Fixing the C Train

Transit equity is a social justice issue. The quality of service that residents in Midtown, Upper East Side or Grammercy receive should be equitable to what residents in other neighborhoods in the rest of the city receive. After all, public transportation is such a vital part of our lives. Sadly, we know that this is far from the truth. The quality of C train service has been an issue that affects many Upper Manhattan residents, as well as residents in Central Brooklyn, as riders continue to complain about its substandard service. Here is a piece that I had written with a fellow Uptown transit justice advocate as one way we can improve service for this often forgotten train line.

Fixing the C Train
Written By:
Flora Ichiou Huang and Louis Bailey,
Members of Transit Riders Action Committee (TRAC)

The Metropolitan Transit Authority’s most recent preliminary budget for 2016 revealed that its promised delivery of the new R179 cars that were supposed to arrive in 2017 will be delayed another five years. This means that C Train riders should not expect these new trains until 2022, causing us to continue to rely on the old R32 cars that C Train riders have been accustomed to for years, a train car that was considered “cutting edge” during the World’s Fair of 1964. These older cars are much more likely to break down. According to the Straphangers’ Campaign, the C train breaks down every 66,382 miles, compared to an average of 141,202 miles for all New York City Subway lines. However, this is really not our worst concern as C Train riders of upper Manhattan; our concern has always been how infrequently this train runs, on top of it breaking down often, too.

According to the Straphangers’ Campaign’s line rating, the C train ranks 16th out of 19th out of all train lines, making it worth $1.50 per ride, compared to the $2.75 base fare we pay. While riders are more likely to get a seat, probably because people are avoiding the line if they can, and it is much cleaner than other lines, the wait time in between trains is around 10 minutes during rush hour. Compare this with the 1 train, which is scheduled to run three to four minutes in between trains during rush hour. The C Train runs 2% above average in terms of being on schedule, compared to other trains, because it is already scheduled to run less frequently than other trains. For many Uptown commuters it is faster to take the Uptown 1 to 168th Street to catch the A downtown, instead of taking the downtown C to 145th or 125th to catch the A or D downtown trains.

An MTA employee once explained to us that because the C runs in conjunction with the B, E, and A (downtown Manhattan and Brooklyn) trains, there is not as much of a need for as many C trains. That is great for people who live from 135th to Hoyt-Schermerhorn, but what about the rest of us? Is it a coincidence that these are all low-income, black and brown communities affected by this?

Some Uptown residents, but not all, have the 1 train to rely on as an alternative, which gets very crowded, if it does not run more frequently than three to four minutes per train. Could it be that people take the 1 train to avoid the C? This is similar to the way some people who live near St. Nicholas and 181st Street still take the A to avoid dealing with those elevators in that station, another transit issue we have worked on for years. Unfortunately, the people of Central Brooklyn, mainly Clinton Hill and Bedford-Stuyvesant, do not have that option. The 2,5 trains is quite a distance, if you live near Fulton Street. The same goes for those who live near the 163rd Street station.

What is our solution as members of Transit Riders Action Committee (TRAC), a transit advocacy group of Northern Manhattan? Just as the 4, 5 and 6 lines have express and local trains often noted by diamonds and circles, respectively, when they are in the Bronx, we are proposing that the same could be done for the A trains. The A line currently separates into three tracks when it reaches 80th Street in Queens: Ozone Park, Far Rockaway, and Rockaway Park. One of these three trains could be made into a local train for stops north of 145th in upper Manhattan and past Hoyt-Schermerhorn in Brooklyn. We are talking about an 11-stop difference for only one out of three A trains that run, which will probably have little inconvenience for most people while giving others a much needed relief by having another option other than the C train.

This solution may not solve the problem with the C Trains cars breaking down more frequently, but it may at least resolve the issue of those of us who rely on the C complaining about how infrequently it runs, when the C trains are actually working. This may also help relieve some crowding on the 1 train, which also seems to break down frequently, too, while helping the C Train shed its reputation as one of the worst trains in the New York City Transit system. Of course, this might mean that C train riders might not get a seat as often, if more people ride it, but that is a small price to pay, if it means more frequent service. After all, it is a local train.

