MTA to Host Town First Hall Meeting on Fast Forward Plan - Just Two Days Notice To Public

[Via Garibaldi 8]

Absurd that they publish this on August 19th for a meeting tomorrow!! Talk about things "changing" at the  ... Then they don't even know when the other meetings will be, which means they'll spring the rest of them on the public to avoid people showing up and demanding answers...

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Press Release                                                                           August 19, 2018

NYC Transit                                                                                IMMEDIATE

MTA NYC Transit to Host First Town Hall Meeting on ‘Fast Forward’ Plan to Modernize Subways, Buses & Paratransit

Transit President Byford to Answer Questions in Aug. 21 Debut Event in Queens; Additional Meetings Across City to be Announced Soon

MTA New York City Transit announced today that it is hosting a series of town hall-style public meetings in every borough of New York City this year to discuss the recently announced Fast Forward Plan to modernize the subway system and reimagine bus and paratransit service, with the first meeting planned for Queens at York College on Aug. 21.

“The Fast Forward Plan is a massive undertaking that requires buy-in from all stakeholders – our customers, our colleagues, advocates, the business community, and elected officials at every level of government,” NYC Transit President Andy Byford said.  “The future success of New York City depends upon the success of this comprehensive plan to modernize our transit system, and we’ll be out there in every borough making the case.”

In May, President Byford introduced the Fast Forward Plan: The Plan to Modernize New York City Transit as a roadmap to modernizing all services offered by MTA New York City Transit, including subway service and subway stations, local, express and SBS bus routes, and paratransit options. The plan also sets out to improve accessibility across all services, and addresses how NYCT can improve its organizational structure, corporate culture, and customer service including communication with the public.

The Fast Forward Plan, which was delivered to the MTA Board in a presentation viewable here, includes goals such as installing state-of-the-art new signal and track infrastructure for subways within five years, accelerating accessibility improvements across the subway system by ensuring all customers will be no more than two stops from an accessible station within five years, repairing and improving more than 150 subway stations over five years, putting a new modern fleet of thousands of subway cars and buses into service within five years, and completely redesigning the bus network to meet new ridership demands and population trends. The full plan is available here.

To track and report progress and to hold itself accountable to stakeholders and the public, MTA New York City Transit plans to issue twice-yearly reports on the progress of its Fast Forward Plan initiatives. Since the plan was announced, NYC Transit has moved forward on accessibility improvements at three subway stations, moved forward on redesigning the entire Staten Island express bus network to improve reliability and service, increased off-peak service on bus routes with high growth potential, and launched the quarterly Customer Commitment report to set and track clear goals on customer-focused improvements. Additionally as part of the Fast Forward Plan NYC Transit is implementing a redesign of the Staten Island Express Bus network this week and is embarking on a redesign of bus travel in the Bronx as part of a plan to redesign the bus network throughout the entire city.  In June, President Byford appointed Transit’s first advisor for systemwide accessibility to improve paratransit service and implement accessibility initiatives in the Fast Forward Plan.

President Byford and MTA New York City Transit staff will be presenting the plan at the town hall meetings across the city, speaking to customers and soliciting feedback on how the Fast Forward Plan will affect their commutes and how NYC Transit plans to improve accessibility and customer service. Members of the public are highly encouraged to attend and ask questions to President Byford and his staff.

Information on Tuesday’s town hall in Queens is included below. Subway station signage throughout Queens is also being used to help inform customers about the meeting. The venue is ADA accessible. Members of the public who cannot attend are encouraged to submit questions and feedback online via the MTA website at https://new.mta.info/.

WHERE:

Milton G. Bassin Performing Arts Center at York College
Main Stage Theater
94-95 Guy R Brewer Blvd
Jamaica, Queens

WHEN:

August 21, 5:30 to 8:30 p.m.
Doors open at 5:30 p.m., program begins at 6:30 p. m.
Public speakers must register and will be called in the order in which they sign up.

Source: http://www.mta.info/press-release/nyc-transit/mta-nyc-transit-host-first-town-hall-meeting-‘fast-forward’-plan-modernize

[Interested Rider]

It is nothing new with the MTA as the only reason that they do this is for the charade of public hearings and public input which they are mandated to do by law.

It is not only the MTA, it is almost every other governmental agency that will pull the same sort of stunt as they are not seeking public input but instead want to ram it down the throats of the users with the premise that "those of us who prepared the document know best" and thus "we are not interested in public input for they know nothing"  Sure, the ones who prepared the plan will make slight changes at the corners to show that the public had some say in changing the document but the reality is  'they are not interested in the public's views as they did not go to the right schools or have someone somewhere in government or with a lot of political pull that will protect them no matter what they do wrong"

Yes! I am cynical and my comments indicate that I have about as much faith that the real changes that may have to be made will not be done as it means that someone's political toes will be stepped on and that will not happen.

