Bronx MTA Hearing Met with Protests

Students rallied outside an MTA public hearing to protest the elimination of student MetroCards.

A flood of outraged residents and elected officials lined up to voice their concerns to MTA board members last night at a public hearing at the Paradise Theater on the Grand Concourse. The transit agency has proposed drastic service cuts and fare changes to cover it’s nearly $400 million budget shortfall.

Speakers at the hearing conveyed their anger as well as a sense of déjà vu, having made the same pleas  to stop service cuts last year, when the MTA faced a similar deficit.

Some of the most troubling changes stemmed from the proposed elimination of student MetroCards—which provide three free rides on school days—as well as reduced Access-a-Ride service for the disabled and elderly and the discontinuation of the Bx18 bus, which runs between Undercliff Avenue and the Grand Concourse.

Borough President Rueben Diaz, Jr. was the first to take the podium, telling MTA chairman Jay Walder and other board members that they were underestimating the role mass transit plays in the lives of Bronx residents, the majority of whom don’t have access to a car.

“I’m glad you’re here, Mr. Chairman, but maybe one day you and I could take a walk around the Bronx,” Diaz said. “People need these buses.”

His testimony was followed by similar speeches from Council Members James Vacca and Oliver Koppell, Assembly members Jeffrey Dinowitz and Vanesssa Gibson, and representatives from the offices of several other Bronx officials.

“You’re picking on the elderly, the disabled and the students,” said Dinowitz, adding that the MTA should look inward first as it looks to make cuts. “I’m sure you’ve got a lot of people in the MTA who make more than the governor.”

A seemingly endless line of residents approached the microphone with stories of transit woes: the high school student who gets up at 5 a.m. to take two buses to get to school on time; the disabled woman who relies on Access-a-Ride to get to her doctor appointments in Brooklyn.

Sen. Jeff Klein on Proposed MTA Cuts

This week, the MTA is hosting a series of public hearings on possible service cuts and fare changes to the city's subway and bus lines. In an effort to dent it's nearly $400 million budget shortfall, the agency has proposed cutting student metrocards and making the following changes to Bronx bus lines:

Discontinue Bx14, Bx18, Bx25, X32, BxM4A, BxM7B and the Barretto Park Pool bus service. Discontinue Bx20, Bx33, Bx34, and Bx55 on weekends. Discontinue Bx34 overnight. Reduce operating hours on Bx17, Bx20, Bx32, Bx33 and Bx55. Reroute or discontinue portion of Bx5, Bx8, Bx26, Bx28, Bx30 and Bx41. Extend portion of Bx39.

The Bronx hearing will be held tomorrow night, Wednesday March 3, at the Paradise Theatre at 2043 Grand Concourse at 187th Street at 6 p.m. We'll be covering the meeting, so be sure to check back here for updates.

This morning, State Sen. Jeffrey Klein sent along this letter expressing his concern over the MTA's proposed changes and urging residents to attend tomorrow's meeting:

Dear Editor,

This week, community leaders and residents will attend a very important hearing regarding an ill-advised proposal by the MTA to eliminate the BX14 and BXM7B daily bus services, the BX34 weekend bus service and vital MTA Student Metrocards. I know how vital these services are to thousands of Bronx residents and will do everything I can to prevent these cuts from happening.

Marathon Armory Hearing Full of Twists

I have been to several New York City public hearings and the one last night about the proposal to redevelop the Kingsbridge Armory, one of the world's largest armories, was undoubtedly the most interesting, and the longest.

Clocking in at just over four hours, the Armory hearing in the Lehman College faculty dining room, which was required of Community Board 7 which must vote on whether or not to support the project according to city's land use review process, featured everything from folk peace songs to near violence.

I'm not going to get into everything in this post, but I did want to run through a few of the highlights quickly.

The evening started out with a bang as about a hundred or so construction union guys, mostly from Positive Workforce, a big supporter of the Armory's designated developer, the Related Companies, literally bum rushed past cops and security guards into the dining room and installed themselves as a backdrop to all the night's speakers.

Several attendees were startled by their aggressiveness, others felt intimidated. Their message throughout the night was clear: build at the Armory now.

The hearing began at 6:30 p.m. By 7 p.m., police weren't letting anyone else in, citing fire code concerns. We managed to smuggle ourselves in through a sewer pipe. Not really, but you get the picture, space was tight. (A special thanks to Fernando Tirado, Community Board 7 district manager, for getting the press inside to witness the festivities.)

