Subway Near Complex Where 5K Retired People Live Has No Elevator

CHELSEA, NY — Advocates and politicians want the state to fund the MTA's Fast Forward plan to increase accessibility among subway stations, they said at a rally on Thursday.

In Chelsea at Penn South Co-op, a retirement community, the main subway station for nearly 5,000 residents is one of the city's three-quarter stations without an elevator.

Disability and transportation activists are pushing the state to fund the MTA's Fast Forward plan, which would add 180 elevators over the next 10 years. Politicians also called for congestion pricing as at least one means of funding for the plan.

"It seems that the greatest city in New York should be able to afford accessibility for everyone," said Harriet Kriegel, a resident of the co-op and member of the Penn South Program for Seniors.

For over a decade, her mobility issues have kept her from using the subway.

"I have not been able to use the subway since 2008 when I broke my hip," said Kriegel, who uses a cane. "I find the stairs impossible."

"And I tell you," she said, recalling when she took the train from Washington Heights to Coney Island for a nickel as a child, "as grubby as the subway was, I miss it terribly and I wish I could go again."

"It's important to recognize that when you improve quality of life for the elderly and disabled, you are also improving the life for everyone," Kriegel said. Just last month, a 22-year-old mother fell and died while carrying her 1-year-old daughter on stairs at a Midtown subway station. The station at Seventh Ave. and W 53rd St. has no elevator.

Image credit: Sydney Pereira Image caption: Lenny Kriegel, resident of Penn South Co-op on the right, speaks about adding elevators to New York City's subway stations on Feb. 21, 2019.

TransitCenter, a transportation advocacy group, unveiled a subway map last month identifying 50 subway stops where the MTA should add elevators. The map includes an added elevator at the 23rd St. A, C, and E station in front of Penn South. Though the A, C, E lines have elevators at the stations before and after 23rd St., the accessible stations are either south at 14th St. or north at 42nd and 50th Sts. along Eighth Avenue.

"It's no secret our city is rapidly aging," Colin Wright, senior advocacy associate at TransitCenter said in a statement. "Funding Fast Forward is the only way current and future older New Yorkers will have an accessible subway they can rely on."

Fast Forward, announced last year, was preliminarily estimated at $40 billion. Funding has yet to be allocated, though advocates and some politicians have said congestion pricing could be at least one revenue source for the plan.

"This station is stuck in line like three-quarters of the other stations," said Assemblymember Dick Gottfried, who represents Chelsea and much of Midtown in the 75th District.

The MTA did not immediately respond to questions.

"We 100 percent believe increased accessibility must be a priority, which is why the Governor has proposed a congestion pricing plan to provide $15 billion in necessary capital funding to the MTA," said Patrick Muncie, a spokesperson for Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

In a recent analysis, TransitCenter found that just three of 35 NORCs designated by the city's Department for Aging are within a quarter-mile walk of an accessible subway station.

The AARP says housing and transportation are top concerns for its more than 800,000 New York City members.

"Transportation is always coming up," said Chris Widelo, associate AARP state director for New York City. "Housing is always a tough issue here in the five boroughs, but how they will get around and the quality of life that they will live if they encounter some mobility issues is top of mind."

Other options, such as buses and Access-a-Ride, don't cut it, said Anne Foerg, program director at Penn South Program for Seniors.

Buses are often too slow, and Access-a-Ride is often late and has a lengthy approval process — such as an in-person assessment and medical documentation, said Foerg.

"[P]eople who are retired do want to go to the different places that the city has to offer," said Foerg. "They want to go to museums, they want to go to the theater, they want to visit friends in different parts of the city, but they are really finding themselves more and more stuck in the neighborhood."

"As much as there is to offer in the Chelsea community, it does make people feel like they're stuck," she added.