After Years Of Pleas, Area Leaders Hope Their Requests For Renovated Church Avenue Subway Station Don’t Fall On Deaf Ears
For years, the Church Avenue B/Q subway station has been plagued by leaky ceilings, peeling paint, crumbling cement (and more) – and area leaders are hoping the MTA will finally do something to address the litany of issues at the busy transportation hub.
Last Thursday, Church Avenue Business Improvement District Executive Director Lauren Elvers Collins submitted testimony the Assembly’s hearing on the MTA’s 2015-19 capital plan and urged for the transformation of the heavily used station.
“The Church Avenue B/Q subway station is in serious disrepair and in need of a major overhaul,” Collins testified at the hearing that lasted more than five hours. “We urge the MTA to include rehabilitation of this station in the MTA’s 2015-19 capital program.”
Assemblyman Jim Brennan, chairman of the Assembly’s Committee on Corporations, Authorities and Commissions, hosted the hearing that drew many an impassioned plea from advocates and community leaders for a variety of public transit improvements throughout the five boroughs.
In her testimony, Collins detailed the numerous problems at the Church Avenue station.“While it should be a welcoming entryway to this bustling area, its condition is an insult to this neighborhood, which relies heavily on public transportation, and it counteracts local attempts to improve the community,” Collins said in her testimony. “For years, the Church Avenue BID, local groups, and Flatbush residents have been meeting with, and pleading with, MTA officials and elected representatives on the state and city levels to repair and renovate the exterior and interior of this station.”
But, Collins noted, the pleas have fallen on deaf ears.
“Yet year after year, priority has been given to improvements on the much less trafficked Q line stations of Cortelyou Road, Parkside Avenue and Beverley Road stations,” she said. “Improvements to those three stations have been done. Now it is time to bring the Church Avenue station up to a much improved level.”
You can read the Church Avenue BID’s full testimony here.