Greenpoint Gazette
Riders, Community Activists and Politicians Rally to Save the G
Feb 25, 2009 by Khristina Narizhnaya
Since the V train was introduced in 2001, the Brooklyn-Queens Crosstown local G train service to 71st Avenue in Forest Hills has been a hotly debated issue between community groups and the MTA. With major budget deficits looming over, the fate of the G train is on the chopping block once again. To save money, MTA is proposing to cut G train service to 71st Avenue permanently, making Court Square in Long Island City the last and final stop.
Not surprisingly, the proposal was met with loud opposition from G train riders, community groups and local elected officials in North Brooklyn and Queens.
Last week the Straphangers Campaign, a NYPIRG campaign to improve mass transit in New York City, held a mock funeral for the G train service to 71st Avenue at Court Square station. Bagpiper John Maynard played several funerary tunes as “mourners” in black armbands, joined by Assembly members Joseph Lentol and Hakeem Jeffries, looked on. After the music, a minute of “subway silence” was observed, followed by laments regarding the G train service cut.
“Thousands of working people rely on this train to get to work and to live their lives,” said Gene Russianoff, the staff attorney for the Straphangers Campaign. “Without the G service [to Forest Hills] commuters will have longer walks or extra walks or transfers.”
Lentol said that although he doesn’t know what it will take to negotiate with Albany to save the G, in the upcoming weeks he is going to try to make sure any MTA-related financial legislation will include improvements to the G line.
“The transit system is suffering a major short fall and I will try to make sure that financing will be allocated for a better G service,” said Lentol.
Two days after “interring” the G train to Forest Hills, Lentol and Jeffries invited Richard Ravitch, the Chairman of the Commission of MTA Financing, along with MTA planning and operations experts, to ride the G train during rush hour with them to show the necessity and the shortcomings of the G line.
“There are a lot of people who depend on the G train,” said Ravitch after riding the G from Metropolitan Station in Williamsburg to Court Square in Queens. “I think a fair explanation of how it will be improved is in order.”
Ravitch’s proposed MTA rescue plan will adopt East River bridge tolls and a payroll tax on businesses to raise revenue in order to prevent public transportation service cuts.
Brooklyn’s Community Board 1 member and volunteer with Brooklyn Committee of Alternative Transportation Kevin Vincent said the G train needs to be saved in order to sustain the lives of local people, and to attract new residents to the neighborhood.
“New residents coming in to the neighborhood will have a harder time commuting,” said Vincent. “Also, the G train cut puts out a whole slew of working families.”
“The G train has been on the MTA’s endangered list for a while, but it’s always been a survivor,” said Teresa Toro of the Save the G Coalition. “Even in these hard times the G holds a special place in its riders’ hearts.”
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Showing posts with label Jeffries. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Jeffries. Show all posts
February 28, 2009
February 18, 2009
The G to Rest-in-Pieces?
Politicians, straphangers rally to protest G train service cuts
BY Michael E. Miller
DAILY NEWS
Wednesday, February 18th 2009
The G train as we know it is dead - or close to it.
Politicians and transit rider advocates rallied Tuesday in the Court Square subway stop at Hunters Point, Queens, to protest proposed cuts in G train service that could inconvenience thousands of commuters.
With the dirge of bagpipe music in the background and a funeral wreath in view, they mourned the possible demise of the subway line and called on Gov. Paterson to find new funds to "raise it from the dead."
"The G train has for decades been neglected in terms of resources provided," said Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries (D-Brooklyn), a Bible in hand for the mock funeral ceremony.
"If G train service is cut off, thousands of Brooklyn and Queens riders will be left out in the cold," he said. "They deserve better treatment."
Faced with a $1.2 billion operating deficit for 2009, the Metropolitan Transit Authority has proposed slashing Queens-bound service on the G at Court Square to save money.
But despite the doom and gloom, there were signs of life to be found.
"Let's take today as an opportunity to raise the dead," said Assemblyman Joseph Lentol (D-Brooklyn), adding that the budget crisis has put subway concerns on the back burner. "We will get a plan down that saves the subway system, but we have to save the G."
