Lawyer Who Cried 'Klan' Sues To Stop Bus Stop Removal

WEST VILLAGE, NY — A lawyer who compared Transportation Alternatives to members of the Ku Klux Klan is filing another lawsuit in an effort to halt removal of bus stops planned to speed up the M14 route.

Arthur Schwartz, who on Tuesday called the group's activists "white hooded zealots" after they announced a protest at his house over his opposition to a 14th Street busway, said Wednesday he is planning to sue the MTA after more than a dozen local bus stops were removed or relocated to create an express Select Bus Service.

The stops were "critical" for people with disabilities and the elderly, Schwartz said, echoing groups and politicians on the Lower East Side and East Village who months ago rallied against the removal. The service runs from the East River in the Lower East Side to the Hudson in the West Village.

People with disabilities' "needs are supposed to be accommodated under the NYC Human Rights Law," Schwartz said Wednesday at 14th Street and Fifth Avenue, where an eastbound stop was removed. The nearest eastbound stop is now about an avenue away at University Place.

He planned to file the lawsuit on behalf of the 504 Democratic Club and Disabled In Action of Metropolitan NY against the president of the NYC Transit Authority, Andy Byford.

"This is really unfair," said Alcevette Franklin, of the Lower East Side Girls Club, where a stop was removed.

"It affects the elderly a lot. It also affects the girls."

"Removing some stops to save a few minutes also means that some people with mobility disabilities will not be able to take the bus at all," said Robert Acevedo of Disabled In Action, who uses a wheelchair and takes the M14 to get to doctor appointments.

MTA spokesperson Shams Tarek emphasized M14 SBS riders do not have to walk more than two extra blocks under the new route, which was implemented after more than a dozen public meetings.

"We will defend against this lawsuit vigorously on behalf of bus riders, who deserve a modern and reliable service that moves people efficiently. Rider advocates observe that it can be faster to walk than take the bus — we’re fixing that. The bus system is fully accessible and far better for the environment than driving in private cars and taxis," said Tarek.

The MTA has said that removing local bus stops is part of a larger plan to speed up the notoriously sluggish route, with other efforts like all-door boarding, sidewalk fare machines and turning 14th St into a busway, which is currently delayed.

Bus stops are spaced about 675 feet apart on the Lower East Side, closer than the MTA's guidelines of 750 feet and closer than standards worldwide, MTA has previously said.

Schwartz, also a West Village district leader, is in another ongoing legal battle with the city's Department of Transportation over the busway plan that would bar most private traffic from 14th Street for trucks and buses. He used Wednesday's press conference to re-emphasize his argument that a busway would create spillover car traffic that would "ruin the residential character" of west side neighborhoods.

A group of Transportation Alternatives activists showed up with their own signs to counter Schwartz's press conference — a day after he held another one-man press conference in front of TransAlt's offices to decry the group's plan to picket his home Wednesday evening over his busway lawsuit.

He said the group's tactics reminded him of the struggle for civil rights in the south.

"This is just like white lawyers representing black people in the South having crosses burned on their lawn," he said, according to Gothamist.

The opposition to the busway is "all to stop the progress of fast transportation of buses," said Stanley Sherman, who lives on 14th Street at Seventh Avenue and was a part of the original Transportation Alternatives group during the Koch administration.

He said he relied on the M14 buses when he tore his meniscus — and now oftentimes walks to Union Square instead of taking the bus because it's faster to walk.

TransAlt's advocacy director Tom DeVito said the two lawsuits were conflated by Schwartz .

If the local bus stop lawsuit was really for those on the Lower East Side with stops removed, "Those folks should have had their moment to talk about that issue," said DeVito.