Open Streets Are Permanent. Not Everyone's Thrilled.

do the "haters" have a point? [View this email in your browser]( Open Streets Are Here To Say. Not Everyone's Thrilled About It. Plus: Did the MTA overplay the idea that riders are afraid of crime? The city is getting 60 new zero-emissions buses. And while the BQE is crumbling, there's no serious plan to fix it. By James Ramsay [a cyclist rides on an Open Street as people march against it] Afia Eama/Gothamist When the New York City Council voted last month to codify [Open Streets]( into city law, making barricaded, traffic-free roadways permanent, it became clear the program had moved [beyond its initial purpose]( giving cooped up New Yorkers extra space outdoors while remaining socially distanced during the pandemic. Under the new legislation, which passed [40 to 8]( and was signed into law by Mayor Bill de Blasio, the existing 235 Open Streets locations will be allowed to use curbside parking spots for programming, and they’ll have the option to keep the streets closed to through traffic 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Additionally, the Department of Transportation will be responsible for adding and maintaining 20 Open Streets locations in areas “underserved” by the program. But as street safety advocates, outdoor dining enthusiasts, numerous elected officials, and [all eight Democratic mayoral candidates]( celebrate the redistribution of street space from cars to pedestrians, some residents are questioning whether it’s something they actually want. "I first and foremost am a cyclist, so I avoid Open Streets at all costs," said Jessica Seibert, a 40-year-old Greenpoint resident who considers herself part of a silent portion of New Yorkers who are ambivalent about the program. "People could be walking their dogs in the middle of the street. I just avoid it. I think it’s strange when people are like, 'Oh, it’s for cyclists to come out!'" Seibert said. "Don’t get me wrong, I’m not an anti-Open Streets kind of person. I just think last summer, it was cool and it made sense and it got people outside. But now, it’s just kind of messy." Overall, the Open Streets program has broad support. In March, [a Data for Progress poll]( found that 67% of New Yorkers agreed the city was right to close certain streets last summer. And in making the program permanent, lawmakers and advocates have emphasized their desire to expand Open Streets, particularly in lower-income, outer borough neighborhoods that disproportionately lack park space. But Council Member Francisco Moya, who represents the Queens neighborhoods of Corona and Elmhurst and voted against the bill, pushed back against the phenomenon of Open Streets advocates trying to impose a program in the name of racial equity. "I think it’s really clear: Black and Latino communities can speak for themselves, they do not need anyone to come in and talk for them," Moya said. He expressed frustration that Open Streets supporters don’t seem to accept that his constituents, after a "thoughtful process," simply don’t want the plan and feels it’s insulting that proponents "come back with, 'They’re underrepresented communities, therefore' — no! We can speak for ourselves. And we have." Just west of Moya’s district, on a 1.3-mile stretch of 34th Avenue in Jackson Heights, the city has seen one of its most vibrant — and oddly contentious — examples of the program. [protesters calling for "compromise" on the 34th Avenue Open Street march] Afia Eama/Gothamist "We all agreed it was needed at the beginning," said Jackson Heights resident Gabi Bharat. "There were people in the parks gathering, and people needed to spread out." But now, Bharat said, the program feels excessive, and she believes most residents don’t realize this is permanent — or want it to be. A group she’s organized, called 34th Avenue Open Streets Compromise, is pushing to shorten the blocked-off stretch, limit the hours, get vendors out of the median, and move all the activities (Zumba, yoga, ESL classes, et al) into the small "pocket park" on 34th Avenue and 78th Street. Bharat’s group also wants the Open Street to be managed and operated by the NYPD or another city agency, rather than the volunteer group, called the 34th Avenue Open Streets Coalition, which she characterized as "mostly white people from other states" who are taking advantage of Hispanic residents, in particular, to push an anti-car agenda. "They’re into the politics of it," said Paola Peguero, who’s also with the compromise group. "For the photo, they get your Hispanic people out. But they’re not the ones asking for this." Jim Burke, a 34th Avenue resident who's one of the Coalition volunteers maintaining the barricades and producing activities for the past year, said the Open Street has been overwhelmingly embraced — "particularly by the Spanish-speaking immigrant community" — and that "the haters" are putting their own selfish desires over other residents’ quality of life. "When they want to shorten the hours, that means the guy who delivers food all day, when he gets home to see his kids, he can’t enjoy the street," Burke said. "The woman who’s been cleaning someone’s house all day long, when she gets off work, this means the street would not be for her? It would be really unfair to cut that amenity off for the people who make this city run, a lot of whom are essential workers." Last Saturday, tensions came to a head — sort of — when about 125 people aligned with the compromise group marched down 34th Avenue, chanting, "Who are we? Residents! What do we want? Compromise!" Meanwhile, multiple people who were out enjoying the Open Street told Gothamist that they simultaneously enjoy the program and understand the concerns about it. "The open streets thing is great, I love it, I wish it could stay,” said John Leonard, an electronics technician who lives on 34th Avenue. "I think there are just some points about it — the culture of the Open Street isn’t really settled." "For example, there are lot of people that do bike-riding on it and they wanna ride fast to get through to the next neighborhood," Leonard continued. "But there are kids, there are toddlers, and you know, parents walking around with like three kids running in front of them that are intersecting with the bike riders and to me, that is a safety issue and it’s an accident waiting to happen." Signi Lama, a 16-year-old high school student, was shouting, "Keep them open!" as the protesters marched down the avenue. He said he uses the street everyday, and thinks it’s especially useful for seniors so they "can go out and walk." But he also expressed doubt about whether it should actually be a permanent fixture on the avenue. "Maybe not permanent," he