The event was organized by the Straphangers Campaign, a transit riders advocacy group. The MTA's proposed cuts would lop off 13 stops in Queens from the G line, which now ends in Forest Hills. The cuts would affect other subway and bus lines with crowding.
A Transit Authority study found that the cuts to the G line would result in extra walking, longer waits and additional transfers for thousands of passengers in Brooklyn and Queens each day.
Aaron Donovan, a spokesman for the MTA, said the agency was hoping to avoid the cuts and prefers that Albany find other ways to cut the budget.
Daily riders on the G line as well as politicians also expressed their outrage at the plan.
Jose Cortez, 35, a cook on his way to work in Manhattan, said, "It's difficult now to get where I got to go. So just imagine if they cut the service."
__________________________________
BY Michael E. Miller
DAILY NEWS
Wednesday, February 18th 2009
The G train as we know it is dead - or close to it.
Politicians and transit rider advocates rallied Tuesday in the Court Square subway stop at Hunters Point, Queens, to protest proposed cuts in G train service that could inconvenience thousands of commuters.
With the dirge of bagpipe music in the background and a funeral wreath in view, they mourned the possible demise of the subway line and called on Gov. Paterson to find new funds to "raise it from the dead."
"The G train has for decades been neglected in terms of resources provided," said Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries (D-Brooklyn), a Bible in hand for the mock funeral ceremony.
"If G train service is cut off, thousands of Brooklyn and Queens riders will be left out in the cold," he said. "They deserve better treatment."
Faced with a $1.2 billion operating deficit for 2009, the Metropolitan Transit Authority has proposed slashing Queens-bound service on the G at Court Square to save money.
But despite the doom and gloom, there were signs of life to be found.
"Let's take today as an opportunity to raise the dead," said Assemblyman Joseph Lentol (D-Brooklyn), adding that the budget crisis has put subway concerns on the back burner. "We will get a plan down that saves the subway system, but we have to save the G."
The event was organized by the Straphangers Campaign, a transit riders advocacy group. The MTA's proposed cuts would lop off 13 stops in Queens from the G line, which now ends in Forest Hills. The cuts would affect other subway and bus lines with crowding.
A Transit Authority study found that the cuts to the G line would result in extra walking, longer waits and additional transfers for thousands of passengers in Brooklyn and Queens each day.
Aaron Donovan, a spokesman for the MTA, said the agency was hoping to avoid the cuts and prefers that Albany find other ways to cut the budget.
Daily riders on the G line as well as politicians also expressed their outrage at the plan.
Jose Cortez, 35, a cook on his way to work in Manhattan, said, "It's difficult now to get where I got to go. So just imagine if they cut the service."
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February 16, 2009
Funeral for a Friend...
Mock Funeral for the G Train
The Straphangers Campaign and State Assembly Members Joseph Lentol and Hakeem Jeffries will hold a "mock funeral" for the G train on Tuesday, Feb. 17. Without new state aid, the MTA is proposing to eliminate the line at all times from the Court Square subway station to Forest Hills-71st Avenue, while also raising transit fares.
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
10:30 a.m.
Court Square Subway Station (G)
Inside paid area
Street entrance at Jackson Avenue and Court Square
__________________________________
The Straphangers Campaign and State Assembly Members Joseph Lentol and Hakeem Jeffries will hold a "mock funeral" for the G train on Tuesday, Feb. 17. Without new state aid, the MTA is proposing to eliminate the line at all times from the Court Square subway station to Forest Hills-71st Avenue, while also raising transit fares.
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
10:30 a.m.
Court Square Subway Station (G)
Inside paid area
Street entrance at Jackson Avenue and Court Square
__________________________________
May 23, 2008
NY Times article on Wednesday's G Rally
Not to be outdone by the New York Observer, today's New York Times offered this piece by Clyde Haberman:
Rallying Round a Train That Gets No Respect
By Clyde Haberman
If you will excuse a biblical flourish, the G train is the Moses of New York mass transit. Like Moses, it never made it to the Promised Land. That is, if Manhattan is your idea of divine promise. With its nosebleed-inducing apartment prices and rents, some think of it as flowing not so much with milk and honey as with bilk and money.
