Reprinted with the permission of the moderators of the KWT Neighbors listserv.
The following statement by City Councilmember Brad Lander is in response to a four-page letter the President of the MTA sent to him, Borough President Marty Markowitz, State Senator Eric Adams, and State Assemblymember Jim Brennan.
The following statement by City Councilmember Brad Lander is in response to a four-page letter the President of the MTA sent to him, Borough President Marty Markowitz, State Senator Eric Adams, and State Assemblymember Jim Brennan.
Statement of Councilmember Brad Lander on MTA's Rejection of Requested B68 Extension:
This Valentine's Day, the MTA has once again spurned the unrequited love of Windsor Terrace and Kensington straphangers. Their rejection of the very reasonable plea from over 1,200 neighborhood residents for a modest extension of the B68 bus while the F stations at 15th Street and Fort Hamilton Parkway are closed is heartless.
What's more, it is dissembling. They have inflated the estimated cost by 400% (by quoting a cost of $375,000 for an all-day extension, when only the morning rush-hour is needed). The true cost of giving we lovers of public transit a better option during the closings: $95,000, or just 0.003% (that's right, three-one-thousandths of one percent) of the $275 million Culver El reconstruction project. But I guess 0.003% is too much to ask from this relationship. Sadly, like many a careless lover, the MTA believes that we'll come back tomorrow all the same. And we probably will. But it is not the right way to build a long-term relationship.