MTA Politics

Kalikow to resign once Spitzer names replacement

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on May 7, 2007

The Peter Kalikow Resignation saga is finally drawing to a close. The outgoing MTA Chairman announced today that he would resign as soon as New York State Governor Eliot Spitzer names his retirement, The Times’ Empire Zone blog reported today.

Kalikow, the chair since 2001, was appointed to a new six-year term last year, but he announced in November that he would step down this year. In March, Kalikow wasn’t quite ready to quit, but now the time is right. “I am a firm believer in setting aggressive goals, accomplishing those goals and then giving others the opportunity to both expand upon those initiatives and create new ones with fresh vision and new energy,” Kalikow said in a press release. “As both a longtime public servant and an avid supporter of term limits as a means to maintain healthy and effective government leadership, I believe the public will be best served by my decision.”

This decision comes on the heels of the groundbreaking for the Second Ave. subway, one of Kalikow’s pet projects. The Republican appointee wanted to wait around for the start of this highly-anticipated project.

Elliot “Lee” Sander, the MTA’s CEO, praised Kalikow’s willingness to fight for public transportation in New York City. “Peter Kalikow has made an invaluable contribution to the MTA, most notably fighting for the 2005 Bond Act and the capital dollars needed to begin building Second Avenue Subway and East Side Access,” Sander said. “Peter has been a great asset to me personally in my first few months on the job, and I wish him all the best.”

As The Times notes, Kalikow had some words of wisdom for Sander and those who will carry on his work at the MTA. “Raise fares only as a last resort, but do not leave the fares artificially low, which will cause disinvestment in our system,” he said. Kalikow declined to comment on the necessity of a fare increase for 2008, saying “that’s now Lee’s problem.”

After the jump: A list from the MTA of some of Kalikow’s key accomplishments.

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MTA Politics

In lawsuit, former MTA cops allege racial bias

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on May 6, 2007

Bad news for the MTA. A group of current and former Metropolitan Transportation Authority police officers are suing the MTA. They allege what The New York Times said is “a deeply rooted culture of discrimination against black and Hispanic officers.”

According to reports, the ten officers claim that minority officers are denied promotions and overtime work at a rate lower than that of white officers. Additionally, the suit claims that supervising officers often use racial slurs when addressing minority MTA police officers. The Times has more:

Detective Lilian Alvarado, one of the plaintiffs, said at a news conference that she had decided to come forward after her daughter told her she wanted to become a police officer. Detective Alvarado, who is Hispanic, said she did not want her daughter to face the same discrimination she had faced. “It didn’t matter how long I worked or how hard,” Detective Alvarado said. “I was ostracized.”

She was promoted to detective in 1994, 14 years after she joined the police force. The lawsuit said that many white officers were promoted in less than five years. It also said Detective Alvarado was denied the training necessary for rapid advancement.

In its defense, the MTA released a statement to the press promoting its diverse workforce. The statement noted that inorities make up 32 percent of the MTA police officers. “We are completely committed to a workplace free of any kind of discrimination or harassment,” the statement said.

But despite this token nod to diversity, the numbers sited in the lawsuit are stark in contrast. The aggrieved officers claim that 86 percent of sergeants, detective sergeants and lieutenants are white while 96 percent of those at a level of captain or higher are white.

While some of the instances of discrimination mentioned in the suit occurred ten or even twenty years ago, I would bet that the MTA police force is no haven of racial equality and harmony. The MTA CEO Eliot “Lee” Sander is new to the job, but he now inherits the problems raised here. It’s up to him to address these concerns, even if the MTA spin doctors want to keep on proclaiming their “workplace free of discrimination or harassment.” Let’s see it happen.

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Service Advisories

Subway work resumes in time for weekend service delays

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on May 5, 2007

New York City Transit construction projects mostly take place on the weekends. Delays are rampant and trains are often rerouted or outright replaced with shuttle buses from 12:01 a.m. on Saturday morning until 5:01 a.m. on Monday.

When the work stand-down was announced last weekend on a Sunday, I figured it wouldn’t disrupt too many projects. While nighttime work on track replacement and station renovation projects ground to a halt this week, the MTA had five days to issue the appropriate safety documents. Well, even though most construction projects aren’t finished in time, the safety training was, and as The New York Times reported, all work in the subway resumed on Friday.

Transit officials said yesterday that they planned to resume regular maintenance and construction work on subway tracks and tunnels this morning, returning workers to the job after more than four days off for a safety review prompted by the deaths of two track workers struck by trains.

The Transport Workers Union president, Roger Toussaint, said that the return to work comes as New York City Transit has agreed to a series of safety improvements, including equipping work crew supervisors with radios to improve communication with train controllers on the movement of nearby trains.

