BY JACKSON CHEN | Community Board 8 is demanding the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s presence at its Transportation Committee meetings and that the agency release a completed map of when and where the agency will restore East Side bus stops on or near Second Avenue sidelined by subway construction.
Though agency representatives insist that CB8 is being kept up to date, board members are clearly unhappy with the quality of communication they’re receiving.
During a joint CB8 Transportation Committee and Second Avenue Subway Task Force meeting on December 7, board members expected an MTA representative to show up with more details on service returning to bus stops taken out of commission during construction of the Second Avenue Subway. As the line nears it first phase completion, with new stations at 72nd, 86th, and 96th Streets due to open by the new year, CB8 members want to make information about when the avenue’s bus stops will be back in service publicly available, particularly for the neighborhood’s senior residents who frequently use them.
In addition to not getting the information they sought, board members were chagrined at MTA’s failure to follow through on commitments to appear before them. CB8 member Tricia Shimamura said she also attended a November 1 meeting where the MTA was absent and failed to at least send over its presentation.
“I’m fairly frustrated about this,” she said. “I think without representatives from the agencies, there’s only so much that can be done. I think it’s a little ridiculous that I’ve been at two meetings now where I expected to see MTA representatives and I haven’t.”
For the MTA’s part, its spokesperson said the agency has received regular input from CB8 via the board’s Second Avenue Subway Task Force as well as the MTA Construction Advisory Committee meetings. The agency’s Kevin Ortiz said the MTA submitted a final bus map to CB8 with all temporarily relocated stops restored to their original permanent locations.
As for the absence from CB8 meetings, Ortiz explained that the agency told board members its representatives wouldn’t be able to make it to the December 7 meeting due to “public hearing commitments,” but would attend the January meeting.
Scott Falk, CB8’s Transportation Committee’s co-chair, however, said that the bus map the MTA provided was incomplete and board members had requested information on several bus stops that were excluded. Falk said he emailed Marcus Book, the MTA’s assistant director of government and community relations, on November 3 noting that the East 63rd Street and Third Avenue stops for the M101, M102, and M103 routes were missing from the map, as were several M15 local stops on Second Avenue. Falk said he never received a reply.
“We’ve certainly urged them to restore these as quickly as possible,” Falk said of the bus stops. “We’re very aware and also affected by how inconvenient it is, and how for many people it’s not merely the standard inconvenience of walking a block.”
Falk said the MTA had previously assured board members that each of the bus stops would be restored within four to six weeks of the completion of nearby subway construction, though the agency had explained that the return of M15 and M86 Select Bus Stops could be delayed because they require fare machine installations.
Ortiz, the MTA spokesperson, confirmed that once the construction contractor notifies transit officials of the work’s completion in a specific area, the agency and the city’s Department of Transportation will coordinate to reinstate bus stops and Select Bus Service fare machines. Despite his assurance that all impacted stops will be reestablished at their original locations, many CB8 members worry about whether that will happen without their input. CB8’s Transportation Committee and its Second Avenue Subway Task Force are penning a letter to the MTA reiterating their request for a detailed map that shows all of the bus stop locations omitted from the earlier version and requesting the agency’s presence at board and committee meetings.
“Another part of this is having an actual attendance at these meetings,” board member Shimamura said. “It feels to me like they’re hiding or avoiding the community, and I want a face here that I can talk to.”