 

[Via Garibaldi 8]

45 minutes ago, Interested Rider said:

It is nothing new with the MTA as the only reason that they do this is for the charade of public hearings and public input which they are mandated to do by law.

It is not only the MTA, it is almost every other governmental agency that will pull the same sort of stunt as they are not seeking public input but instead want to ram it down the throats of the users with the premise that "those of us who prepared the document know best" and thus "we are not interested in public input for they know nothing"  Sure, the ones who prepared the plan will make slight changes at the corners to show that the public had some say in changing the document but the reality is  'they are not interested in the public's views as they did not go to the right schools or have someone somewhere in government or with a lot of political pull that will protect them no matter what they do wrong"

Yes! I am cynical and my comments indicate that I have about as much faith that the real changes that may have to be made will not be done as it means that someone's political toes will be stepped on and that will not happen.

 

You would really have to make a concerted effort to make that meeting, and given where it is being held, those people won't be able to show up. I have the luxury of taking a half-day to go to such meetings as I have done when attending meetings in the past, but a lot of people can't do that, especially with such little notice.

[CDTA]

Hey at least this shows they're serious about doing the plan. 😁

[N6 Limited]

Will this be recorded?

[Via Garibaldi 8]

No idea, but I believe you can leave comments via the  website if you can't attend and sign up to speak.

[B35 via Church]

 

23 hours ago, Interested Rider said:

It is nothing new with the MTA as the only reason that they do this is for the charade of public hearings and public input which they are mandated to do by law.

It is not only the MTA, it is almost every other governmental agency that will pull the same sort of stunt as they are not seeking public input but instead want to ram it down the throats of the users with the premise that "those of us who prepared the document know best" and thus "we are not interested in public input for they know nothing"  Sure, the ones who prepared the plan will make slight changes at the corners to show that the public had some say in changing the document but the reality is  'they are not interested in the public's views as they did not go to the right schools or have someone somewhere in government or with a lot of political pull that will protect them no matter what they do wrong"

Yes! I am cynical and my comments indicate that I have about as much faith that the real changes that may have to be made will not be done as it means that someone's political toes will be stepped on and that will not happen.

*Well at least you can't say we didn't notify the public*

Shit is nothing but a dog & pony show.... They don't want to hold these meetings just as much as I would ever fathom taking time out of my day to attend them... It's too bad though, because you have people that go to these things that take them seriously (rightfully so, as he/she, the rider, is the person directly affected) - And on top of it, believe the MTA wants to right the ship just as much as they do... AFAIC. it's akin to the level of care of the avg. professional athlete winning at some sport day in & day out, compared to the level of care of a fan of that team/athlete......

A funnel the size of Texas couldn't sift through all the political BS you gotta put up with.... God help some of you on this forum that go to those things.

Less than 2 days notice for something like this is flat out unreasonable, and to be honest, quite insulting.

 

[bobtehpanda]

1 hour ago, B35 via Church said:

 

*Well at least you can't say we didn't notify the public*

Shit is nothing but a dog & pony show.... They don't want to hold these meetings just as much as I would ever fathom taking time out of my day to attend them... It's too bad though, because you have people that go to these things that take them seriously (rightfully so, as he/she, the rider, is the person directly affected) - And on top of it, believe the MTA wants to right the ship just as much as they do... AFAIC. it's akin to the level of care of the avg. professional athlete winning at some sport day in & day out, compared to the level of care of a fan of that team/athlete......

A funnel the size of Texas couldn't sift through all the political BS you gotta put up with.... God help some of you on this forum that go to those things.

Less than 2 days notice for something like this is flat out unreasonable, and to be honest, quite insulting.

 

The current administration is pretty bad about it.

IIRC, when they did the Tappan Zee redesign and threw out the old version with rails that had community consultation, all of the info centers and the online public documents recording all those community meetings mysteriously disappeared, and by the time they finished slow-walking the FOIL requests for the old stuff they had already started construction.

[N6 Limited]

5 hours ago, bobtehpanda said:

The current administration is pretty bad about it.

IIRC, when they did the Tappan Zee redesign and threw out the old version with rails that had community consultation, all of the info centers and the online public documents recording all those community meetings mysteriously disappeared, and by the time they finished slow-walking the FOIL requests for the old stuff they had already started construction.

That's unfortunate because the a rail connection between White Plains and Spring Valley (etc) would be useful. 

[checkmatechamp13]

On 8/20/2018 at 10:45 PM, N6 Limited said:

Will this be recorded?