So that’s that. Toussaint is happy with the MTA’s response, and new NYCT president Howard Roberts made his position clear this week with emphatic statements stressing worker safety.

Meanwhile, because work has resumed, weekend service advisories are in place. There are no delays this weekend with the A and C trains because the track replacement project wrapped up one week early. There are a bunch of changes on the N, Q and R lines. For all weekend updates, check out the MTA’s Website.

I’ll see you back here on Monday.

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MTA Economics

Homeless in the subway on the rise, says anyone who rides a train

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on May 4, 2007

The homeless in the subway aren’t funny, but this edited poster sure is. (Courtesy of flickr user bellerspace)

Back in February, the homeless denizens of New York City came to our collective consciousness when reports revealed that the MTA spends $2000 per homeless person. At the time, the MTA noted that many of the homeless people escorted out of the subway simply return after a few days.

Well, now, as anyone who rides the subway can attest to, the MTA has revealed that the homeless problem in the subway is on the rise. While the total homeless population has decreased about two percent in the last year, the number of homeless in the subways has risen 33 percent. The Post has more:

“Subways are not a safe haven for the homeless,” MTA Executive Director Elliot Sander said. “They are not a safe place to be. It also has an impact on the environment for our commuters. It’s an issue we need to solve humanely.”

Sander and DHS Commissioner Robert Hess identified three transit hubs that are homeless hot spots: Penn Station, the Parsons-Archer station in Jamaica, and Stillwell Avenue in Coney Island.

None of this comes as news to straphangers. Anecdotally, as a frequent rider, I’ve seen more homeless on the subways recently than I have in years. Late at night, it’s now hard to find a train car without a sleeping resident. And forget about Penn Station, as the article notes; that hub has long been a haven for the homeless. It’s hard to find a usable bathroom in Amtrak’s home, and the homeless pervade the station, often right under the noses of the transit cops patrolling the area.

But what can the city do here? That’s the tough question. Overall, the homeless in New York are a much smaller percentage of the population than they are in other U.S. cities, but their presence in the subway leaves many feeling unsafe. The cops could wake up sleeping riders who seem to have settled in for the night, but that’s hardly a long-term solution. Anyone got any better ideas?

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MTA Construction

MTA stressing safety after deadly week

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on May 2, 2007

After a week that witnessed two track workers killed by oncoming trains, the MTA used a mandatory work stand-down to stress safety. Their main message? Do not take short cuts.

According to William Neuman in The New York Times, in the wake of the two deaths last week, New York City Transit officials have drawn up a 60-page document designed to instruct workers on the necessary safety protocols that should guide this dangerous job. The document stressed the importance of following basic safety rules, a task often ignored by those working in the subway tunnels.

The review also found that the most common cause of worker deaths was failure to look for an oncoming train before stepping onto the tracks. That may have been what happened on April 24 when Daniel Boggs, 41, a veteran track worker, was killed when he stepped in the path of a No. 3 express train at Columbus Circle in Manhattan, according to transit officials.

After the death of [Marvin] Franklin, Howard H. Roberts Jr., the president of New York City Transit, ordered a halt to maintenance and construction work on tracks and in tunnels. He also directed the agency’s safety experts, in coordination with the Transport Workers Union, to prepare the 60-page curriculum, which is the backbone for the safety refresher course that track workers are now receiving.

Interestingly, NYCT claims that overall injury numbers are down markedly since 2000, but union officials disputed this claim. The numbers, TWU officials say, are skewed because they count multiple injuries stemming from one accident as just one incident.

Meanwhile, Howard Roberts, the new president of NYCT, sent out a letter to all union members stressing his support for the thousands of subway workers who toil away under dangerous conditions. Considering the bitterness that has long existed between the MTA and the TWU, it’s refreshing to see moments of labor peace in the subway. It’s such a shame that the price tag for this peace included the lives of two workers.

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Fare HikesMTA Economics

’08 fare hike could target Unlimited Ride Metrocards

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on May 2, 2007

To hike the fares or not to hike the fares? That is the question, and MTA CEO Elliot “Lee” Sander is coming down on the side of hiking the fares.

Last week, I speculated that the MTA’s unexpected tax windfalls could stave off an announced 2008 fare hike. But not so fast, said Sander. Metro, on of the city’s free dailies, has more:

Sander said this year’s surplus wouldn’t ward off a fare hike.

“Nothing on that has changed,” he said.

That’s because the MTA has to pay back massive debts incurred to pay for capital projects, to fix infrastructure and to buy new trains and buses. Ballooning deficits have been predicted to reach $1.9 billion by 2010.

In other efforts to reduce this debt, Mayor Bloomberg announced that the city would contribute $200 million a year to the MTA. The last time the City gave so much to the MTA was during the Koch Administration.

