Senator Gounardes, Bay Ridge Doesn’t Need Staged Political Photo Ops – We Need People Who Will Take Action
On Sunday morning, Senator Gounardes wanted to have a rally outside the 86th Street train station.
Why were only three adults at the rally? People didn’t know about it because Gounardes and Brannan didn’t advertise the rally on their social media and neither did the Riders Alliance.
Today I & @JustinBrannan @RidersAlliance @Tri_State & more stood together to call on @MTA to provide R train riders with frequent, reliable bus service while the R train is out of service over the next 2 months. Public transit is not a luxury for our community: it’s a necessity. pic.twitter.com/Xev6edHX4B
— Senator Andrew Gounardes (@Sen_Gounardes) March 27, 2022
An out-of-district website carried the story about the rally – see here.
Riders Alliance must have thought this was nonsense because hardly anyone showed up. The trains are a wreck and Riders Alliance hasn’t been active in Bay Ridge since the last election.
Pathetically, we can see Councilman Justin Brannan nodding in the video. Years ago, Brannan would have mocked pandering politicians for this type of display. Justin Brannan knows better than to pander.
Gounardes and Brannan are friends with Mayor Adams – they should have gone to dinner or rallied near the Mayor’s office. There is no reason to stand on 86th Street giving a speech.
The reality of the R train is that a mobile homeless shelter pulls into the station each morning. Train riders have to step over urine and find a car without homeless people in.
A freezing morning in #BayRidge gives another reminder that $3B of your tax dollars goes to failed social services agencies & a few million more for the politicians who don’t hold them accountable@Sen_Gounardes @JustinBrannan @NYCMayorsOffice @NYCComptroller pic.twitter.com/CahtxLL9Pb
— Brian Sullivan (@BrianSullivan96) March 28, 2022
Mayor Adams may have ejected the homeless from other trains, but the R train hotel is still occupied.
The R train will stop running from 36th Street to 95th Street on the weekends starting Easter weekend.
It’s ridiculous that people are visiting and doing things with their family and the train won’t be available for them on a holiday weekend.
Gounardes should have secured express bus transfers for Bay Ridge residents, so they aren’t inconvenienced. Andrew doesn’t celebrate Easter then, so he doesn’t care who needs the subway then.
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Hugs,
marlene
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