CITIBIKE, MOSQUITOES, M104 BUSES AND MUSEUM EXPANSION HIGHLIGHT GRIPE-FILLED TOWN HALL

By Madison Iszler

Council member Helen Rosenthal and representatives from various city agencies got an earful of complaints at a town hall meeting on Monday night about everything from slow buses to nasty insects. Attendees at the meeting, held at the Brandeis High School Complex on 84th street, listened to updates from Rosenthal, Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer and Public Advocate Letitia “Tish” James. Some members of the audience had submitted questions for the panel of city agency representatives, which Rosenthal posted on a screen at the front of the room and read aloud. After the Q&A, audience members were given the opportunity to ask questions during an open mic session.

Before beginning the Q&A session, Rosenthal announced the winners of the Participatory Budgeting contest, in which locals voted on how $1 million in city taxpayer funds should be spent. We listed the winners here.

“There are a couple of projects that didn’t win that may see some money this year, but I’m not giving that away until you see the budget,” said Rosenthal. By the end of June the budget will be posted on her website and video footage of the .

Audience members in attendance at the meeting asked representatives from over 10 city agencies, including the Department of Education (DOE), the Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) and the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA), about building concerns, mosquito infestation, Citi Bike stations and tree planting. Several of the concerns raised have been mentioned below.

CitiBike

One resident said that the CitiBike docking stations, which came to the Upper West Side last year, are often vacant, and she asked what is being done to ensure that they don’t remain empty. A representative from the Department of Transportation said that CitiBike stations that are either persistently full or persistently empty often “indicate a high demand for usage.”

She offered two solutions: expanding CitiBike further, which will occur this summer when CitiBike is extended up to 110th street, so that people have more stations to choose from, and reporting empty stations to Rosenthal so that each docking station can be evaluated for usage. The representative said data for usage at each station is available online.

Museum of Natural History Expansion

Rosenthal fielded questions about the expansion of the Museum and the review process. “I’m very excited for this opportunity,” Rosenthal said. “This is going to be an opportunity to open it up for researchers, school children, people from universities across the nation and world to access this information better, and given the fact that our world, which is what AMNH studies and has information about, is always changing…we very much expect the number of specimens to increase.” Approximately a quarter of an acre of park land will be lost, which Rosenthal called a necessary tradeoff. Eighty percent of the museum’s expansion will take place on property the museum already owns. “What will we get from that is a tremendous investment in our children’s future,” said Rosenthal.

Rosenthal has been booed for her support of the museum’s expansion plans in the past and was booed again at the meeting. One audience member yelled “Liar!” after a person accused Rosenthal of lying when she appeared on NY1 to speak about the museum and the ongoing meetings and said that there were few people who did not support the expansion.

A public scoping meeting took place on April 6 but a representative from the New York City Parks Department encouraged audience members to submit comments on the expansion via email or fax to owen.wells@parks.nyc.gov or 212-360-3453 by 5 P.M. on Wednesday, April 20.

Mosquito Infestation

One resident said that he had attended Rosenthal’s 2014 Town Hall meeting and raised concerns about the mosquito infestation on West 84th Street between West End Avenue and Riverside Drive (also known as Edgar Allan Poe Street). He said that residents of the area were still suffering two years later. “It doesn’t sound to me like there is a very significant follow-up.”

Rosenthal responded first. She said her office had met with the Department of Health about two months ago and that the department had started doing an intensive weekly program of flushing the sewers with insecticide and laying larvicide at the bottom of the catch basins.

“One disconnect I’ve noticed is that the Department of Health feels they’re catching fewer mosquitoes, but there’s a disconnect because what I’m hearing from the resident is that there’s been no change,” she said. “Perhaps we’re monitoring it in not the proper way. Apparently the street was pulled up by Con Ed and they were able to look in one area but not in another. I think the city has tried some stepped-up work.”

“You’re welcome to spend the night,” the resident responded.

The Department of Health representative said they had been flushing the sewer system, they’ve taken a look at the area, and they’re using traps and catch basins.

M104 Buses

Residents said that there is a need for more M104 buses along Broadway, a persistent issue over the last few years. Zachary Campbell, the Assistant Director of Government and Community Affairs at the MTA, said that the MTA is still considering data from the bus routes. “Based on the ridership levels on each route, we schedule service” based on the data, he said.

Campbell said the MTA is still looking at the numbers for 2015. When the MTA does investigations, they look at more than ridership data, but also do a ride-check and send staffers to certain locations. Audience members booed Campbell after he said that data was not available now but would be available shortly.