It was recorded. I saw some camera people there (I found out about it at the last minute as well)

In any case, he presented his Fast Forward Plan, and gave the canned line "There were 27 stops on the average express route, end-to-end running times were reduced, but you can't please everybody".

[Interested Rider]

The railroad connection was a great idea but as usual the emperor did not not like it so it was killed.

Taking it one step further by adding the rail connection and by inviting both Norfolk  Southern and CSX to help build the bridge,  it would have saved the taxpayers money as freight service could have used the bridge during off hours,  This would have been a win-win for the city, state and everyone involved. No longer would freight traffic have to be routed through Albany to cross the Hudson River for the city for the bridge would have provided an alternate rail  route to the city, Westchester as well as New England. It would have reduced freight costs and encourage development on this side of the river. This was not part of Cuomo's agenda where economic development is all about his friends getting money and his face on everything in sight to say "look what I did for you the taxpayers"as they leave the state in droves.

In the meantime, the taxpayers will be paying for  a bridge  that will never be paid off, no matter how high the fees will go up as it is all about, me the emperor. 

[checkmatechamp13]

On 8/20/2018 at 12:48 PM, Via Garibaldi 8 said:

You would really have to make a concerted effort to make that meeting, and given where it is being held, those people won't be able to show up. I have the luxury of taking a half-day to go to such meetings as I have done when attending meetings in the past, but a lot of people can't do that, especially with such little notice.

The location was a few blocks from Jamaica Center, right where all the buses to SE Queens stop. It was intended for Queens residents, so it was in a location convenient for them.

That point was brought up (about only 2 days notice), but surprisingly, there were actually a decent amount of people attending. But absolutely, they should've given more notice and they claimed they would do so in the future.

As always, they were disorganized, though. I registered to speak at 5:46pm, and they put a 5:51pm guy in front of me and kept putting people in front of me after that, saying "We'll take care of you" (hmm....I guess I shouldn't have told the staff there that I had to catch the last SIM8...wonder if they were hoping I would give up and just run out to catch my bus)

[Interested Rider]

When you speak as an individual and you are not a person speaking on behalf of a some group or association as their representative, the MTA will usually place you at the end.

The politicians come first, then those who represent this group or that group such as a Community Board, Civic Association,  residents or homeowners association that may  have just acouple of members, then finally the members of the general public speaking as an interested citizen who may know more about the subject than any of the others speaking before him.

Unfortunately, it is all about the person's standing and the numbers and that is how the order is determined for speaking at these meetings. It is also possible that someone recognized you (Checkmate Champ) from previous meetings and said what is he doing here after all he lives on Staten Island what he doing speaking at a Queens meeting even though you had something important to say on the subject at hand.

[N6 Limited]

A video has not surfaced. Can anyone explain which topics were discussed at this meeting?

[checkmatechamp13]

On 8/29/2018 at 5:59 PM, N6 Limited said:

A video has not surfaced. Can anyone explain which topics were discussed at this meeting?

Basically, we got to speak with Byford and the planners before the meeting, then he presented the Fast Forward plan, then the public speakers spoke about various topics.

One topic that made me think of you was the people saying the Q60 needs more frequent overnight service when they do track work on the QBL. Another issue was dollar vans, and I spoke about the SIM routes.

[N6 Limited]

6 hours ago, checkmatechamp13 said:

Basically, we got to speak with Byford and the planners before the meeting, then he presented the Fast Forward plan, then the public speakers spoke about various topics.

One topic that made me think of you was the people saying the Q60 needs more frequent overnight service when they do track work on the QBL. Another issue was dollar vans, and I spoke about the SIM routes.

Thanks, I've avoided the QBL as much as possible, Atlantic Ticket has been helpful in that sense.

[Interested Rider]

On 8/25/2018 at 9:56 PM, Interested Rider said:

When you speak as an individual and you are not a person speaking on behalf of a some group or association as their representative, the MTA will usually place you at the end.

The politicians come first, then those who represent this group or that group such as a Community Board, Civic Association,  residents or homeowners association that may  have just acouple of members, then finally the members of the general public speaking as an interested citizen who may know more about the subject than any of the others speaking before him.

Unfortunately, it is all about the person's standing and the numbers and that is how the order is determined for speaking at these meetings. It is also possible that someone recognized you (Checkmate Champ) from previous meetings and said what is he doing here after all he lives on Staten Island what he doing speaking at a Queens meeting even though you had something important to say on the subject at hand.

 

13 hours ago, checkmatechamp13 said:

Basically, we got to speak with Byford and the planners before the meeting, then he presented the Fast Forward plan, then the public speakers spoke about various topics.

