Activists with Riders Alliance gathered on July 10 to call on Gov. Kathy Hochul to reinstate congestion pricing so that subway stations like the one on Nostrand Avenue can see accessibility upgrades.
Photo by Gabriele Holtermann
When Gov. Kathy Hochul made the eleventh-hour decision on June 5 to shelve congestion pricing, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority was forced to suspend $16.5 billion in previously-announced upgrades and projects.
Those investments would have included replacing the over 80-year-old train signals on the notoriously slow A/C line in Brooklyn and installing elevators at the Nostrand Avenue subway station in Bedford-Stuyvesant.
On Wednesday, state Sen. Jabari Brisport (D-Brooklyn), Assembly Member Phara Souffrant Forrest (D-Brooklyn), and Brooklyn Council Member Chi Ossé joined transit activists from Riders Alliance outside the Nostrand Avenue station, where they demanded Hochul reinstate congestion pricing to avoid delays to crucial accessibility upgrades.
The upgrades are required by the MTA’s historic Americans with Disabilities Act settlement, which mandates that at least 345 subway stations are ADA-accessible by 2055.
Brisport called the governor’s decision “reckless” and dismissed her argument that it was out of concern for working people. He went on to call her reasoning hypocritical, given her simultaneous blocking of homeless vouchers, expansion of the free bus program, and funding for childcare.
“Over 99% of my constituents who reached out about this said they want the services [and] the improvements from congestion pricing,” Brisport said. “So on behalf of my constituents, I say to Governor Kathy Hochul, ‘You do not speak for Brooklyn, you do not speak for Bed-Stuy. We want our elevators, we want our service, and we want it now.’”
Currently, only one-quarter of New York City’s 472 subway stations are fully wheelchair-accessible, with the fewest in low-income areas. The Nostrand Avenue station serves over 10,000 riders daily and was slated to receive elevators as part of the 2020-24 MTA Capital Program.
Souffrant Forrest said she had been excited to learn that the station, in a historically disadvantaged community, was finally getting an elevator, only to receive a call a few weeks ago that the project was put on hold.
“Saying that we’re going to rip away, not a dream, but what I deserve, what my community deserves … that is not right,” she said.
Ossé pointed out that Bedford-Stuyvesant was a “naturally-occurring retirement community” with a high percentage of seniors who rely on public transportation.
“What [Hochul] is doing is not only an attack on all of our constituents but our most vulnerable constituents. Overturning congestion pricing is an attack on seniors,” Ossé said. “Shame on Governor Kathy Hochul. We need congestion pricing to come into law.”
Francis Byrd, who regularly uses the Nostrand Avenue station, said an elevator would be “very helpful.”
“I look like I’m great now because I’m standing up, but I got a couple of bad knees, and sometimes they don’t like when I go downstairs, and they don’t like climbing upstairs,” Byrd said, “so an elevator would be very, very helpful.”
Jackie Feliz, who travels the subway with her two- and four-year-old daughters, told Brooklyn Paper that going down the subway stairs with a stroller is a struggle. Sometimes, she has to take her daughters out of the stroller and have them walk down the stairs while she carries the stroller.
“That seems to be a little easier, but it’s still a struggle because if I have my book bag with their stuff in it on the stroller, it’s still heavy to bump [the stroller] down,” Feliz said. “But it’s harder when they’re sitting in it, so sometimes I have to take them out.”
Feliz also plans her subway travels around stations that have an elevator.
“I try to do that, or I sometimes end up going to another stop that I know has an elevator that’s not too far. But then it’s like extra walking,” Feliz said.
Eon Huntley echoed Feliz, recalling the days he had to carry his kids down the subway stairs in a stroller.
“Imagine that heat right now and just going down there by yourself,” Huntley said. “But imagine carrying your stroller. Could you imagine by yourself with two kids? And this is what we’re facing.”
Huntley questioned why riders didn’t have the public infrastructure they deserved.
“It’s because we have politicians that don’t understand what we’re facing and are not willing to fight, and in this case, they actually fight against what they have been obligated to deliver,” Huntley said.
Danna Dennis, senior organizer with Riders Alliance, said that unreliable subway services cost people time, money, and undue stress and anxiety.
“Having access to our trains is a right that we demand. Having access to affordable transit, transit that works, is something that New Yorkers need, and they need it now,” Dennis said.
Hochul’s office did not respond to a request for comment.