UES Residents Sue MTA Over 2nd Avenue Subway

Rendering of the ventilation system at the 96th Street station from the Real Deal.

Since it was proposed in 1929, the long-awaited Second Avenue subway line has been knocked off track by two financial crashes and one world war. Now, the massive transit project is facing another formidable adversary: residents of an Upper East Side co-op who have filed suit over the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's controversial plan to construct above-ground ventilation structures, which some say will blight the neighborhood and lower property values.

According to the Real Deal, residents of the co-op at 223 East 69th Street, where eight households would have their east-facing windows completely blocked by the ventilation structure, accuse the MTA of unlawfully altering the designs of the cooling towers. The suit claims the agency's 2004 Final Environmental Impact Statement promised that the ventilation structures "would typically be approximately the same size as a typical row house—25 feet wide, 75 feet deep, and four- to five-stories high, although some may be wider," and that they "could be designed to appear like a neighborhood row house in height, scale, materials and colors." But now the MTA is planning on building structures as tall as 10 stories with facades made from a "utilitarian mix of translucent white glass, steel louvers and ceramic tile."

"[I]f the MTA insists on moving forward with this design change, then it must conduct an additional public environmental review, including a full analysis of the facility's impacts on the buildings at 233 East 69th Street, and an evaluation of suitable mitigation measures or alternatives to avoid or minimize the facility's impacts to the greatest extent practicable," said attorney Michael D. Zarin, who estimated such a review could delay the project by an additional six months to one year. The MTA has said it must construct the above-ground structures, some of which require the use of eminent domain, because the sidewalk grates that ventilate most subway stations are no longer up to code.

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By Ben Muessig in News on January 27, 2010 12:02 PM

Comments [rss]

inoyourider

Another BS lawsuit.

S.K.

Wait a sec, if the old IND and IRT lines didn't need ventilation towers, only sidewalk grates, why does the SAS need disruptive towers?

Krooklyn

Yeah, the city is damn near bankrupt, the MTA prices continue to go up, they threatened to charge school children, they're now taking away some handicap options for those riders, and now you want to SUE? Really? Yeah, that will get things done. Sue them. The American way.

Abbott

If a celebrity coalition in SOHO couldn't keep a garbage depot out of their neighborhood, I don't know why these people think they have a better chance.

Jen S

This just added another 3 years to the expected date of completion. Happy now, UES?

NannyState

How is a structure that is clearly 5 stories with a small sixth level service core suddenly "10 stories"? Their lawyer counts floors like Donald Trump.

Chu Chu Chuy

At least this isn't San Francisco, it would be another 15 years before the environmental study is finished. They wouldn't have even broken ground yet. Sometimes I miss home...*sigh*

eastbwayanglo

The boroughs' transit infrastructure needs major improvement as well, but that doesn't negate the necessity of a new trunk line on the east side.

The purpose of the 2nd Ave subway is to take pressure off of the IRT Lex line, which has nowhere near the needed capacity for the amount of riders it sees every day. It will be impossible to modernize the old lines without having some way of relieving the burden on them in meantime.

Many decidedly non-rich people who live and work on the UES will now have a much easier commute, not to mention those of us on the LES and in the East Village area who now have a really long walk to get to a subway.

Added bonus:

All those people on 1st, York, East end, etc. who have cars or use car services will have less reason to contribute to gridlock in Manhattan.

Ishtar

I abhor the 4/5. I really do. I'm covered in some other person's funk by the time I get off at 59th st.

FJF

How about we just revise the building code to allow for sidewalk grates again? They seem to be working just fine.

NattyB

Now those exploding manhole covers . . .

Preservationist

So a bunch of richy-riches on the UES are bitching about a subway that really only benefits the richy-riches on the UES?

AWESOME! Let's take those billions of dollars and cancel the "doomsday plan", improve service in the outer boroughs, improve infrastructure in the existing system, and generally help the average New Yorker moreso than a new line which will primarily serve the wealthy!

Oh wait - Bloomie got a third term. So that'll never happen. The G train will continue to be a disaster, the 7 will be closed for 10 weekends in a row, and Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx will be largely ignored, as per the usual.

longacre

I don't understand how these idiots get more press than the fact that these structures will be built by the GOVERNMENT OF THE PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA.

NattyB

Damn, is that true?

It'd be sweet irony if this 2nd Ave subway was funded by the Stimulus, since, the Stimulus is funded by China buying Gov't debt.

But no, this is funded by New Yorkers. I can't believe that that's true longacre? Wouldn't the Unions raise hell! Or, is it, that the Developer and Engineering firms are Chinese, and the workers are mostly Americans (or US union employees, ya know what I mean), in which case, it wouldn't be such a big deal.

longacre

It is true, but I haven't been able to find many details other than the MTA awarding a $100 million contract to China State Construction Engineering Corp.

Doctor Memory

For better or worse, this is pretty common. The steel for the Bay Bridge retrofit in San Francisco is also coming from China. Big capital projects are expensive, America is broke, and nobody underbids the Chinese on steel these days.

Quality control is, um, still an issue. (A lot scarier when you're talking about a major bridge than a ventilation shaft though...)

WesleySnipesAlot

How can you blight an area that was already slash 'n' burned in the 50's-80's and replaced with white-brick monstrosities and other tall tripe? Keep dreaming UES.

grizzzly

Wouldn't your apartment suddenly being located right next to a subway stop raise the value more than these things would lower it?

Kojak

Even so, just being on the same line makes their homes more accessible, so grizzz has a point.

But being that this is a project that will benefit the public in general, the residents will not have a strong case. And these towers don't look too bad anyway.

Suck it up. So your apartments will be worth 4.5 Mill instead of 5 Mill. Boohoo.

Sad. Cry. cue small violin