The hearing began with a round of "special" speakers (I think because they were disabled, they were allowed to speak first) from Co-op City who praised the project because of its apparent similarities to the Bay Plaza mall, which they think added to their part of the Bronx. It seemed kind of random.

Next up was Community Board 7's presentation of its idea, which Related has adopted into its design plans, for a World Peace Atrium inside the Armory. To kick off this presentation, CB7 land use chairman Ozzie Brown brought in his old friend Peter Yarrow (of Peter, Paul and Mary fame) to sing a song and say some words.

This is where things got a little awkward. Yarrow began by singing, "If I Had a Hammer," which was met with a tepid response from the audience. A second attempt was more successful, with about half the crowd joining in and clapping and singing along. As soon as the song concluded, representatives from the Kingsbridge Armory Redevelopment Alliance (KARA) -- which came out in full force and dominated the speaking portion of the hearing -- began a forceful and deafening chant: "What do we want?" "GOOD JOBS!" When do we want 'em?" "NOW!"

Peter Yarrow sings a peace song at the Armory hearing

After things calmed down, Yarrow spoke about the civil rights movement and how the country had become increasingly angry and polarized over the years, but was coming around now with the election of Barack Obama. He was frequently interrupted by people yelling out things like: "How much are they paying you?" and "Gentrification isn't civil."

Later, Yarrow said he was surprised by the level of disrespect and animosity at the hearing, adding that he was not there to support the project, per se, but to facilitate constructive dialogue. He said he empathized with the anger being expressed, but seemed saddened and disturbed by the whole scene.

In any case, Ozzie Brown went on to present his World Peace Atrium idea, which, as I mentioned earlier, Related has adopted into its design plan. It's still a little unclear exactly what this will entail, but from what I understand it will be kind of an educational tribute/museum to peace workers like Martin Luther King, Jr., Ghandi and Mother Teresa, complete with statues and informational kiosks.

After this, Ethan Goodman, a lawyer for the Related Companies gave a 15-minute presentation on their plans for the Armory, saying they wanted to open up the former closed-off military installation to the community. We'll get into this more later, but at the end, Goodman talked about the community space, which he said would amount to 27,000-square-feet. Besides the Peace Atrium, Related's plan looked pretty much the same as it did when they first won the bid last year. They've also included 60,000-square-feet of space for a large retail store or supermarket, which representatives from Morton Williams, which owns the Associated supermarket across the street from the Amory, said would destroy their two Bronx supermarkets and force them to close shop in the borough for good (more this later too).

Related's presentation was followed by essentially three kinds of public testimony: KARA representatives (lots of them, they dominated the hearing, no question) who told Board members to vote no on the project unless Related signed a Community Benefits Agreement, which would include union protections, living wage job requirements (which Related says is a non-starter) and free or affordable recreation space; representatives from Morton Williams who were adamantly opposed to the supermarket idea for obvious reasons; and construction workers from Positive Workforce who supported the project wholeheartedly.

More coverage and photos and thoughts about this tomorrow.

The Community Board will vote on the project on July 14 at 6:30 p.m. at the Bronx Library Center.

Reminder: KIngsbridge Armory Scoping Hearing Tonight at 6 p.m.

The scoping meeting concerning the redevelopment of the Kingsbridge Armory is at 6 p.m. at the Bronx Library Center, 310 E. Kingsbridge Rd., in the auditorium.

Basically, it's a chance for the public to say what they would like the city and the developers (The Related Companies) to include in their environmental impact study. For example, you might want to know how the new development will impact traffic or surrounding businesses or bus routes. So, if you want your say, show up and express yourself.

We know the Kingsbridge Armory Redevelopment Alliance (KARA) is going to express themselves before the public hearing even starts, at a 5:30 p.m. press conference in front of the library. They want living wage jobs ($10 an hour, plus benefits), affordable recreational and entertainment space, and more community space.

Members of the local community board, CB7, is also advocating for many of the same things and is sure to be there as well.

This will also inevitably turn into a hearing about what the community should get out of this project. That being said, the backdrop is that both the board and KARA are working to get more benefits for the community in the form of some kind of binding benefits agreement that The Related Companies would have to sign.

These benefits agreements have been seen as ineffective window dressing for other big projects in NYC (See Yankee Stadium and Bronx Terminal Market, another Related project). But other community benefits efforts for similar developments in other parts of the country have been much more successful (See the Staples Center in Los Angeles). For more on community benefits agreements, see the Community Benefits blog.