How Community Development Should Work
The drumbeat for better subway accessibility has gotten louder in the past few years as more and more people suffer from mobility difficulties due to a disability, increased age or other factors. Despite advocates vocalizing their frustrations surrounding the slow-paced progress for transit accessibility since the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) first passed in 1990, the MTA has long maintained that difficulties with utilities add to the expense and complexity of installing elevators.
One proven way to mitigate costs for the MTA in some stations is to take advantage of new building construction adjacent to subway stations. Easements make it possible to make stations with very little sidewalk space more accessible, while utilities can create other challenges for construction. It’s far more cost-effective to carve out an easement when a building is going up rather than diverting utilities that are buried beneath the sidewalks around an elevator. When the elevator is tucked into a building rather than taking up sidewalk space, it also makes for a better pedestrian experience overall. Unfortunately, developers don’t always create an easement when they build on top of inaccessible stations.
There are some examples where this kind of public-private partnership can work to increase accessibility. Totem, a Brooklyn-based real estate development, and design firm, proactively reached out to the Elevator Action Group and many other community groups last year to garner support for their mixed-use project at 737 4th Avenue in Sunset Park. They are looking to convert the site, which is currently a Dunkin’ Donuts and parking lot, to the same zoning as the lot across the street in order to create approximately 135 units of new housing — 1 in 4 of which would be permanently affordable to neighborhood residents.