Brooklyn Borough President

BOROUGH PRESIDENT URGES GOVERNOR PATAKI TO SIGN BILL TO SAVE TOKEN BOOTHS

23 Brooklyn token booths would be saved!

Borough President Marty Markowitz is urging Governor Pataki to sign a bill into law that would halt the closing of subway token booths for up to three years and save 23 Brooklyn booths targeted for closure. The bill, passed in the last hours of the legislative session in Albany last Friday, would create a seven-member subway safety advisory panel with responsibility for reviewing ways to fight terrorism and crime in the subways. The panel has three years to issue its final report. Until the report is issued, no token booth may be closed.

“If Governor Pataki cares about the safety and security of our straphangers, he must pick up his pen and sign this bill,” Borough President Markowitz said. “Last year, token clerks made more than 60,000 emergency calls to report everything from heart attacks to criminal activities. It makes no sense to strip the subway system of our first responders. We can never, especially in this day and age, sacrifice safety for savings.”

The MTA voted in March to close up to 62 token booths that will save just $6 million over two years. As a result of the lawsuit filed by the Straphangers Campaign in May, no booths can be closed while the case is on appeal.

Since January, the Borough President has been actively fighting to keep all token booths open. The MTA’s initial plan was to close 50 Brooklyn token booths. After inspecting nearly all of those targeted for closure, he repeatedly called on the MTA to immediately remove dozens of token booths off its list due to very serious safety concerns. The MTA responded to Borough President Markowitz’s numerous requests by keeping almost 20 of these token booths open.

In March, the MTA still placed these 23 Brooklyn token booths on its final proposed list of booth closures:

15th Street/Prospect Park (F), 18th Avenue (F), 22nd Avenue-Bay Parkway (N), 59th Street (R), 86th Street (R), 95th Street (R), Avenue N (F), Bedford-Nostrand Avenues (G), Bergen Street (F), Church Avenue (F), Ditmas Avenue (F), Flatbush Avenue (2), Fort Hamilton Parkway (N), Fort Hamilton Parkway (F), Greenpoint Avenue (G), Kings Highway (F), Kings Highway (Q), Lawrence Street (R), Myrtle-Willoughby Avenues (G), New Utrecht Avenue (N), Ocean Parkway (Q), Rockaway Avenue (C) and West 8th Street (Q).