*A few edits were made to this original blog post after the Straphangers Campaign updated their line ratings. Also, many of you may have realized that the MTA has not returned many of the old R32 train cars back to the C line, even though it is way past the summer months. The R32 train cars are usually take out of the C line during the summer months to prevent breakdown due to the hot weather. – October 25,2015

*Flora Ichiou Huang is an active member of WE ACT for Environmental Justice (WE ACT) and long-time resident of Washington Heights. She was one of the founding members of the Transit Riders Action Committee (TRAC), a project of WE ACT to fight for better public transportation in Northern Manhattan. As a TRAC member, she had the opportunity to attend the TRPT conference in October 2011, a meeting of transit equity advocates all throughout the nation, which was held at the Bus Riders Union in Los Angeles. Prior to her involvement with TRAC, she has been a strong advocate for better public transportation, as well as other social justice issues in Northern Manhattan. She was also a member of Communities United for Transportation Equity (COMMUTE), a project of the Pratt Center to develop of coalition of organizations who have come together to advocate for investment of public transportation in low-income, inadequately served communities.

*Louis Bailey also started out as an active TRAC member who spent a great deal of his time helping to convert the M60 bus line into a Select Bus Service bus, an issue that the original founding members of TRAC decided was one of the most pressing issues for Northern Manhattan riders, the slowness of the crosstown busses along 125th Street. He is currently a staff member of WE ACT for Environmental Justice, where he continues to advocate for transit equity and other environmental justice issues that affect the community. As someone who was born and raised in Harlem, these issues are important to him.

Peter Liang: Why some Asian-Americans are supporting the wrong person

Recently, I had found out about a petition that was being circulated to ask the White House to ask Kings County (Brooklyn) District Attorney (DA) Kenneth Thompson to withdraw the indictment of Officer Peter Liang for the death of Akai Gurley. Immediately, I buried my face in my hands and was brought to dismay. According to the link where I discovered this petition, it was created by a Chinese-American woman in California, and the petition basically says that because Officers Darren Wilson and Daniel Pantaleo were acquitted or not even indicted for the deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Garner, respectively, neither should he.  After all, he was only a scapegoat for the previous two white officers who were not indicted. This woman who lives 3,000 miles away and knows nothing about the local climate here in New York has created a petition for a man she only shares her ethnicity with while possibly souring relations between the Asian and black community over here.

When I first heard about the death of Akai Gurley, I really wanted to give Officer Liang the benefit of the doubt, not only because he was an Asian-American, but because there were so many factors that were just not working in his favor. He was a rookie officer paired with another rookie officer, so neither was really able to give each other guidance. He was patrolling in the Louis H. Pink Houses, where the lights of the stairwell were not working, a common problem that exists in many New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) buildings, so he had to take out his flashlight, while carrying his gun. Akai Gurley took the stairs because the elevator in the building was broken, another common problem in NYCHA buildings, causing him to be accidentally shot by Officer Liang, as Liang was startled by Gurley opening the door. Unlike Pantaleo, who put Eric Garner in a chokehold, and Darren Wilson, who was still in his patrol car, where he could have driven away, had he really feared for his life against Michael Brown, Officer Liang was in a dark stairwell, where he probably did feel a certain level of anxiety. According to the NYPD, he and his partner, Shaun Landau, were not supposed to be doing a vertical patrol, and his commanding officer told them not to, as well, so we can ask what they were doing in the building in the first place.

However, when I found out that he waited minutes before he and Officer Landau finally called to get medical assistance for Mr. Gurley, even I could no longer support him. As a police officer, he should also know basic First Aid, if I am not mistaken. Anyone who has taken a CPR and First Aid course knows that those first few minutes are crucial. The fact that he did not do more to save Mr. Gurley’s life is inexcusable. To put it another way it is like going to your child’s school, when your child gets in trouble and finding out that your child did not tell you the whole story. As a parent, you have two choices: accept that your child did wrong and let the school discipline your child accordingly or make excuses that someone else’s child got away with the same thing, even though it happened in another school, so your child should get away with it, too. This is exactly how the Asian-American community, specifically the Chinese-American community, needs to see this case. Accept responsibility that Officer Liang did wrong and needs to be held accountable.