In any event, the G train has the distinction of being the city’s only subway line that makes no stops in Manhattan, the heart and wallet of New York. It is a lime green squiggle on the subway map, running from Brooklyn to Queens. Much of the day it barely gasps into Queens, making but two stops there. It meanders through Brooklyn neighborhoods like Carroll Gardens, Cobble Hill, Fort Greene and Greenpoint, places that are enjoying grand revivals and impressive measures of cachet among the young and mobile.
Would that the same might be said of the G line. That was the lament of about 100 people who gathered Wednesday evening at Lafayette Avenue Presbyterian Church in Fort Greene for a sort of pep rally.
Next month, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority will consider possible improvements in subway service. You might not want to hold your breath. But should there be glad tidings, those who ride the G train want to make sure they are not shut out. They attended Wednesday’s meeting much the same way college students ring bonfires before a big football game — to get the juices flowing.
Odds are strong that most of you have never ridden the G. Some of you may have never even heard of it. G train people understand. They’re used to being overlooked. “You can’t spell ‘neglected’ without G,” Councilman David Yassky of Brooklyn said. “You can’t spell ‘ignored’ without G.”
When G riders talk about their line, the phrase “unwanted stepchild” passes their lips a lot. Rodney Dangerfield, as in “I don’t get no respect,” gets his share of mentions, too. Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries of Brooklyn, who organized the church gathering, lost little time before making a Rodney-G connection.
By most measures, the G ranks near the bottom. Transit officials put weekday ridership at 100,000 a day. Only two regular lines, the W and the M, and the system’s three shuttle trains have lower numbers. By comparison, the ridership of the most heavily used line, the No. 6, is 700,000.
In a “report card” that the transportation authority solicited from riders last year, the G line got a dismal D-plus. Even a senior transit official, Peter G. Cafiero, acknowledged at a City Council hearing last month that G service, particularly on the Queens run, is “consistently inconsistent.”
DESPITE improvements in recent years, riders cite statistics showing that G trains still arrive less often than those on most other lines. “I stand at Hoyt-Schermerhorn and wonder when is the Toonerville Trolley going to make it,” said Thomas F. Schutte, the president of Pratt Institute.
That Toonerville Trolley line refers to another distinctive feature of the G train: It is only four cars long. That fact sticks in a lot of craws. With neighborhoods along the line growing, trains are often overcrowded. Then, too, with only four cars, trains do not extend the length of station platforms. “You often see a mad dash to that train,” Mr. Jeffries said. Twisted ankles are not unknown.
In truth, the G has always been short on glamour, even if Charles Mingus once wrote an instrumental number called “GG Train,” the line’s designation before a systemwide phaseout of double letters in the 1980s. A decade ago, Stan Fischler, who has written books on New York’s subways, gave the G his lowest ranking: one star out of five, meaning it was “hardly worth the token.” (Some day, young ’uns, we’ll explain what a token was.)
As much as anything, G riders share the long-simmering resentment of many New Yorkers who live outside Manhattan — namely that they don’t get their due because they are in “the outer boroughs.” Those feelings surfaced more than once on Wednesday, reflected in the applause for Jo Ann Simon, a Democratic district leader in Brooklyn, when she said, “We know that Manhattan is not the center of the universe.”
Clearly, transit officials are sensitive about the unwanted-stepchild charge. Mr. Cafiero went out of his way to reject it at the Council hearing. He also dismissed long-heard whispers that “we are secretly trying to get rid of” the G line entirely. Not so, he said.
Speaking of whispers, allow us to note that tradition holds that Moses stuttered. Kind of like the train service they get, G riders say.
E-mail: haberman@nytimes.com
Rallying Round a Train That Gets No Respect
By Clyde Haberman
If you will excuse a biblical flourish, the G train is the Moses of New York mass transit. Like Moses, it never made it to the Promised Land. That is, if Manhattan is your idea of divine promise. With its nosebleed-inducing apartment prices and rents, some think of it as flowing not so much with milk and honey as with bilk and money.
