VIDEO: New Bill Prevents MTA from Raising Access-A-Ride Fare to $5
March 9, 2009
Video of Sunday, March 8th press conference announcing paratransit fare equity legislation with Sen. Tom Duane, Comptroller Bill Thompson, and Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer. Advocates representing the following groups also attended: United Spinal Association, United Cerebral Palsy of NYC, MS Society of NYC, Disabilities Network of NYC, Disabled in Action, Brooklyn Center for Independence of the Disabled, and the 504 Democratic Club. (Note: Some additional video footage of advocates speaking was unplayable; my apologies!)
When the MTA began operating Access-A-Ride in 1993, during the Dinkins Administration, they signed a written agreement with the City of New York promising never to raise the fare above what they charged regular mass transit users. This fall, the MTA decided to break that covenant and put forward a proposal to charge Access-A-Ride users double what they have proposed to charge everyone else. Right now, when someone with a disability uses Access-A-Ride, they pay $2; the same as when someone takes the subway or rides the bus. If the MTA has their way, straphangers will be paying up to $2.50 — a burden enough for the larger New Yorker riding public — but people with disabilities who rely on Access-A-Ride are expected to pay $5.
This is discrimination, plain and simple. Unbelievably, it is 2009 and a public agency is singling out a class of people and saying, “You should pay more based on who you are.” If this was being done to people based on their race or their gender there would be widespread outrage. But sadly, discriminatory attitudes towards people with disabilities are so deeply ingrained in our society that people still need to be reminded that it is wrong.
This week, Senator Tom Duane and I are introducing legislation to force the MTA to keep their word about treating people with disabilities fairly. Our bill prevents any transportation authority in New York State from raising paratransit fares higher than what they charge regular transit users.
It is sad that this is necessary. At the MTA’s budget hearings we saw hundreds of wheelchair users and other people with severe disabilities braving a difficult commute to tell the MTA that a $5 fare would sentence them to isolation. Articulate and passionate advocates stood before the MTA Board and reminded them of the contract they made with the City of New York and admonished them to keep their word. But the MTA hasn’t changed its mind; instead, it has dug in its heels and decided to balance their budget on the backs of the riders who can least afford it.
We will not allow this to happen. As a person with a mobility impairment myself, and as a legislator, I will not sit back and watch the MTA implement a fare structure that discriminates against a class of New Yorkers. New York has a proud tradition of equality and opportunity for all, and together we can ensure that this continues. We will not allow the MTA to use this fiscal crisis to leave the frail elderly and riders with disabilities stranded.
The New York Post ran an article (”Don’t Hike Disabled Fares: Pols” 3/7/09) about this legislation last weekend.
Join me for the Lenox Hill Democratic Club’s Membership Recruitment Event
February 23, 2009
One of the most common questions I get asked is what regular people can do to get more involved in local politics. There are lots of different ways to get involved, and most involve joining - joining your community board, your PTA, a block association, or your local political club. On the Upper East Side, the Lenox Hill Democratic Club has long been an important organization fighting for progressive politics and responsive government in our community.
So if you’ve ever wanted to get more engaged in local politics, now is the time to get your feet wet. I hope you will join me at the Lenox Hill Democratic Club Membership Recruitment Event this Thursday, February 26th at Rathbone’s (1702 Second Avenue @ 88th Street) from 6:30 to 8:30 pm. I will be attending along with Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney, Comptroller William Thompson, Jr., Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer, State Senators Liz Krueger and Jose Serrano, and Council Members Jessica Lappin and Dan Garodnick.
This is a great opportunity to talk politics and meet new people. All are welcome and there will be free food and drinks. To RSVP or if you have any questions, please email LHDCevents@ymail.com.
Get involved and be a part of change in 2009!
Opposition to Eastwood Submetering Scheme
February 9, 2009
It was standing room only as Eastwood residents packed the Chapel of the Good Shepard Church for an emergency community organizing meeting last Saturday.
Last fall the residents of the Eastwood complex on Roosevelt Island were informed by their management company, Urban American, that management was applying to the New York State Public Service Commission (PSC) for the building to be converted to submetered electricity. Submetering, as opposed to mastermetering, is when tenants are billed individually for their unit’s electrical usage rather than the landlord.