As writer and activist Sahra Vang Nguyen had stated in her article, “Asian-Americans, A Popular Tool in Anti-Black Propaganda “, many of us within the Asian-American community cringed when we first found out that the officer who had shot Akai Gurley was Asian, fearing that the media would create a narrative that might drive a wedge between the black and Asian community. However, I did not see that early on, at least not to my knowledge. The sentiment among both police officers and the community is “blue first”, then your race. That is why, when former NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly made it a point that one of the officers who had shot Sean Bell was black so it could not have been racial, people seeking justice for the Bell family collectively laughed. Furthermore, many residents in East New York were willing to give him the benefit of the doubt, stating that it can be dangerous for an police officer.

Even after finding out what Liang had done wrong, I have not heard too much in the media about any kind of anti-Asian sentiment. Hopefully, most people understood that this was a police officer who just happened to be Asian. I have even heard many within the black community, including a New York Times journalist say on New York Times Close-Up on NY1, make statements along the lines of: It is a relief to finally see an officer get indicted but unfortunate that the first officer to get indicted was an officer of color. The most that I have heard was from a loved one of Mr. Gurley’s, who stated that had it been a black or Latino officer, he probably would not have been released. I do not know, if that is completely true.

I do understand how many in the Chinese-American community feel, as illustrated in this recent article in the New York Times. However, the woman and the people who have signed this petition clearly do not realize the consequences of their actions. They may not know about how 20,000 New Yorkers who came together on May 19, 1975 to protest the beating of Peter Yew by police officers, closing down the Chinatown community in the process. They may not understand how this issue affects so many within the black community and why it is so important to see the Gurley family get justice. For those who are circulating a petition, all they see is that two white officers were acquitted, and this Asian officer was not.

Many of them fail to understand that Kenneth Thompson was elected as the new Kings County DA because the people of Brooklyn wanted to see reform, and I was one of the people celebrating, when he defeated incumbent Charles Hynes in the Democratic Primary. Had Charles Hynes still been the DA, there is the chance that Peter Liang would not have been indicted, since Hynes was the kind of DA who just went with the status quo. Is it unfair that the outcome of a case can be determined by who is in office and what borough you live in? Yes, but that is why it is so important to be involved in local elections. You cannot complain, unless you are actually involved. That has always been my rule. The recent Eric Garner decision has inspired a local attorney in Staten Island to run for DA, which may be vacated by current DA, Dan Donovan, who is running for the Congress.

What bothers me even more about this petition is that this petition reached its goal of at least 100,000 petitions in less than a week, while another petition being circulated on Change.Org to seek justice for Qingyou Li only reached its half way mark of 5,000 signatures in a month and has not reached any traction after. This petition was created two months ago. Why are Asians not rallying behind this cause? Or, were these same Asians who signed this petition involved with fighting for the justice of Fong Lee, Cao Bich Tran, and Michael Cho, who were all killed by officers with no consequences? This is where Asians should focus our activism on, while also requesting that same solidarity from the black community in the same way that many Asians have given the same support for both Michael Brown and Eric Garner.

Yes, many of us can claim that we did not know about these cases because there was minimal media coverage about these stories, but that is why it is so important to educate ourselves and understand the larger picture and the context of our actions. It is rather selfish for some within the Asian-American community, particularly within the Chinese-American community, say: Officer Peter Liang should not be charged because two white officers were acquitted. That is selfish and insensitive to the members of the Gurley family who are still mourning his loss and are now seeking justice.

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Mayor Bill deBlasio and the PBA President: Pat Lynch’s Smear Campaign against the Mayor

Pat Lynch’s Smear Campaign against the Mayor

January 18, 2015

It has been almost a month since the shooting death of Officers Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu, in which Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association (PBA) president Patrick Lynch uttered those famous words, “Blood is on the hands of this mayor and the protestors.” Never mind that the crime was committed by a mentally deranged man, in which his own family members feared him and tried to get him help. Lynch immediately blames Mayor deBlasio for this murder, causing a rift between some of his members and the mayor.

The famous images of police officers turning their backs on the mayor continued to make headlines. First, it was during his visit to Woodhull Hospital, where Officers Ramos and Liu were taken to, and, then, it was during their funerals, even though both the Liu and Ramos families welcomed the mayor’s presence at their respective funerals. Then, the father of Officer Andrew Dossi, another NYPD officer shot on the job, made it known that his son did not want the mayor visiting him, while he was recovering at St. Barnabas Hospital. Thankfully, Office Dossi has been recently released from the hospital, where he can be back with his family.

