Buses “kneel” because eighty-year-olds can’t step up and eighty-year-Olds take the bus because they can’t walk down and then up the subway steps. However, for some elderly West Villagers, taking the M8 8th Street Crosstown is vital.
On the M8, I use to take my wife Maggie to the Eye, Ear, Nose, and Throat Hospital on 14th Street and 2nd Avenue, to Beth Israel on 16th Street, and to Memorial Sloan Kettering on 2nd Avenue and 79th Street. Then, to save money, the Bloomberg Administration cut the weekend service – bang just like that (now wouldn’t you think our local politicians could stop something like this?).
They then recently restored it in April, but I received an e-mail from CB 2 transportation chair Shirley Secunda that the restored service was just a “test” to see (I suppose) if there was enough traffic to warrant the cost?
Now wait a minute, city bus services are not bumper rides on Coney Island – old people need and can only afford a bus. So, I called Kevin Ortiz at the MTA press office for some answers. I mean, was it a test and what would make the MTA traffic department recommend it to the MTA commissioners to cancel, once again, the weekend M8?
Kevin offered that it could be the communities reaction at coming CB 2 meeting on May — so I asked if the community got mad enough, would that do it? He respond the next day by being out of the office and when I tried to find another person in the bus department, I was told Kevin was out.
I explained that I used to have their job in IBM and it was then my job to hook the press up with an officer or scientist at IBM who could answer their questions. However, Kevin was still out and yes they knew we were on deadline but we had to give then time.
It looks like we have run out of time but nobody in the press office is going to get into trouble because well, hey, Kevin was out.
Council Member Corey Johnson said, “The M8 bus is a vital link for Villagers getting cross town from west to east and then back again. Residents have counted on the M8 bus and the MTA must make a full restoration of this route not an experimental one. I will continue to press New York City Transit to commit for full restoration and will keep the community apprised of updates.”
Go to the CB 2 meeting on Wednesday, May 14 and be as loud as you can. Let our politicians know you are as mad as hell, that you want a meeting with the MTA commissioner, and that you’re all coming down on a bus so that should help the positive cash flow.
