MTA Tries To Be Good Neighbors To 2nd Ave Businesses

As Frost (OK, a character in a Frost poem) once said, "Good fences make good neighbors." But we're sure building better sidewalks and making sure you're not blocking entrances to your neighbors' businesses can't hurt. After a number of SNAFUs on the 2nd Avenue Subway project, the MTA is trying to make good with the locals by fixing up the construction path. And like the disillusioned, battered wife to the 2nd Avenue Subway's drunken husband, we find ourselves willing to hope once more that this time things will be different.

Michael Horodniceanu, president of the MTA's Capital Construction Company, told the Post, "These are simple things that will make people happy, so people can actually be in that area and not hate every day they live there." That includes repaving chopped up sidewalks, new lighting, painting over the ugly concrete barriers and putting up maps showing pedestrians where businesses somewhat blocked by construction are located. They're also planning on letting people know when construction will be taking place on the MTA's website.

Business owners are reluctantly welcoming the attempt at a truce. Joe Pon of A & A Imported Motors at 92nd Street said, "At times I've seen it where there's twelve to eighteen inches of walk space on the sidewalk. And with the fences it is like a maze, so any help is welcome." If you look hard enough on the MTA's website, they do have a section listing businesses that are open but possibly blocked by construction, in case you were wondering if Pepi’s Hair Design is alive and well.

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By Jaya Saxena in News on October 23, 2010 4:10 PM

Comments [rss]

Blurry

Between the bad economy and the MTA 2nd Ave construction, the businesses there are struggling twice as hard to survive.

Think2wice

They said the whole point of using deep tunnel-boring instead of the tried and true shallow cut-and-cover was to avoid undue disruptions. But tunnel-boring takes far too long to get done and at the places where there is disruption, businesses and residents have to endure it for far too long. Is this what we're going to expect for all future subway expansion?

Plus there'll be no express trains for the SAS. Which sucks ass.

Såkandulæredet

I thought cut-and-cover is only tried and true when there is barely any infrastructure in the way.

Think2wice

The infrastructure, density, and street congestion during the cut-and-cover days was even worse. Not only did the IRT, BMT, and IND have to reroute gas and steam mains but also build under elevated trains and streetcar lines that could not be rerouted like buses. And the crowds on the surface was "more crowded than Calcutta" according to transit historian Clifton Hood.

jamieob256

Tomorrow, Sunday, October 24, 2010, from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m., on 91st Street between Second and Third Avenues, there will be a rally to protest the three years of neglect, delay, and lack of government support of those residents and businesses affected by the subway construction. Civil rights attorney Norman Siegel will be in attendance.

http://www.uppereast.com/node/66165

seaanemoneman

"The 2nd Avenue subway construction will soon stretch 30 blocks and the business owners and restaurants have been complaining about decreased business and no visibility.

That is all about to change."

Tongue-in-cheek, or just blithering idiocy?