The Wave
In a setting more akin to a Cold War
Soviet show-trial than a NYC Town Hall meeting, MTA officials at Feb.
6’s transit meeting in the YMCA spent time patting themselves on the
back discussing their accomplishments and future plans before moving on
to pre-screened questions from the audience.
A group of five transit officials sat
at a table at the front of the room and began the meeting with a series
of stats and charts to show how the MTA has improved service over the
year before opening up to a Q&A session. Many in the audience,
however, felt the bureaucrats ignored the real questions and censored
the voices of those in the room – a fact which led to at least one
person to call out “I thought this was America!” during the
proceedings.
“Tonight
was a sham,” said an exasperated John Cori. Cori, a Community Board 14
executive board member who made the aforementioned “America” statement,
spoke to The Wave following the meeting.
“It was censorship, it violated our
constitutional rights to freedom of speech by censoring our questions. I
put two in, and they both were not read. I was one of the first ten
people to put questions in, and the woman went through them, picked and
chose what she wanted to give, and gave them the cream-puff
questions.”
“The
meeting was mind-numbing because of the way MTA chose to filter the
questions, but not surprising” added local transportation advocate Rick
Horan. “They like to control the conversation and so the value of this…
is a little dubious.”
Among
the hard-hitting questions that MTA rep Lucille Songhai pitched to the
panel were whammies like “can everyone talk about how they got here this
evening,” and even then the bureaucrats on the board failed to appease.
“We came here on the A-Train of course!” was the answer many gave, an
answer which left several in the audience wondering if the blatant
pandering had any truth to it.
“I
will gladly escort you to the station!” an incredulous Glenn DiResto
replied from the rear of the room, echoing the doubts of many as to the
“everyman” persona the officials were trying to portray for themselves.
Like so many other comments of the evening, however, this too was
ignored by those on the panel, and Songhai teed up yet another softball
for the board.
“You talked a little bit about what
you’re doing for people with disabilities beyond elevators. I was hoping
that you could talk about one particular aspect that you feel most
proud about,” and “who cleans up racist graffiti” were among the other
thrillers the MTA decided to regale the crowd with during the Q&A
session. And even when they did touch upon questions locals were
interested in – questions regarding the possibility of a revitalization
of the H-train from Mott Ave. to Beach 116th or the truncation of the
Q22, among others, – the officials again failed to deliver.
The H-train, it seems, is nothing
more than a pipe dream, as the officials stated that the inclusion of
the H-train would create further reliability issues on the A-line
because the new train would displace other cars in the terminal. As for
the Q22, panelists said that the ridership numbers west of 116th were
very low, but officials did say that they were still listening to
community input and would take that input into account before rolling
out any final changes.
The lack of any solid, productive
answers led to more than a few outbursts from the crowd, and local
Democratic District Leader Lew Simon at one point – tired of being
ignored – made his way to the front of the room and tossed a letter from
a local student on the panelist table, urging them to read it and see
how their proposals would impact the people of the peninsula.
“This is a petition from an
8-year-old child who rides the Q53 every day,” Simon shouted, reminding
the agency reps that their decision was impacting the way local children
would get to school.
Admin note: A commenter alerted me this post was 2 years old. My fault for not checking it date since I put it up in a rush.
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