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Free Williamsburg

The Williamsburg Brooklyn-based culture guide to New York and beyond.

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Cranky Manhattanites lose bid to block construction and bike lanes during L shutdown

October 2, 2018 By Free Williamsburg

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A group of residents from Soho, Greenwich Village and the Lower East Side have been particularly vocal about the MTA and DOT’s plans to add bike lanes and buses in their neighborhoods during the L Train shutdown. Their concerns are that the bikes, buses, construction, and street closures will have a negative impact on their property values neighborhoods. They claim that concerns about the shutdown are overblown and worry that there will be negative environmental impacts from the construction.

Today, a judge threw out their lawsuit, though their request for an environmental review is still pending:

Activists from Soho, Greenwich Village and the Lower East Side filed the suit in Manhattan Supreme Court Monday after settling an earlier claim in federal court.

Their attorney, Arthur Schwartz, said the feds disregarded 209 negative comments about the shutdown so they’re calling on a state judge to act.

The residents are asking for an environmental review, claiming the project will disrupt their lives with a huge increase in the number of buses, street closures and noisy construction.

A group of people living along the L subway train lost their legal bid to limit construction hours for the impending shutdown of the line as well as putting a halt to the addition of bike lanes related to the subway project.

But their suit to delay the 15-month, April 2019 shutdown until the MTA completes an environmental review continues.

Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Franc Perry denied a request from Soho, Greenwich Village and Lower East Side opponents of the upgrade plan to restrict construction of shafts along E. 14th Street to 12 hours a day.

The shafts, which will allow access to the Canarsie Tunnel that runs under the East River from Brooklyn, are currently being built from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m.

Arthur Schwartz, attorney for the project foes, asked the judge to make construction stop by 7 p.m.

“It produces dust. It’s extremely noisy,” he argued.

But MTA lawyer Philip Karmel said the work “is absolutely critical to get the Canarsie Tunnel repaired.” Any delay, he said, could cause “further degradation of L train service” or “the L train to be shut down indefinitely.”

Meanwhile…. the April shutdown looms.

Filed Under: Beyond, Bushwick, News, Ridgewood, Williamsburg Tagged With: L Train shutdown

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Comments

  1. Arthur Z Schwartz says

    October 2, 2018 at 11:51 pm

    Your article is inaccurate. The Judge didn’t throw out the lawsuit, he denied a very limited request for a Temporary Restraining Order addressed to late hour noisy construction work, and a bike lane path on two blocks. And the lawsuit said nothing about property values. If you want to play journalist get your story straight.



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