The MTA's Looming L Train Shutdown Has North Brooklyn Panicking

(Courtesy Luke Ohlson)

More than 100 business owners, residents, and commuters gathered at Brooklyn Bowl in Williamsburg this morning to demand answers regarding the potential years-long shutdown of L train service between Brooklyn and Manhattan. At the behest of the L Train Coalition (as the organizers have dubbed themselves), the MTA sent a representative who said almost nothing of substance before being asked to leave.

The Canarsie Tube that connects Williamsburg to Manhattan was severely damaged during Hurricane Sandy and could be shut down for up to three years for repairs, depending on whether the MTA suspends service altogether or allows for some limited service with slower repairs. The MTA is still considering various scenarios internally, and it's not yet known how the agency will compensate with alternate forms of transportation. On an average weekday, 300,000 New Yorkers ride the L train.

The recurring theme of Thursday's meeting was the potential impact that such a shutdown would have on businesses in northern Brooklyn. This was largely due to the fact that the meeting was organized by several business owners and took place during business hours in Williamsburg, when commuters who rely on the L train might not have been able to attend. The organizers plan to hold future meetings in the evenings.

"There will be no businesses if they shut the L train down," said Thomas Dodd, who operates Brooklyn Fire Proof's creative spaces in Bushwick. "You will devastate the entire community...I will have to shut down all of my businesses, relieve all of my employees, and move, quite frankly, from Brooklyn. There's just no way around this. Zero."

As several attendees mentioned, even the specter of the shutdown has been enough to affect some businesses serviced by the L train.

"I book events a year, year and a half, two years out," said Rachel Sackheim, who directs sales and events at Williamsburg's Brooklyn Winery. "This is already having an effect on my business."

Peter Levitan, a real estate broker, said that the brokerage community has already seen businesses pulling out of deals because they are afraid of what might happen. And David Hubschman, a real estate agent who lives in Williamsburg, told Gothamist that if businesses start leaving the area, no one will want to live there once the train gets up and running again.

"I think they're saying it's gonna be three years so when it's one year, which is still totally ridiculous, they can act like they're doing us a favor," Hubschman said. "We live in a city where we pay tons of taxes. We pay a sales tax; we pay our income tax; we pay our property tax...They need to come up with a plan. Government's there for that. I'd hope to hear they're working on a way to decrease that to three months, nights and weekends."

Others in attendance demanded a timeline for any potential shutdown, more information about why the shutdown is necessary, and detailed plans for alternate forms of transportation to be provided during such a shutdown. When organizer Felice Kirby, who owned and operated Teddy's Bar and Grill in Williamsburg for 28 years, reiterated the crowd's demands to MTA representative Andrew Inglesby, he said that he did not have any answers at this time.

"We do not have a definitive plan yet that can be released to the public," Inglesby said. "Basically the problem is that we have Sandy repairs that we have to make in every tube. That's really what we have to look at to do, and that's really all I'm gonna say right now."

That statement was hardly satisfactory to the assembled group, and prompted several people to call out, "That's pretty weak," and, "I don't know what you've been doing all this time!"

William Harvey, who has lived in the Williamsburg area for 30 years and runs a design firm, suggested that the coalition commission an independent engineer to audit the MTA's assessment of Sandy damage to ensure that the authority's recommendations are indeed the best course of action.

"As far as I understand it, the MTA is a public entity that's at the service of the people," he said. "It's not the other way around. We are the customers, but the MTA is a public institution that has a fiduciary responsibility to the citizens of the whole city and the state, and I think it's irresponsible for them to suggest these vague engineering issues."

William Harvey, a longtime Williamsburg resident.(Miranda Katz / Gothamist)

There were several elected officials in attendance, including State Senator Daniel Squadron, State Assembly Member Joseph Lentol, State Senator Martin Malavé Dilan, and City Council Member Stephen Levin. All four expressed their disappointment with the MTA, and vowed to work in their capacity to advocate for the communities that would be affected by a shutdown.

Lentol posed several alternate transit options in the event of a shutdown, including private buses shuttling between Manhattan and Williamsburg and MTA subsidization of the East River Ferry. Others suggested rerouting the B32 bus, which currently goes along Kent and Wythe avenues in Williamsburg, to go into Manhattan; still others suggested dramatically ramping up G train service. Squadron even went so far as to jokingly suggest the installation of a Hyperloop across the water.

Dilan, who sits on the state senate's transportation committee, noted that the MTA will have to come before the legislature by March 31st, when the state budget must be approved, and that he will demand more answers of MTA Chairman Thomas Prendergast at that point.

Levin condemned the MTA for its lack of transparency on the issue.

"This kind of thing wouldn't fly if it was a city agency doing this," Levin said. "It's not an acceptable status quo, and for a government agency the size of the MTA to not have that level of communication with the communities is unacceptable."

The L Train Coalition ultimately dismissed Inglesby from the meeting halfway through so that it could focus on organizing itself into committees and preparing for the worst case scenario of a multi-year shutdown—but not before making its displeasure with the MTA known.

"We're not getting any answers, we're not getting any solid information," Kirby said. "I don't think it's personal; I'm sure this gentleman is doing an excellent job of not telling us anything...We're very glad that you dared to be present, and we appreciate it, but we're not satisfied by a long shot."

The Coalition's next meeting is slated to take place on Wednesday, February 24th at Swinging Sixties Senior Center (211 Ainslie Street). This time it will be scheduled after normal business hours.