In any event, the G train has the distinction of being the city’s only subway line that makes no stops in Manhattan, the heart and wallet of New York. It is a lime green squiggle on the subway map, running from Brooklyn to Queens. Much of the day it barely gasps into Queens, making but two stops there. It meanders through Brooklyn neighborhoods like Carroll Gardens, Cobble Hill, Fort Greene and Greenpoint, places that are enjoying grand revivals and impressive measures of cachet among the young and mobile.
Would that the same might be said of the G line. That was the lament of about 100 people who gathered Wednesday evening at Lafayette Avenue Presbyterian Church in Fort Greene for a sort of pep rally.
Next month, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority will consider possible improvements in subway service. You might not want to hold your breath. But should there be glad tidings, those who ride the G train want to make sure they are not shut out. They attended Wednesday’s meeting much the same way college students ring bonfires before a big football game — to get the juices flowing.
Odds are strong that most of you have never ridden the G. Some of you may have never even heard of it. G train people understand. They’re used to being overlooked. “You can’t spell ‘neglected’ without G,” Councilman David Yassky of Brooklyn said. “You can’t spell ‘ignored’ without G.”
When G riders talk about their line, the phrase “unwanted stepchild” passes their lips a lot. Rodney Dangerfield, as in “I don’t get no respect,” gets his share of mentions, too. Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries of Brooklyn, who organized the church gathering, lost little time before making a Rodney-G connection.
By most measures, the G ranks near the bottom. Transit officials put weekday ridership at 100,000 a day. Only two regular lines, the W and the M, and the system’s three shuttle trains have lower numbers. By comparison, the ridership of the most heavily used line, the No. 6, is 700,000.
In a “report card” that the transportation authority solicited from riders last year, the G line got a dismal D-plus. Even a senior transit official, Peter G. Cafiero, acknowledged at a City Council hearing last month that G service, particularly on the Queens run, is “consistently inconsistent.”
DESPITE improvements in recent years, riders cite statistics showing that G trains still arrive less often than those on most other lines. “I stand at Hoyt-Schermerhorn and wonder when is the Toonerville Trolley going to make it,” said Thomas F. Schutte, the president of Pratt Institute.
That Toonerville Trolley line refers to another distinctive feature of the G train: It is only four cars long. That fact sticks in a lot of craws. With neighborhoods along the line growing, trains are often overcrowded. Then, too, with only four cars, trains do not extend the length of station platforms. “You often see a mad dash to that train,” Mr. Jeffries said. Twisted ankles are not unknown.
In truth, the G has always been short on glamour, even if Charles Mingus once wrote an instrumental number called “GG Train,” the line’s designation before a systemwide phaseout of double letters in the 1980s. A decade ago, Stan Fischler, who has written books on New York’s subways, gave the G his lowest ranking: one star out of five, meaning it was “hardly worth the token.” (Some day, young ’uns, we’ll explain what a token was.)
As much as anything, G riders share the long-simmering resentment of many New Yorkers who live outside Manhattan — namely that they don’t get their due because they are in “the outer boroughs.” Those feelings surfaced more than once on Wednesday, reflected in the applause for Jo Ann Simon, a Democratic district leader in Brooklyn, when she said, “We know that Manhattan is not the center of the universe.”
Clearly, transit officials are sensitive about the unwanted-stepchild charge. Mr. Cafiero went out of his way to reject it at the Council hearing. He also dismissed long-heard whispers that “we are secretly trying to get rid of” the G line entirely. Not so, he said.
Speaking of whispers, allow us to note that tradition holds that Moses stuttered. Kind of like the train service they get, G riders say.
E-mail: haberman@nytimes.com
May 22, 2008
NY Observer story on G Rally
The New York Observer published this article by Leigh Kamping-Carder, about Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries' G train rally last night:
G Train Rally Kicks Off Campaign to Improve M.T.A.'s 'Forgotten Stepchild'
by Leigh Kamping-Carder
May 22, 2008
"The four-car G train is just like one step above the horse and buggy days," State Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries of Brooklyn told the crowd at Wednesday night's Save the G rally at Lafayette Avenue Presbyterian Church in Fort Greene.
