City Council Cronies give more tax breaks and zoning perks to developers if they build elevators for the MTA

Queens Chronicle 

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority now will be enlisting private developers in its effort to make more subway stops handicapped accessible with a zoning change approved by the City Council on Oct. 7.

The Zoning for Accessibility initiative expands the areas where the city can offer incentives to developers of large projects near subway stations who allow easements for elevators, ramps or other accommodations.

When signed or enacted into law by mayoral inaction — Mayor de Blasio supports the bill — it will require developers of large projects that are adjacent to underground or elevated subway lines to consult with the MTA to determine if an access easement and infrastructure are needed.

In return, developers could receive one or more accommodations from the city, such as in increase in allowable density, more floor space, or partial relief from some zoning requirements for things like parking spaces, property line setbacks and landscaping.

In a statement from the MTA, acting Chairman and CEO Janno Lieber said the move will augment the accessibility projects already underway within the agency.

“This initiative reflects Gov. Hochul’s and the MTA’s shared commitment to all New Yorkers — particularly riders with mobility disabilities, seniors and parents of young children — to modernize the entire transit system as quickly and efficiently as possible,” he said. And the help is needed.

Only 136 of the city’s 493 subway stations, or 28 percent, are accessible. In Queens the total is 22 out of 80, or 27.5 percent. That includes the Court Square station, where the No. 7 line is accessible but the G is not; and Rockaway Park-Beach 116th Street, where the A train is accessible only during rush hours. The E and M trains at Court Square-23rd Street are only accessible for Manhattan-bound passengers.

The MTA’s five-year, $5 billion capital plan for 2020-24 includes elevators or other upgrades at 77 more stations, which in theory would leave a rider no more than two stations away from an accessible stop.

The MTA believes working with private developers will get more stations in compliance more quickly, with less strain on the MTA’s seemingly always-challenged budget.

“This is a game changer for millions of New Yorkers,” Council Speaker Corey Johnson (D-Manhattan) said in the press release.

34th Avenue Open Street nearly kills a man, twice

Listen to Kenny #ADA #34thAvenue #OpenStreet #disabled #jacksonheights we fight for people like Kenny to be able to get the same quality service everyone else in our neighborhood gets. Having to be dropped off on another place that’s not their home because of OS is not right. pic.twitter.com/8aRzGbZmEL

— 34th Avenue Open Streets Compromise (@34Compromise) September 29, 2021

Hope you're satifisfied Commissioner Gutman and Transportation Alternatives

Shithole Hunters Point library under federal investigation

NY Post

Books aren’t the only thing being checked out at this Queens library.

The feds are now probing the problem-plagued new library branch in Hunters Point, The Post has learned.

The US Attorney’s Office in Brooklyn hired an architectural expert to conduct a December survey of the $41.5 million book hub to look for violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act, new Brooklyn federal court filings in a lawsuit against the library reveal.

An attorney for the city’s Law Department blew the lid off the probe in documents filed for the pending suit, saying they needed more time because they’re still awaiting the investigation’s results.

The decade-in-the-making outpost of the Queens Public Library system was hailed by officials as a “stunning architectural marvel” when it opened in September.

But it has since come under fire for its stacks of design and construction problems — including a three-tiered fiction section, a rooftop garden and a reading space on the children’s floor that are all inaccessible for people who use wheelchairs.

The feds’ investigation was launched around the time a disability advocacy group and a Queens woman with mobility problems sued the library and the city, demanding they fix accessibility issues at the new, 32,000 square-foot branch.

Michelle Caiola of Disability Rights Advocates, which filed the suit, said: “We certainly welcome the US Attorney’s involvement as it brings more pressure to bear on the city to make the library fully accessible as quickly as possible.”

It is unclear what steps the feds will take if they find that the Hunters Point branch

Class action lawsuit filed against city for shithole Hunters Point librarys' lack of ADA accessibility

 

 NY Post

The new $41.5 million Queens Public Library branch at Hunters Point, where design flaws have made it a target of critics since opening in September, could get even more expensive thanks to a new lawsuit demanding improvements to help disabled patrons.

In a class-action lawsuit filed on Tuesday in Brooklyn federal court, disabilities advocates say that Queens Public Library violated the federal Americans with Disabilities Act by failing to ensure that disabled patrons will have equal access to all parts of the new branch.

When the branch opened, a three-tiered fiction section only had a single staircase leading up to it and was unreachable by the building’s single elevator.

The plaintiffs, the Center for the Independence of the Disabled and a Queens woman with mobility issues, say disabled people are also unable to reach the branch’s rooftop terrace and a reading space on the children’s floor.

The plaintiffs are calling on the library to “swiftly” execute plans to remove barriers to equal access to areas within the Hunters Point branch.

The suit was filed just two months after the 32,000-square foot library was opened to the public — at which point library officials hailed it as a “stunning architectural marvel” and a “beacon of learning, literacy and culture.”

“The newly-built Hunters Point Library was designed and built with a total disregard for adults and children with mobility disabilities and in flagrant contempt of the legal requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act,” the 21-page lawsuit states.

Hunters Point library makes it hard for the handicapped and elderly people to get to the books

NY Post

A state-of-the-art new Queens library that took $41 million to build over more than a decade isn’t fully accessible to people with disabilities — and bookworms are outraged.
 
The Hunters Point Library in Long Island City features a three-tiered fiction section that can only be reached by a steep staircase.
 
But the design fails to consider wheelchair-bound users, some elderly folks and anyone who isn’t able-bodied, advocates say.
 
“I’m appalled,” Christine Yearwood, founder of the disability rights group Up-Stand, told The Post. 

“Everybody — young, old, able-bodied and disabled — should be able to enjoy it.”
Yearwood, who lives in Astoria, added: “With all of the delays they had a chance to do this the right way … It’s off-putting.”
 
 The eye-catching lit house opened on Sept. 24 to much fanfare, complete with a sleek modern facade facing East River. Its design began in 2010 and construction started in 2015.
 
The library has one elevator but it doesn’t stop at the fiction section, which is on three separate levels above the lobby, according to Gothamist, which was first to report the accessibility problems.
 
By law, public buildings must meet accessibility requirements in the American Disabilities Acts. And the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions has a checklist noting “All parts of the library should be accessible.”
 
On Friday, elderly library visitors called it a major screw up.
 
“[It’s] an unfortunate oversight, clearly,” said Dottie Jeffries, 68, who was browsing for books. “I hope there’s a way to remedy this.”
 
A 74-year-old man, who lives across the street from the building, added, “I’m disappointed. It should be accessible to everyone.”
 
Queens Public Library President Dennis Walcott said the library is aware of the issue and plans to move the books.

 The issue with this "library" is that it's more designed to hold gilded events and galas for city officials, lobbyists, corporate owned local news reporters, business executives and myriad plutocrats. The book and the bookshelves are obligatory.

It's a big club...