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WEEK OF MARCH - APRIL
30-5 2017
2017 OTTYS ▲ P. 12
CROSSWISE ON 79TH STREET TRANSPORTATION The Select Bus Service aims to improve one of Manhattan’s slowest routes. But critics question how much time it will really save. BY LAURA HANRAHAN
Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance (standing) explained his office’s response to the recent increase in reported hate crimes at a community event March 23. Photo: Michael Garofalo
PUTTING HATE ON TRIAL LAW ENFORCEMENT DA Vance addresses the killing of Timothy Caughman at community forum, adds terrorism charges BY MICHAEL GAROFALO
A community forum on hate crimes held on the Upper West Side last week took on added emotional heft in the wake of the death of Timothy Caughman, a 66-year-old black man who was allegedly killed by a white supremacist days earlier. Caughman was stabbed to death on West 36th Street late on the evening of Monday, March 20, allegedly by James Jackson, a 28-year-old white man who admitted to police that he had traveled to New York from Baltimore specifically to kill black men.
The meeting, held on Thursday, March 23 at Edward A. Reynolds West Side High School on West 102nd Street, had been scheduled in response to earlier incidents, but as New York County District Attorney Cyrus Vance and other city officials gathered to discuss the city’s response to recent hate crimes and field questions from the public, Caughman’s death weighed heavily over the proceedings. “It’s an event that hits all of us and shocks all of us,” Vance said. Vance’s announcement that the man had been charged with second degree murder as a hate crime was met with scattered cheers from the sizable crowd in the high school gymnasium. The DA explained that the charges would carry a mandatory minimum sentence of 20 years for Jackson if he is found guilty, five
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One of Manhattan’s busiest — and slowest — bus routes will soon join the growing list of select bus services (SBS). The M79 crosstown bus, which serves more than 14,000 riders each day, is expected to make the change in service later this May. The select service will require riders to pay at kiosks on the sidewalk before boarding the bus, in an attempt to cut down on time spent idling and improve the route’s 4.3 mph average speed. Signs with real-time arrival information will also be installed at each stop. The annual operating budget is expected to be approximately $1.73 million, according to the January 2017 MTA Transit and Bus Committee meeting handbook. Council Member Ben Kallos, who represents the Upper East Side, personally requested that the service be implemented. “Our crosstown buses serve tens of thousands of passengers a day and it makes a huge difference and cuts a lot of time off people’s commutes,” he said. “On 79th Street I, like many residents, have had to wait in lines around the block to get on the bus and I’ve often found that when the lines get that long it’s faster to just walk where I’m going instead of waiting for the bus.” In a presentation by the MTA and the Department of Transportation (DOT) to the Upper East Side’s Community Board 8 in October, results from the M86 SBS were presented as an example of how the service could work for 79th Street. The daily average of time saved after switching to SBS was 2.6
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Passengers pay at kiosks before boarding the SBS. Photo: Marc A. Hermann / MTA New York City Transit, via flickr minutes on eastbound travel and 1.7 minutes on westbound travel. Dr. Arline Bronzaft, professor emerita of environmental psychology at CUNY and a longtime Upper East Side resident, was concerned by these numbers. “I listened to their presentation and they said that maybe you’ll save about two minutes on a trip. Would you call that a lot?” Bronzaft said. “The critical question is how much would you save during the rush hours when people are really concerned about getting across faster.” The MTA and DOT did not respond to calls for further information. “If you’re going to make a presentation you should come with data,” Bronzaft said. All stops will remain unchanged with the exception of an eastbound stop at West 81st Street and Amsterdam Avenue, “due to low ridership and close proximity to a stop at 79th
Street and Amsterdam Avenue,” the MTA said. Changes to the street and sidewalk have also been proposed by the MTA and DOT to facilitate traffic flow, including lane realignments to allow for designated areas for buses to pull up in front of stops. “I asked the obvious questions because the woman said she ‘hopes’ the proposed methods to set up the street in a way to increase the flow of traffic would help,” Bronzaft said of the Community Board 8 presentation. “I
CONTINUED ON PAGE 27 Jewish women and girls light up the world by lighting the Shabbat candles every Friday evening 18 minutes before sunset. Friday, March 31 – 7:02 pm. For more information visit www.chabaduppereastside.com
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