From the get-go, I was skeptical that a 33-year-old building with a baseboard electric heating system, energy-inefficient appliances, faulty thermostats, and a host of other issues, could establish a submetering scheme that wouldn’t result in a de facto massive rent increase that prices families out of their homes. However laudable the environmental goals of submetering, it doesn’t always make sense. In order for submetering to result in cost-savings and energy conservation, tenants need to be able to have the tools to conserve electricity. This is simply not possible in a building like Eastwood.
It was for these reasons that I requested two months of sample billing be sent to residents prior to the start of actual billing. What we have seen since those bills began to arrive last week is alarming. Bills totalling $600, $700, $800, $900, and even $1000 are not uncommon - for all unit sizes.
This morning, the New York Times published an article about this issue and in it Douglas Eisenberg, CEO of Urban American is quoted as saying the following:
“I think that changing one’s habits is a difficult thing to do, and this really takes people being proactive about saving energy[…] A lot of these residents have lived in this building a long time. They haven’t been responsible for their electric bills. Now they are. I think at the end of the day, I feel pretty good that we’re doing the right thing here.”
I am fairly offended by these remarks, as I am sure Eastwood tenants are. If I ran every appliance in my apartment 24-hours a day for a month, I doubt I could match most of the electric bills that Eastwood residents are facing. Electric baseboard heating is simply the most inefficient system you can have in a building like this. And what’s worse is that Douglas Eisenberg knows this. His company has been paying this electric bill since they bought the building, and now they don’t want to do that anymore. Blaming the tenants and accusing them of being wasteful is a low-ball move and it’s not fooling anyone.
I have only seen two bills so far, out of hundreds, where the rent reduction covers what was approved by the PSC, and most tenants are many hundreds of dollars away from that mark. If you are an Eastwood tenant and you have not yet faxed me a copy of your sample bill, please do so. My fax number is 917-432-2983.
One piece of good news to report is that through my negotiations with the NYS Division of Housing and Community Renewal (DHCR), the rent reduction schedule will be improved slightly. DHCR is responsible for setting the amounts for Section 8 tenants based on a strict interpretation of federal HUD regulations. (And the rent reductions for Section 8 tenants were applied to all tenants.) However, the initial calculations by DHCR assumed a lower dollar per kilowatt/hour amount than what tenants are actually going to be charged by Con Edison (14 cents per kwh as opposed to 18 cents per kwh). The new rent reduction rates can be accessed by clicking here, and while they do not solve the problems tenants are facing, I am pleased that DHCR has taken the step to review their calculations in order to ensure that tenants are at least given what they are entitled to under the law.
Despite this small victory, I do not believe that Eastwood is an appropriate candidate for submetering, under any rent reduction scheme. Having now viewed the sample bills, I, along with my colleagues (Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney, Borough President Scott Stringer, State Senator Jose Serrano, and Council Member Jessica Lappin) wrote to the Public Service Commission and petitioned for the Eastwood submetering application to have a re-hearing so that a number of factors that may have been initially overlooked may be examined more closely.
***UPDATE*** The Public Service Commission has granted my request for a stay of submetering and the landlord’s application is now in a re-hearing process. Tenants at Eastwood have until April 1st to submit comments to the PSC on the application itself. Please contact my office for more information at 212-860-4906.
Increasing Driver License, Car Registration Fees Could Raise $550 Million for Cash-Starved MTA
December 1, 2008
So it’s “official,” our country has been in a recession since December, 2007, according to the National Bureau of Economic Research, which announced the non-news earlier this morning.
Of course, we already knew this to be true for many months. On November 20th, MTA CEO Elliot Sander told the MTA Board, that new economic forecasts show projected deficit gaps of “$383 million for 2008, $1.441 billion for 2009, $2.394 billion for 2010, and nearly $3 billion in 2012, before prior-year carryover or gap closing actions.”
As I’ve blogged before, I am very concerned about the fiscal outlook for the MTA and how cuts to services, capital projects, system maintenance, and increased user fees will impact riders. But the negative effects spillover beyond transit users. The MTA is the lifeblood of the New York metropolitan area and when it suffers, so does the regional economy.
