Here’s the text of the remarks I submitted at the MTA hearing last night in Brooklyn:
My name is Domenic M. Recchia, Jr. I represent the 47th District in the City Council, which includes Coney Island, Bensonhurst, Gravesend and Brighton Beach, and the people who live in those neighborhoods – along with people across the city – are going to be badly hurt by the cuts you’re proposing.
For my constituents, you want to discontinue the M train between Essex Street and Bay Parkway, driving thousands of commuters to further overcrowd the trains. You want to displace hundreds of more riders by cutting the x29 express bus and, on weekends, the x28.
You want to cut portions of the B4 and B64, as well as overnight service on the B64. And you propose reductions for the D, F and N on Saturday and Sunday. Coney Island survives on tourism during the summer, and by limiting the ways for people to get there, you will be doing major damage to our local economy.
Besides these cuts, you’ve proposed two very damaging initiatives: The first would eliminate student MetroCards. This should not even be on the table. A monthly unlimited MetroCard, which most students would need, is $89. That is a lot of money, especially for families on fixed incomes. For families with more than one child, it gets even worse. You are balancing your budget on the backs of our school children and we will not stand for that.
The second is the cuts to Access-A-Ride. Dropping some elderly customers at subway stations and bus stops instead of at their homes defeats the purpose of the system. Then they may as well take the subway or the bus. During the hot summers and cold winters, many of them will not be able to handle this hardship.
Our seniors and our children should be held harmless to these cuts.
The City Council already made a common-sense suggestion. Move $140 million of capital funds to temporarily close the gap in the operating budget. That money would come from two places – $90 million in unspent federal stimulus aid and $50 million in operating funds that are being used to supplement the capital budget. Doing that would help stop these devastating cuts.
These decisions you’re making are going to disrupt the lives of people across the city, making it harder for them to get to school, work, doctors appointments, and to the recreational activities that keep our economy moving. You need to come up with a better plan. You need to fix your own agency before you ask hard-working New Yorkers to fix it for you. You need to make decisions toward fiscal responsibility while still providing the best customer service possible.
Do not leave New Yorkers stranded.