“There is a direct connection between the withdrawal of that support by the city and the large operating deficits that we face in ’08, ’09 and ’10, so we really appreciate [Bloomberg’s] focus,” Sander said. “The contribution to the capital program significantly diminished after 1994, and that certainly had a role in the amount of borrowing that the MTA had to do.”

Interestingly enough, the Unlimited Ride Metrocards could be the biggest victims of the fare hike. In fact, I believe the only hikes will affect those who use Unlimited Ride Metrocards. On Monday, SUBWAYblogger directed my attention to an article in The Post noting that we riders save close to $1 billion using Unlimited Ride Metrocards.

Since the average cost of an Unlimited Ride averages out to about $1.31 per ride and only 12 percent of all subway riders pay the full $2 fare with no discount, the MTA will look to recoup some of the money it gives up by offering these discounted MetroCards. It’s bad for those of us who rely on the subways to commute, but the MTA needs the money. Hopefully, they’ll use the funds to offer us better service and more trains.

We’ll know for sure in July when Sander makes his final announcement on the fare hike. So stay tuned until the dog days of summer when our wallets may get just a little thinner each night.

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MTA Absurdity

What becomes of the broken elevator?

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on May 1, 2007

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.

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MTA Absurdity

The MTA really wants you to keep your pants on

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on April 30, 2007

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.

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MTA Construction

Second transit worker death in five days prompts track work shut down

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on April 30, 2007

Sad news from the weekend track work: For the second time in five days, a transit employee conducting track work was killed after being struck by an oncoming train. As a result of this accident, New York City Transit head Howard Roberts ordered an immediate stand-down of all track work. This temporary suspension in maintenance and construction will last until the MTA investigates these two deaths and the work crews have been sufficiently trained in safety protocols.

According to news reports, Marvin Franklin, 55, a Queens resident and 20-year transit employee, died after a northbound G train hit him and Jeff Hill as they were crossing the tracks at the Hoyt-Schermerhorn Street station just after 4 p.m. on Sunday afternoon. The two, police say, were in the station as part of the extensive trackbed replacement project on the A/C tracks. While two of three trains that pass through this downtown Brooklyn station were not running this weekend, G service was not affected by the service cuts.

The New York Times has more about the accident:

Roger Toussaint, the president of Local 100 of the Transport Workers Union, said the men were not working on the reconstruction, but were taking advantage of the service interruption to replace the metal plates that sit between the rails and the ties.

A senior official at the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, who spoke about the accident on the condition of anonymity, said that a preliminary investigation indicated that the men had gone to fetch a dolly and were carrying it across the G track on their way back to the A and C track when they were hit.

The official said that an alternative route would have involved taking the dolly up the platform stairs, through the station and down another set of stairs to the opposite platform.

The operator of the G train apparently saw the two workers and tried to stop, but it was too late. Based on the preliminary investigation, officials believe that the G track may not have been equipped with warning lights that would have made the driver slow down and watch out for track workers, the official said.

Roberts, just a week into his job as head of NYCT, got word of this accident as he was on the way to Brewster in upstate New York for a wake for Daniel Boggs. Boggs was killed last week as he worked on the Columbus Circle renovations. He was struck by a downtown 3 train at 11:20 p.m. on Tuesday night just as the train, one of the last scheduled on the express tracks sped through the station.

Roberts and MTA CEO Elliot “Lee” Sander arrived at the Hoyt-Schermerhorn stop and issued the stand-down order on the spot. Workers in the subway this evening finished up projects that enable trains to run on schedule this week. No work will resume until MTA and Transit Workers Union officials are satisfied that proper safety measures have been adequately explained to TWU employees. There is no word on how this will affect ongoing maintenance projects or Capital Construction projects such as the Second Ave. Subway.

But as the MTA and the TWU reel from the second tragedy in five days, straphangers across the city are pulling for Hill, the survivor of the accident who is currently in stable condition at Bellevue.

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Service Advisories

A/C work ahead of schedule but delays continue this weekend

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on April 28, 2007

Good news for everyone stranded by the work on the A/C tracks in Brooklyn: The MTA is actually ahead of schedule. They’ve managed to replace the roadbed quicker than anticipated.

But for now, you folks out there have to deal with these service changes for two more days. There is no C service, and A trains are making all local stops. Shuttle buses are running in Brooklyn, and extra L service is supposedly in place as well.

Elsewhere in Brooklyn, the J train is still messed up, but this too is the last weekend for that work. There is no service between Broadway Junction and Jamaica. So take the E if you want to get out to the JFK AirTrain this weekend.

The rest of the service advisories are here. Safe travels this weekend. Catch you Monday.

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