By Evan MacDonald
About 50 people gathered at the corner of Third and Bay Ridge avenues on Tuesday evening, despite the chill. Several were in wheelchairs, and many carried walking canes. Most were elderly.
None approved of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s route changes.
The crowd was gathered to support a lawsuit that alleges the MTA unfairly affected citizens’ lives when it eliminated some bus routes on June 27. Bay Ridge, which is called a Naturally Occurring Retirement Community by urban planners, has a particularly high number of elderly and disabled persons.
The lawsuit claims that, by cutting routes, the MTA has caused unfair hardship for those elderly and disabled citizens.
“Many of our disabled cannot go up and down the subway steps, and we have no elevators or escalators here,” City Councilman Vincent Gentile said. “The subway is not an option.”
Gentile and State Senator Marty Golden filed the lawsuit, which will be heard on Thursday morning in Kings County Supreme Court. It alleges the MTA violated two laws: the Americans with Disabilities Act, and the New York State Human Rights Law.
The bus routes identified in the lawsuit include the elimination of weekend bus service on the X27 and X28, the elimination of uptown service on the X37 and X38, and the elimination of the B37.
Since the routes were changed, Golden said, it takes residents an average of about 40 more minutes to get to midtown Manhattan than it did before.
Bay Ridge resident Angela Vaccaro said the change makes it so difficult to get to Manhattan, that she has considered moving out of the neighborhood entirely.
“Going from 96th Street,” she said, “it’s like a war zone getting into Manhattan.”
MTA officials were not present at the rally, but the agency’s original statement about the cuts, released on March 24, said they were necessary to fill an $800 million budget shortfall in 2010.
“The extent of our deficit requires that most of the cuts move ahead, but we listened to our customers and made changes where we could,” MTA Chairman and CEO Jay H. Walder said in that statement. “We were able to take a number of cuts off the table but unfortunately, many of the cuts moving ahead will be painful.”
Bay Ridge residents voiced their concerns throughout the rally, chanting “No way, MTA.” Some held up signs that read things like “If we need to pay more, we expect to get more service, not less,” and “More $$ for fewer services is unacceptable.”
Mary Gibbons, a Bay Ridge resident, said that she used to be able to take the B70 bus straight down Third Avenue from Lutheran Medical Center, where she receives treatment on her foot. Since the cuts have gone into effect, though, the B70 was rerouted and she has had to walk three blocks out of her way to catch the nearest route.
She wasn’t sure what difference the lawsuit would ultimately make.
“But what can you say, though?” she said. “You can’t fight city hall.”
Golden admitted that if the lawsuit were deemed valid on Thursday, the MTA would probably just get an injunction to stop it. He promised to keep fighting, however, until residents received the services they needed.
“The lawsuit, it’s very simple,” he said. “It goes after fairness. Fairness for our disabled, fairness for our elderly, and fairness for our community.”
Allen Bortnick, who has lived in Bay Ridge since 1957, said he spoke to the MTA back in February when the organization held a hearing about the proposed cuts. He said he doesn’t believe the agency has his community’s best interests in mind.
“City agencies like the MTA, they sit there and make their decisions, and they don’t care about you,” he said.
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