said, "but like, maybe keep it until COVID is over or something like that." — [With reporting by Afia Eama]( Did The MTA's Survey Used To Justify More Subway Police Overplay Riders' Fears? [subway riders masked up inside a train] Andrew H. Walker/Shutterstock In the MTA's push [to add 250 more police officers]( to subway patrols, the agency has been pointing to [its own customer survey]( that shows 87% of former riders and 76% of current riders, out of 33,000 people surveyed, say safety is a "very or extremely important factor" in deciding if they’ll ride transit again. But a closer look at the demographics, as well as another survey taken around the same time, show the MTA may have been overplaying the public’s fear factor. Gothamist saw a demographic breakdown of the response to the survey, which the MTA has not posted publicly. It shows half of the respondents are white. While that roughly matches the overall subway ridership at the moment, it’s also a group that’s least likely to be targeted by police for minor infractions, like fare evasion. [Recent reports show]( 92% of people arrested for fare evasion were Black and Hispanic, groups that don’t always feel safer seeing more police officers. The [Regional Plan Association]( meanwhile, conducted its own survey of commuters across New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut in March and came away with very different results. While it only surveyed 804 adults, it found just 19% of respondents were concerned about crime in the subways. The number one factor holding commuters back from riding was an ongoing fear of COVID-19, followed by a preference for driving. The RPA survey found that 26% of New York City respondents were concerned about crime. About a quarter of them were people of color, and just 14% were white — a much smaller portion than those in the MTA’s survey. "Our customers of all backgrounds have been incredibly clear: their top priority is to feel safe, secure, and confident in their commute underground and on buses," NYC Transit interim president Sarah Feinberg said in a statement to Gothamist. "At this pivotal moment in the history of mass transit in New York, our calls for more police officers and mental health experts in the system are in lockstep with the demands of our riders. The City must do more to ensure that uniformed police officers and mental health experts are deployed across the system so that more riders continue returning to the subways." Still, riders appear to be voting with their feet, even as [a rash]( of [random]( and [shocking]( [incidents]( in the subways [continues](. Last week, there were five days in a row where ridership topped 2 million — a newly consistent high for the system. — [Reporting by Stephen Nessen]( Here's What Else Is Happening In addition to adding cops, the MTA has hired 200 private security guards to patrol the subway system. The guards, who are unarmed and wear orange vests, have been assigned to certain stations with higher reports of drug use, theft, and thrown debris, including Harlem-125th Street station, West Fourth Street-Washington Square, and 59th Street-Columbus Circle. According to NYC Transit, the guards are in place to report problems back to the MTA and NYPD, but not to engage in cases where they could cause a conflict to escalate. ([The Wall Street Journal]( New York City is getting 60 new zero emissions buses. There's still a long way to go to reach NYC Transit's goal of amassing 6,000 zero emissions buses by the end of the decade. But the recent purchase also comes with an additional piece of crucial infrastructure: 50 overhead electric charging docks. ([AM New York]( Wait times and cancellations have gotten worse for MTA buses due to a lingering driver shortage. Service is more reliable than it was last April, when mandatory COVID-19 quarantines sidelined large chunks of the workforce. But the transit agency still has about 400 bus driver vacancies, causing service disruptions as ridership numbers continue to climb towards pre-pandemic levels. ([THE CITY]( A new bill in the New York State Senate seeks to raise awareness about the dangers that SUVs pose to pedestrians. The bill, which is sponsored by Brooklyn State Sen. Andrew Gounardes, would requite the DMW to rate vehicles on a one-to-five scale based on their record of hurting pedestrians and cyclists in collisions. Auto dealerships would then have to display the ratings in car windows. ([CityLab]( Crushing traffic could make the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway "unsafe" by 2025, but as of now, there's no plan to fix it. So far, enforcement of overweight trucks — a main reason why the 1.5 mile stretch of the BQE in Brooklyn is crumbling — has been spotty. And while the city is expected to announce a short-term fix later this month, there's growing support for the idea of tearing it down altogether. ([Curbed]( NJ Transit's last customer advocate resigned seven months ago, and the transit agency still hasn't hired a replacement. The hold-up is due to bureaucratic delays with the NJ Transit board, which is currently revising the job description, but also with the state legislature in New Jersey, which is pushing to make the role more independent from the transit agency itself. ([NJ.com]( And Finally, A Word From Kyle [a man teaches his wife to ride a bike] Afia Eama/Gothamist Kyle Goodridge, a 59-year-old MTA worker, was out enjoying the 34th Avenue Open Street last weekend. He said he's been enjoying it while he teaches his wife to ride a bike. ([It's never too late to learn to ride a bike]( He also felt some ambivalence. "One day it just appeared during the pandemic," he said. "I didn’t see [anything about] it and I pay attention to the news. So I think if they are going to do programs like that, there needs to be a little bit more thought. The upshot for me though is that the hours probably should be shortened. During rush hour this needs to be open, so I would say close it to cars around 10 a.m. and open it up again around 4 p.m., so that rush hour traffic could go through here." [a photo of James Ramsay sitting on a vespa] James Ramsay is wishing you a happy summer kickoff weekend — [wear sunscreen]( (Photo by Amy Pearl) Support WNYC + Gothamist Make a donation to support local, independent journalism. Your contributions are our largest source of funding and pays for essential transportation coverage and more. [Donate]( [We the Commuters on Facebook]( [We the Commuters on Twitter]( [WNYC on Instagram]( [We the Commuters]( Copyright © 2021 New York Public Radio, All rights reserved. Our mailing address is: New York Public Radio 160 Varick Street New York, NY 10013 [unsubscribe]( [update preferences]( [privacy policy](