Almost 100 G riders kicked off a month-long campaign to increase service on the "forgotten stepchild" of the New York subway system, as Mr. Jeffries and others have called it.
"It's important to increase the intensity of the public campaign," Mr. Jeffries said, "to stress to the M.T.A. that G train service enhancements are absolutely necessary."
On June 25, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority board will meet to discuss system-wide service improvements. Mr. Jeffries, who organized the rally, intends to make sure the G is a top priority. In the coming weeks, G advocates will be writing letters, sending emails, and corralling the support of elected officials in an effort to "convince the M.T.A. to do the right thing," as Mr. Jeffries put it.
In February, the agency announced a plan to increase the frequency of G service during off-peak hours, but these additions have been put on hold indefinitely.
"The M.T.A. is aware of these problems [on the G] but sometimes they just need to be reminded," said Cate Contino, of the Straphangers Campaign.
Ms. Contino was one of a number of speakers who illuminated the unique woes of the G: truncated four-car trains, a lack of street transfers, long waits and a history of service reductions. Cuts to the G have occurred despite the route's expanding ridership, especially in the neighborhoods of Williamsburg, Greenpoint, Fort Greene, Clinton Hill, and Bedford-Stuyvesant. In a recent rider report card survey, the G received a D+.
Joe Chan, of the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership, a non-profit local development corporation, spoke of the need to grow downtown Brooklyn as one of the city's financial hubs -- a project he says is hindered by the inadequacies of the G line.
The capacity crowd also included the president of the Pratt Institute, Thomas Schutte, as well as a representative from Brooklyn borough President Marty Markowitz's office, City Council members, community leaders, and residents of Brooklyn and Queens.
It was Mr. Jeffries' rousing call and answer that received the audience's loudest response:
"What do we want?" he chanted.
"More G service!"
"When do we want it?"
"Now!"
___________________________
G Train Rally Kicks Off Campaign to Improve M.T.A.'s 'Forgotten Stepchild'
by Leigh Kamping-Carder
May 22, 2008
"The four-car G train is just like one step above the horse and buggy days," State Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries of Brooklyn told the crowd at Wednesday night's Save the G rally at Lafayette Avenue Presbyterian Church in Fort Greene.
Almost 100 G riders kicked off a month-long campaign to increase service on the "forgotten stepchild" of the New York subway system, as Mr. Jeffries and others have called it.
"It's important to increase the intensity of the public campaign," Mr. Jeffries said, "to stress to the M.T.A. that G train service enhancements are absolutely necessary."
On June 25, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority board will meet to discuss system-wide service improvements. Mr. Jeffries, who organized the rally, intends to make sure the G is a top priority. In the coming weeks, G advocates will be writing letters, sending emails, and corralling the support of elected officials in an effort to "convince the M.T.A. to do the right thing," as Mr. Jeffries put it.
In February, the agency announced a plan to increase the frequency of G service during off-peak hours, but these additions have been put on hold indefinitely.
"The M.T.A. is aware of these problems [on the G] but sometimes they just need to be reminded," said Cate Contino, of the Straphangers Campaign.
Ms. Contino was one of a number of speakers who illuminated the unique woes of the G: truncated four-car trains, a lack of street transfers, long waits and a history of service reductions. Cuts to the G have occurred despite the route's expanding ridership, especially in the neighborhoods of Williamsburg, Greenpoint, Fort Greene, Clinton Hill, and Bedford-Stuyvesant. In a recent rider report card survey, the G received a D+.
Joe Chan, of the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership, a non-profit local development corporation, spoke of the need to grow downtown Brooklyn as one of the city's financial hubs -- a project he says is hindered by the inadequacies of the G line.
The capacity crowd also included the president of the Pratt Institute, Thomas Schutte, as well as a representative from Brooklyn borough President Marty Markowitz's office, City Council members, community leaders, and residents of Brooklyn and Queens.
It was Mr. Jeffries' rousing call and answer that received the audience's loudest response:
"What do we want?" he chanted.
"More G service!"
"When do we want it?"
"Now!"
___________________________
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