NY1: Dromm Protests MTA Cuts And Roosevelt Ave Blight

From NY1:
JACKSON HEIGHTS, NY, December 16, 2009 -- Despite the city's economic crisis, the MTA has failed to lease valuable commercial space at the 74th Street/Roosevelt Avenue station in Jackson Heights, Queens. After the station was renovated with millions of dollars of taxpayer money, the MTA has missed out on significant income by not leasing these properties.

Yet the MTA is currently trying to close a nearly $400 million budget gap by planning dramatic cuts to bus and subway service. Also on the chopping block are the free MetroCards that half a million of New York City’s students use to get to school. City Council Member-elect Daniel Dromm along with Assemblyman Jose Peralta, Assemblyman Michael DenDekker and many community leaders, demanded that the MTA pursue leasing these commercial properties to generate revenue to prevent drastic service cuts at a press conference held in front of the Roosevelt Avenue station.

“It is absolutely shameful that the MTA is considering throwing students under the bus before pursuing revenue from these valuable properties” said City Council Member-elect Daniel Dromm. "The MTA has neglected the Jackson Heights community by failing to lease these properties. The MTA must focus on all revenue opportunities before they talk about any service cuts or massive fare increases for students."

“The MTA needs to review their operational policy every time they feel they need to make cuts, because it is not working. If it’s not the hard working men and women of this State that is usually affected, then it is our senior population. Now, they turn their darts on our students, making it much more difficult for them to get to and from school,” stated Assemblyman Jose R. Peralta. “The MTA needs to look deep into their reserve fund and find appropriate sources of funding. The funding situation turns even more confusing when suitable funding sources -like the ones at the 74 Street Station- are available yet they are not included in the financial equation.”

Assemblyman Michael DenDekker said, "Before the MTA starts to implement any service cuts at all, it should check all available financial resources such as the leasing of MTA property and all other revenue sources they have."

The impact of these abandoned-looking storefronts on the community is also a main concern. These vacant storefronts have been a blight to the neighborhood with a boarded-up streetscape that promotes vandalism, graffiti, crime, and sanitation problems. The MTA's failure to maintain this property has negatively impacted the surrounding small businesses and residential community.

Meanwhile, transit hubs like the Fulton Street station are anything but neglected. According to the New York Times, the Fulton Street station enjoys 20,000 square feet of retail space after its recent renovation, and is reported to command about $150 a square foot annually. Why the MTA hasn’t been able to take advantage of its own commercial space at Roosevelt Ave station isn’t exactly clear.

Located at 74th Street, Broadway, and Roosevelt Ave in Jackson Heights, Queens, the transit hub benefited from a $132 million renovation in 2005. The main objective of the overhaul was to ease movement within the facility, one of the few in the system that allows transfers between an underground stop and an elevated line. As one of the only dual bus and subway stations in the city, it is the second busiest in Queens, with over 42,000 people using the station daily.