Boycott could follow if MTA rejects ad hoc’s bus plan Vol. 54 No. 28
Saturday, July 13, 2019
Blossom Johns, co-chairman of the ad hoc committee charged with providing opposition and alternative ideas to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s proposed redesign of Co-op City’s bus routes, said, if the MTA won’t accept a counter plan, there’s already another action in the works. “A boycott has never happened from a neighbor or community,” Ms. Johns told the Co-op City Times. “The MTA has taken advantage of us far too long.” Ms. Johns, along with fellow shareholder Aaron Carnegie, was elected cochairman of the ad hoc committee at its July 1 meeting. At the same meeting, the larger committee, consisting of about 22 members, was broken up into smaller subcommittees, each tasked with one front in the battle against the MTA. Before any serious talk of organizing a boycott takes place, Mr. Carnegie told the Co-op City Times, he’d like to see the subcommittees do their work and produce an alternative to the transportation authority’s proposal. “I believe we are on the right track now and should have our counter proposal ready in a few weeks,” Mr. Carnegie said. “We are hoping that our proposal is a common-sense solution to the problem and will not be quickly dismissed.” The door for a shareholder generated counterplan to the MTA’s proposal was opened wide by New York City Transit Authority President Andy Byford, who stood in front of hundreds of co-operators in the Bartow Center’s courtyard June 27 and said the MTA’s plans were “not set in stone.” Rod Saunders, Riverbay Board second vice president and member of the ad hoc committee, said it was community members and Co-op City officials, both in-house and elected, that left the MTA with no choice but to listen. “Our delivery was much different than they anticipated … our political representation was much better aligned than they anticipated, and most important … our community was upset in numbers that clearly they were not prepared to respond to,” Mr. Saunders said. While he did not endorse the idea of a boycott directly should the ad hoc’s counterproposal face rejection, Mr. Saunders said “absolutely nothing is ‘off the table’ as far as demonstrating to the MTA, and the governor, exactly how far the Co-op City community is willing to go in order to retain what once was arguably the best bus transportation service in the city of New York.” With work on the counter proposal underway, the ad hoc committee gave its
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50th Anniversary Special Event
BY JASON CHIREVAS
“A boycott has never happened from a neighbor or community,” Ms. Johns told the Co-op City Times. “The MTA has taken advantage of us far too long.”
attention July 8 to Bob Liff, senior vice president of George Arzt Communications, Inc., a Manhattan-based public relations firm with which Riverbay has contracted. Liff told the ad hoc committee he would aid in drafting an op-ed for submission to the city’s largest newspapers stating Co-op City’s case in opposition to the proposed MTA bus route redesign. The hope for the op-ed would be a higher profile for Co-op City’s predicament should the changes go through as well as a possible beacon to other parts of the Bronx that at least one section is fighting back in an organized fashion. When the op-ed is complete, it is expected to be submitted under the name of Riverbay Board President Linda Berk, who was present at the July 8 meeting along with General Manager Noel Ellison, who arranged Liff’s appearance. Ms. Berk and Mr. Ellison acting in key roles at the July 8 meeting would seem to settle a point of contention last week about whether or not the ad hoc committee is an adjunct to the Riverbay Board of Directors. “[Mr. Ellison] cleared it up … that we are an adjunct to the Board,” Ms. Johns told the Co-op City Times. “Any money we need (Continued on page 11)
The Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment presented its Broadway in the Boros in Co-op City on Friday, July 12, in the Section 1 Greenway. The free lunchtime show featured performances by members of the current cast and musicians from Tony-nominated musicals, Beautiful: The Carole King Musical and Wicked. See page 5 for more. Photo by Toriea McCauseland
Bronx Metro-North public workshop to be held in Co-op City July 16 The Bronx Metro-North Station Area Study Team of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority will hold a public workshop in Co-op City on Tuesday, July 16, to hear ideas for improving pedestrian and transit (Continued on page 2) BY ROZAAN BOONE
Metropolitan Transportation Authority officials will interact with shareholders at a July 16 public workshop dedicated to the multi-year, $1.5 billion Penn Station Access Project that would, in part, see a Metro-North station built for Co-op City. Above is a rendering of what that station might look like.
Laundry room overhauls to begin next week Tower 34, next week you get a new laundry room. Then, Tower 24, you get a new laundry room. Then, guess what, Triple Core 28? You get a new laundry room. So does your building and your building and your building until every applicable building in Co-op City gets a new laundry room. And who do you have to thank for this modernization and refurbishment? Meet the new laundry vendor, same as the old laundry vendor. One of the constants of living cooperatively is the (Continued on page 11)
By JASON CHIREVAS