Why so much animosity between the mayor and the New York Police Department (NYPD) officers? I think we can all agree that being a police officer is an extremely stressful and dangerous job, and nothing takes away from the hard work that they put in day in and day out, but at the same time they also have to acknowledge the discontent and outrage that is being felt by people all over the city and the nation, not to mention the fear still felt by many people of color. I, myself, wrote about my own personal fear about this issue.

The mayor was blasted by Lynch for saying the same statements that I have made recently. I fear for my son’s life, too, which is why I have to teach him to talk to the police differently than some of his other friends. This is one of the reasons why the mayor was elected into office. He understood that many communities were still concerned over Stop-and-Frisk policies, which is why many New Yorkers voted him into office, both during the Democratic primary and, then, the general election.

A recent Quinipiac poll, however, shows that the mayor is actually polling close to a 50% approval rating, while New Yorkers look at PBA President Pat Lynch much less favorably. The Reverend Al Sharpton, whom the NYPD officers associate the mayor with, did not poll as favorably as the mayor did, but he still polled much better than Pat Lynch. Lynch, of course, downplayed this by saying that he is not concerned with gaining popularity among the public; his job is to speak for his members. However, things are not looking well for Lynch within his own union, either.

In a recent meeting of PBA delegates, many of his rank-and-file members expressed their anger and discontent to Lynch that they do not want an apology from the mayor, which he continues to demand; they want better equipment to protect themselves. This is what I have been saying for weeks. If Pat Lynch was really concerned about his members, he would be working with the NYPD to get them better equipment to protect themselves. We live in the information age. There is no reason for information and intelligence to be transferred much more quickly between law enforcement agencies. The Baltimore Police Department had intelligence about Ismaaiyl Brinsley’s intent to shoot New York City police officers, but it got to the NYPD too late.

If Lynch really wanted to support his members, this is what he should be doing, not crying out that there is blood on the hands of the mayor and the protestors. That is irresponsible of him. It also does not help that his members are one of the few municipal unions still working without a contract.

It is easier to blame the mayor and certain members of the City Council for not supporting his members. Many of his members should be asking what he has done to secure them a better contract and guarantee that the NYPD is buying the best equipment that the NYPD can afford to ensure their safety. Lynch, himself, is up for re-election in June of this year. However, there is even more to this story.

The law enforcement unions have never worked closely with the other labor unions. They are not even members of the New York City Central Labor Council, a coalition of different trade unions found throughout the city. Unlike other unions, who have a tendency to work with the Democratic Party, the law enforcement unions are one of the few unions that have a close relationship with the Republican Party. As pointed out by Firestone, they also have the support of right-wing pundits on their side. Think of all of the editorials written by columnists in the New York Post and to a, lesser extent, the Daily News blasting the mayor while supporting Lynch and the PBA leadership. There are other reports of the PBA and other law enforcement unions having close ties with Tea Party Republicans, who are also linked to former Mayor Rudy Giuliani.

However, Lynch also has to realize that his membership continues to grow in diversity; people of color make up over half of his membership. While the black, Latino, and Asian officers may also be more conservative in their political views, compared to the rest of the city, they are still part of these same communities of color. Lynch’s battle with the mayor demonstrates an old guard within the PBA, when it was still made up of a predominantly white male membership. The officers who now make up the PBA come from the same communities where many members have expressed concerns about stop-and-frisk and racial profiling, and, eventually, he does have to address that. Many officers of color have admitted to being profiled themselves, when they were either off duty or in plain clothes.

There is now talk within the PBA about some members running a slate against Lynch and his allies. Another sign of things not going well for Lynch: last week only four percent of his members signed a petition stating that they did not want the mayor and City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito to attend their funeral, in the unfortunate event of that ever happening.

Lynch, however, will most likely continue to play the strategy of playing to his base and getting his members riled up against the mayor and the council speaker. We will see how well that strategy works in June.

*Addendum: Right after I had published this, I find an article in the The Daily News that stated that Pat Lynch actually backed down on his demand for that apology from Mayor deBlasio.

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