Construction Creeps Downtown

Impact is worst in East 90s, due to excavations for tunnel boring machine

By Ruth Schneider

The Subway sandwich shop on the corner of Second Avenue and East 93rd Street employed four people when it opened four years ago. Now there are two.

Eve’s Nail and Spa next door used to staff nine people each day. Now there are five on a good day.

Tae Shin, who manages both stores, sits at one of the tables in his small sandwich shop. Besides Shin and his two employees, the shop is empty. He’s wearing a khaki-colored polo shirt that contrasts with his reddening face. He’s mad. So mad his hands are shaking. He blames the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s construction on Second Avenue for his mounting economic troubles.

“The recession hurts 10 percent,” Shin said. “Another 30 to 40 percent from MTA construction. Any minute a few stores will close. We lose car traffic. We lose foot traffic. It’s very noisy.”

Businesses and residents up and down Second Avenue are hurting. The stretch from East 63rd to 96th streets encompasses the first phase of construction, and the intersections surrounding future subway stops—96th, 86th, 77th and 63rd—will feel the impact one by one.

Right now, the four-block stretch from 92nd to 96th streets is the worst, due mainly to tunnel boring. Future subway stop locales will experience hardship, but MTA officials said it won’t be as significant as this stretch in the 90s. As many as 12 to 15 businesses in that four-block stretch have closed since the beginning of the year, said Barbara D’Antonio, spokeswoman for the Second Avenue Business Association, a group that formed as a direct result of subway construction.

Chain-link fences now surround construction zones. Sidewalks are narrow. Pedestrians carefully pick their way over steel plates and through sidewalk sheds, the wooden and steel structures covering the path. Traffic is narrowed to three lanes. Parking is almost nonexistent.

Aaron Donovan, a spokesman for the MTA, said the agency is doing its best to reduce the effects on area businesses.

“The MTA works closely with the business community to mitigate construction impacts while building the Second Avenue subway,” he said.

He highlighted the Shop Second Avenue campaign, as well as efforts to keep all properties accessible and to reduce noise pollution.

The first phase of construction will be complete in 2017, according to the MTA, with above ground construction slated to continue through December 2016. But few believe these dates are firm.

Eddie Crowe, owner of Crowe’s Nest, a bar between East 93rd and 94th streets, says sarcasm and humor help him cope. A cartoon posted on the bar’s wall shows snails working on subway construction. Crowe looks over at the cartoon, then at the chain-link fence, orange cones and the cloud of dust outside.

“That’s where the tunnel is going to be built in 30 or 40 years time,” he said.

Crowe has experienced disruptions in his Verizon DSL service, which periodically has eliminated his ability to accept credit cards from bar patrons.

“People pay by credit cards, not cash,” he said.

At the corner of Second Avenue and East 96th Street, Ahmed Almthrahri said profits are down 50 percent at Optimo-Deli. For several days in September, the corner grocery worked without hot water.

MTA spokesman Aaron Donovan said in an email that the agency does its best to deal with unexpected outages.

“MTA Capital Construction always gives at least a 24- to 48-hour notice to any building that will have any kind of scheduled utility shutdown,” Donovan wrote. “In the case of unexpected outages such as a utility line cut or break, our contractor works with the utility companies to restore the power as quickly as possible.”

Second Avenue residents also struggle with living in a construction zone. At Carnegie East House, a high-end nursing home between East 95th and 96th streets, many residents are concerned about access to ambulances, reduced transportation services and safety hazards.

“We’re unable to have ambulances pull up,” said Jennifer Susa, the Carnegie East House marketing director.

A resident recently tripped outside, according to Brent Johnson, a Carnegie East House administrator. “Residents are constantly concerned about their footing,” he said.

But MTA spokesman Donovan said these issues have been addressed.

“Every work zone is required to have a 4-foot-wide emergency pathway,” he said in an email. “This pathway is accessible through marked doors, through which a gurney could be moved quickly from an emergency vehicle parked in the lane nearest the work zone.”

The sidewalk in front of Carnegie East House, he added, has been inspected and found to be in good condition. Indeed, the area directly in front of the facility is clear, but a few yards down a metal plate creates a potential hazard for a senior depending on a walker for support.

Nancy Ledger, 74, a resident of Carnegie East House for the past two years, is frustrated.

“The first and biggest impact is that we don’t have access to the street,” she said. There is no place for Access-A-Ride to pull up, making it harder to get to her doctor appointments.

Down on East 72nd Street, businesses also feel the effect of the subway construction. Construction in the mid-90s and low-70s began simultaneously in 2007, but many business owners farther south said the project has been more bearable. The MTA is digging access tunnels at East 69th and 72nd streets, which does not have the same impact as creating a hole large enough to fit a tunnel-boring machine, which is the case at East 96th Street.

Crystal Ramirez, manager of The Pet Market, says it’s difficult to run a pet supply store during the economic downturn, but the restricted sidewalk space is a bigger problem.

“All the customers walk on the other side of the street,” she said

She estimates a 30 percent drop in sales due, in part, to less foot traffic.

In the past month, fences sliced sidewalks in half near East 86th Street, according to neighboring businesses. Parking meters were pulled from the sidewalks. Trees disappeared. Construction-related headaches have slowly moved downtown.

Pepi Sakkas, owner of Pepi’s Hair Salon between East 83rd and 84th, is irate.

“This is ridiculous,” she said as she trimmed the hair of the only customer in the shop. “We’re not going to be able to stay in business.”

She has reduced her staff already. The stylists, who work on commission, are complaining.

“They don’t want to come in,” Sakkas said. “They don’t make any money.”

Rob Olsen, owner of Mustang Grill on the corner of East 85th Street and Second Avenue, considers himself one of the lucky ones.

He just received the notice from the city allowing tables to remain on the sidewalk for another three months. As soon as construction for the 86th Street station ramps up, most of those tables will be brought inside as the sidewalk narrows and dust fills the air. He will lose that income until the project is completed.

“We are looking at losing seven summers,” he said. “That’s quite a bit of revenue.”

——————–

East Harlem: Underserved?

By Dan Rivoli

As the 96th Street border between East Harlem and the Upper East Side continues to blur, the MTA’s plan for a Second Avenue subway station there is stoking old tension.

The proposed station will only have entrances and exits on the south side of the street, where the traditional boundary for the Upper East Side begins. East Harlemites will have to cross a busy intersection to access the new subway line.

Critics have also pointed out that Metropolitan Hospital Center, which occupies the area bordered by East 97th and 99th street between First and Second avenues, will be underserved. The hospital has 341 beds and saw more than 400,000 visits last year.

“It’s a highly congestion intersection. There are safety considerations to crossing 96th Street or Second Avenue or both,” said Hunter Armstrong, executive director of Civitas.

The group, a civic organization focused on the Upper East Side and East Harlem, has called for added subway entrances. In June, Civitas published a study suggesting that a northern subway entrance is necessary to accommodate the 35 percent of station users who are expected to come from north of 96th Street.

“It would be not only beneficial but prudent for the neighborhood to have an entrance on the north side of 96th Street,” Armstrong said.

The MTA, however, has said that a northern entrance is not feasible because a long underground passageway to connect the station would have to be constructed, requiring the displacement of electrical and mechanical equipment.

“The 96th Street Station will connect to an existing tunnel which prohibits the station from being moved further north,” said Kevin Ortiz, an MTA spokesperson.

Armstrong, however, feels that the additional entrances should be explored.

“We feel this is very important from a safety standpoint,” he said.

Tweet This Post