On September 15th, the Citizens Budget Commission (CBC) testified before the Ravitch Commission and outlined a number of practical suggestions for how to increase dedicated mass transit revenue.
Today, I wrote to Governor Paterson to urge that two CBC proposals be included in his 2009 Executive budget: Raising car registration fees and driver license fees by at least $50 annually.
When CBC President Carol Kellermann testified before the Ravitch Commission she noted that today the cost for a driver license in New York is under $6 annually. Raising annual fees for driver licenses to $50 would yield nearly $300 million. New York has the 8th lowest vehicle registration fees in the country (according to the CBC’s 2006 study South Carolina has the lowest at $12, and Maine has the highest at $435), and raising the vehicle registration fees would net an additional annual revenue stream of $250 million.
With the Ravitch Commission’s report due to be released on Friday, now is the time to be examining all the options including this one and other good ideas like reinstituting the commuter tax.
Recently, New York City Comptroller William C. Thompson, Jr. outlined a proposal to impose a weight-based transit-dedicated assessment of $100 for vehicles weighing 2,300 pounds or less, plus $.09 for every pound of curb weight over 2,300. This is an interesting idea that I believe merits further study. It differs from the CBC proposal which would see a flat fee increase for car registration fees.
In these tough financial times, I believe that it makes sense that those who choose to drive should help bear the costs of maintaining our public transportation infrastructure. These two new recurring revenue streams would constitute a good start in getting the MTA’s finances back on track.
In my letter, I suggested that during the first two to three years of this budget crisis, the MTA be given the flexibility it needs to put this revenue towards its operating deficit. But in the long term this money should be used for capital needs. After the third year I suggested that these recurring funds be dedicated 70% towards the MTA’s capital plan and 30% towards the NYS Department of Transportation Five Year Capital Plan - a fund which finances highway, tunnel, and bridge projects across the state.
I told the Governor that if these proposals were not included in the budget, I was prepared to introduce them as a separate piece of legislation. My letter to Governor Paterson can be found in the Publications area of my website.
Eastwood Sub-metering Concerns
November 21, 2008
Recently, residents of the Eastwood complex on Roosevelt Island were informed by their management company, Urban American, that the building would be converting to sub-metered electricity. This means that tenants would be billed individually for their household’s electricity usage. Urban American intends for this transition to take place early next year.
I have serious concerns about this process, and how it will affect tenants.
On October 16th, I participated in a town hall meeting, along with Eastwood tenants, at the Good Shepherd Community Center. The meeting was an opportunity to ask building management questions about the sub-metering proposal, as well as to hear from the state agencies involved. As a result of this meeting, and the numerous comments I have heard from residents there, I do not believe that the building is ready to go forward with sub-metering.
Too many tenants still have energy-inefficient appliances and faulty electric heaters, these are not personal items, rather these are items that come with the apartment and the management company is responsible for them. Urban American has promised to replace inefficient appliances and to fix heaters and thermostats for any residents who make a request to them. If you are an Eastwood tenant and you have made a request like this to management but they have not responded, please call me.
It is imperative that we have a clear picture of overall energy use in the building. The building’s heat is electric, so it is essential to ensure that tenants do not face unreasonably high utility bills just to stay warm in the winter. It concerns me that so many apartments are poorly insulated and Urban American needs to address this. I have asked the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority to conduct a full survey of energy use and efficiency in Eastwood, so that residents are not penalized by faulty design or maintenance.
I am also concerned that we do not have a real sense about how billing will work under this new system, given the complicated system of affordable housing programs that are integrated into the Mitchell-Lama’s accounting already. Will the utility allowance calculated by state and federal agencies be enough to compensate tenants for a reasonable amount of electricity usage? I have asked New York City Comptroller Bill Thompson as well as the New York State Division of Housing and Community Renewal to work with Urban American to ensure that residents are protected.
NOV. 25th 2008 ***UPDATE*** I have written to Urban American Management on this issue. For those who are following this, please see the Publications area of my website to download a copy of that letter.
