Park Slope Demands Accessible Subway Station

PARK SLOPE — Senior citizens, wheelchair users New Yorkers and local politicians gathered Friday above the Seventh Avenue subway to demand the MTA provide them with what they say is a badly-needed elevator.

City Councilman Brad Lander, New York Assemblyman Bobby Carroll and several advocacy groups rallied in hopes of pressuring the MTA to include the Park Slope F and G station in a list of stations about to get accessibility updates.

"Our lives are completely altered, controlled and basically harassed by MTA's failure to honor civil and human rights" said Rebecca Kostyuchenko, a Park Slope mom whose daughter cannot use stairs because of a physical disability.

"The MTA is the greatest barrier to my daughter's independence as a New Yorker."

Kostyuchenko is one of many Park Slope residents hoping the MTA will include the Seventh Avenue station in its Fast Forward Accelerate Accessibility plan, which calls for upgrades in more than 50 stations within the next five years.

“Let’s prioritize stations that are near hospitals and in neighborhoods that have a meaningful number of people who need elevators,” Lander said. “Not just people with disabilities but also seniors and families with strollers.

"Are we in the middle of a neighborhood like that?” He asked.

“Yes!” The crowd replied.

Advocates pointed to New York Methodist Hospital, the largest in the borough which is also currently expanding its outpatient center, and the 600-member Park Slope Center for Successful Aging as key reasons why the MTA should prioritize the Seventh Avenue stop for elevators.

"They need to be able to get here," said Heights and Hills executive director Judy Willig.

The MTA has not yet released its list, but communications director Jon Weinstein told Patch the agency has been working with elected officials and local advocacy groups while making its selection.

“We are already undertaking a comprehensive study in order to be ready to start installing elevators as soon as we get funding" Weinstein said in a statement. "We look forward to these elected officials helping us fund the solutions that we’ve proposed.”

The Grassroots organization Good Neighbors of Park Slope has been petitioning for an elevator at the station since 2014, but MTA officials denied their requests and directed locals toward the only F train station with an elevator in Brooklyn.

"They said you can take two buses from here to Church Avenue in order to get an elevator," said Good Neighbors advocate Jasmine Melzer. "It's really kind of insulting."

Photo caption: Monica Bartley, 62, relies a wheelchair and said it was impossible for her to get to the rally by subway. Photo by Kathleen Culliton