One topic that made me think of you was the people saying the Q60 needs more frequent overnight service when they do track work on the QBL. Another issue was dollar vans, and I spoke about the SIM routes.

The reason that I posted both quotes is that the second posting changes the narrative completely. I would never had posted my  initial comment as had I seen the posting from CheckmateChamp13 before I read his first comment. Based on the new posting,I think that there is, (possibly, probably) that there may be a change in the way that the participants at these meetings will be able to voice their views. The usual order was the politicians, community people and the rest of us. The fact that Mr. Byford and the MTA people spoke to you and others before the hearing speaks can be summed up with a quote from the last  supervisor in Albany who replaced someone who left after many years and did nothing. "I want to hear your problems" and I must add, the new supervisor listened to us and a lot of problems were resolved within days instead of lingering for many years unresolved

While the example I used was not on the level of Mr. Byford, it is my opinion that he is listening to members of the public privately before the meeting and that he had other MTA personnel there is quite significant as it indicates that he is taking seriously the issue of how the public is heard at these meetings. Think about it and compare it to previous forums or hearings where the public's voice was the least heard or once in a while, their views were accepted. When I asked that Mr. Byford be given a chance, it was based on how he interacted with the public in Toronto  and is based on my readings of the Toronto Star during his tenure at the Toronto Transit Commission. He, I might add is totally different from his predecessors in many ways so let us see at what happens at the next couple of meetings and whether the issues raised are starting to be resolved in a way that is satisfactory to the riding public as compared with how it was done previously.

[checkmatechamp13]

On 8/25/2018 at 9:56 PM, Interested Rider said:

When you speak as an individual and you are not a person speaking on behalf of a some group or association as their representative, the MTA will usually place you at the end.

The politicians come first, then those who represent this group or that group such as a Community Board, Civic Association,  residents or homeowners association that may  have just acouple of members, then finally the members of the general public speaking as an interested citizen who may know more about the subject than any of the others speaking before him.

Unfortunately, it is all about the person's standing and the numbers and that is how the order is determined for speaking at these meetings. It is also possible that someone recognized you (Checkmate Champ) from previous meetings and said what is he doing here after all he lives on Staten Island what he doing speaking at a Queens meeting even though you had something important to say on the subject at hand.

I actually spoke on behalf of the Mariners Harbor Civic Association (I'm not sure if I wrote it down next to my name when I signed up, though).

The good thing is that at least by speaking to Byford and the planners before, they were aware of the issues (I mean, they were aware of the issues before with the schedules and everything, but I wanted to confirm that). It's just that it rubbed me the wrong way when he said "You can't please everybody" so I wanted to make it clear that when you promise one thing and make a mistake that results in the opposite situation, that's not a "You can't please everybody" situation. So afterwards, he did say that he and his staff will be fixing the mistakes and end up getting answers as to how many people benefitted from the plan (and the extent to which they benefitted) compared to how many lost service (and the extent to which they lost service)

59 minutes ago, Interested Rider said:

The reason that I posted both quotes is that the second posting changes the narrative completely. I would never had posted my  initial comment as had I seen the posting from CheckmateChamp13 before I read his first comment. Based on the new posting,I think that there is, (possibly, probably) that there may be a change in the way that the participants at these meetings will be able to voice their views. The usual order was the politicians, community people and the rest of us. The fact that Mr. Byford and the MTA people spoke to you and others before the hearing speaks can be summed up with a quote from the last  supervisor in Albany who replaced someone who left after many years and did nothing. "I want to hear your problems" and I must add, the new supervisor listened to us and a lot of problems were resolved within days instead of lingering for many years unresolved

While the example I used was not on the level of Mr. Byford, it is my opinion that he is listening to members of the public privately before the meeting and that he had other MTA personnel there is quite significant as it indicates that he is taking seriously the issue of how the public is heard at these meetings. Think about it and compare it to previous forums or hearings where the public's voice was the least heard or once in a while, their views were accepted. When I asked that Mr. Byford be given a chance, it was based on how he interacted with the public in Toronto  and is based on my readings of the Toronto Star during his tenure at the Toronto Transit Commission. He, I might add is totally different from his predecessors in many ways so let us see at what happens at the next couple of meetings and whether the issues raised are starting to be resolved in a way that is satisfactory to the riding public as compared with how it was done previously.

I agree.

[Mysterious2train]

The next town hall is Tuesday the 25th at Medgar Evers College in Brooklyn... thankfully with a bit more notice.

[Lawrence St]

Bronx is doing the same thing on the 20th. I'm going to advocate for some type of limited or BRT service on the Bx9.