty obvious bell curve” before wondering “what happens if that type of a phenomenon — that trough to peak, peak to trough — takes place again.”

    So we’ve got some typical MTA financial shenanigans at work here. Dellaverson, in his first role as CFO, announces that he will be presiding over an organization that just received an unexpected $185 million surplus. For that kind of money, they could sign Derek Jeter.

    But — and this is a big “but” — Dellaverson had to do something to make sure that the MTA, which has long pled poverty and is relying on large federal contributions for its pressing capital construction projects, didn’t look too financially solvent. So hey, maybe the property tax bubble will burst again, and the MTA will lose $500 million in projected revenues by 2011. Right, guys? Guys? You with me? Anyone?

    Mark Page, an MTA board member and head of the Office of Management and Budget, was not fooled by this worst-case scenario act. He noted that Dellaverson’s models, seemingly pulled out of thin air, are not too be considered reliable. “Almost without exception those forecasts turn out to be wrong,” he said. That is one resounding vote of confidence for the new Chief Financial Officer.

    And Gene Russianoff, whose presence in every subway-related article is actually written into the Charter, Administrative Code and Rules of the City of New York, questioned the reality of the projected $800 million budget deficit set forth by the MTA this year. I’m with you, Gene. I bet the MTA has more money than we’re led to believe here. But hey, real estate bubble? Tax breaks? Lower revenue? Godzilla? Anyone?

  • MTA doesn’t trust its system for ‘important’ trips

    The MTA doesn’t want its workers waiting and waiting and waiting for the train that never shows up. (Courtesy of flickr user Vincenzo F)

    Sometimes, the stories about the MTA are so ridiculous, they write themselves. This story — one in which the MTA doesn’t even trust its own service — is one of those.

    You see, the MTA doesn’t want its employees late for important events like random drug tests. So instead of having them use the subway for free, the Transit Authority sinks hundreds of thousands of dollars into, get this, taxi rides for its transit employees. Head, meet brick wall.

    The Post’s Jeremy Olshan, transit reporter extraordinaire, broke this story today. Olshan reports:

    When the MTA wants to guarantee its employees get to their destination, they skip the bus and subway and call a taxi. Rather than take a free ride on the largest public transportation network in the nation, the thousands of transit workers called for random drug tests are required to take a car service.

    This week, the MTA board is set to approve $285,000 in contracts with four city car services to provide the transportation.

    So there you go, folks, straight from the mouths of the MTA Board members: Take a cab if you want to get anywhere quickly. I bet Mayor Bloomberg isn’t too thrilled with this news coming out after his PLANYC2030 announcement that was designed to prop up public transportation in New York City.

    The MTA acted quickly to defend its policy. The Authority noted that some bus depots are so far away from the testing facility at 180 Livingston St. in Brooklyn that workers wouldn’t be able to get there within the mandatory two-hour reporting window. Meanwhile, as Google Maps shows, 180 Livingston St. is within walking distance of not just one or two subway lines but twelve different lines.

    Maybe — maybe — if someone were coming from the far reaches of the Bronx or Queens, I would buy the two-hour excuse. But does that mean every single worker has to take a cab? Not in an age of rampant budget deficits. Every little bit counts.

    Eric Giola, City Council member, summed it up best: “It seems like more Pataki-era waste and mismanagement that can be easily corrected by this new administration. While you want to ensure the accuracy of drug tests, $300,000 in taxi bills is over the top and unnecessary.”

    I can’t make this stuff up, folks.

  • Pondering a clean, but closed, subway

    I’m not eating anything off of that for a looooong time. (Photo courtesy of flickr user Ioan Sameli.)

    A thought experiment, if you will: New York’s subways are not exactly known for their cleanliness. In fact, quite the opposite is true, and in a few weeks’ time, when the Straphangers release their annual Subway Shmutz Survey, we’ll know just how dirty our favorite subway lines are.

    Last year, though, prospects were bleak. Only 47 percent of subway cars were rated as “clean,” and I have yet to see a subway car that I personally would consider, well, clean. Don’t even get me started with the stations. So while the Straphangers have urged the MTA to invest more resources into cleaning the cars, that ain’t happening anytime soon. So I present you instead with a hypothetical situation.

    Throughout the rest of the world, big cities enjoy cleaner subway systems. London’s is clean; Moscow’s is clean; even the Metro in Washington, DC, has a reputation for cleanliness, nasty carpets and all. These systems are kept clean mostly because they shut down each night.

    Every day, subway cars in most cities return home. They sit at the depots and are cleaned from top to bottom. Those with carpets are vacuumed; others are mopped and scrubbed. As the cars sit idle, the stations are far from empty. Cleaning crews descend into the depths of the subway and scrub away. Floors are swept and polished; garbage is collected.

    But the citizens have to pay a price: There are few public transportation options late at night. Residents of London and DC scramble for those last trains out to the suburbs. Night owl bus service is a poor substitute for underground rail options, and taxi cabs are cost-prohibitive when compared to the price of a train ride.

    So I ask: Should the New York City subway system shut down each night at, say, 1 a.m. and re-open four hours later for the morning commute? Would this improve the cleanliness of the system?

    On the one hand, I am tempted to say, yes it would. A closed system would enable crews to work on cleaning the trains and stations. A closed system would also discourage homeless people — a big source of dirt and grime in the subways — from sleeping on trains night after night.

    But on the other hand, a closed system is anathema to the essence of New York City. How could the Big Apple be the City That Never Sleeps if our subways are asleep? How could all the night workers — and there are a significant number of them — get home if the subways are closed? It seems that in a 24-hour city such as New York closing the subways is an impractical idea.

    New York could choose to go the way of the WMATA in Washington. While the WMATA drew flack when police officers arrested a 12-year-old for eating one french fry in the Metro, this zero-tolerance policy got the point across. Few people risk the high fines for littering and eating in the system, especially as closed circuit cameras record the entire system. So maybe the MTA could institute a zero-tolerance policy for people who eat in the subway. It could help maintain at least some baseline level of cleanliness in an otherwise dirty system, and, hey, anything — even a ticket for someone “too busy” to eat elsewhere — is better than the current mess of the subways.