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NEWARK, N.J. -- Few
would dispute the fact that several PATH stations
have become severely -- even dangerously --
overcrowded during morning and evening rush hours,
according to the Jersey Journal.
Between 7:30 and 9 a.m. on weekdays, crowds of
commuters at the Grove Street station in Downtown
Jersey City stretch clear across the platform, often
without an inch of empty space to spare. Sometimes
it takes several minutes just to make it from the
edge of the platform to the staircase leading out of
the station. In the evenings, New York-bound trains
no longer even stop at Christopher Street, the first
station in Manhattan, because it is too small to
accommodate the hordes waiting for New Jersey-bound
trains.
Although these problems were certainly exacerbated
by the destruction of the World Trade Center -- and
the loss of two stations and an entire PATH route --
on Sept. 11, stations were beginning to reach
capacity before then.
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, the
quasi-governmental bi-state agency that runs the
PATH system, says it is time to add new entrances to
three of the line's most crowded stations -- Grove
Street, Christopher Street and Ninth Street -- not
so much to make things more convenient but to make
them safer. "We're proposing a second entrance
for people in case of emergency," said Steve
Coleman, a spokesman for the Port Authority.
"We came up with a plan for exits in those
stations to get people out faster, assuming two
loaded trains came in at the same time."
Coleman said the proposal to add three street-level
entrances, which will cost $29 million and take
about nine months to complete, will allow people to
be evacuated from those stations in seven minutes,
rather than the 18 minutes it would take now.
"That meets a national safety plan," said
Coleman.
But the Port Authority proposal has met with fierce
opposition from neighborhood groups and business
owners in Manhattan's Greenwich Village, where two
of the street-level entrances -- for the Ninth and
Christopher stations -- would be built smack in the
middle of what many say is the main commercial and
cultural artery of their neighborhood. Nobody is
opposed to making the stations safer, but the
critics say the Port Authority should solve their
problem with more emergency exits, not full-service
entrances with turnstiles and staircases leading
down from the sidewalk.
The Port Authority is planning to build the new
entrance for the Christopher Street station at
Christopher and Bedford Street, about a block and a
half east of the existing entrance. Plans for the
Ninth Street station include a new entrance several
blocks east of there, at Christopher and Waverly
Street. Those plans, neighbors say, will have a
deeply negative impact on the area, both during
construction and after the new entrances are built.
"It would be devastating for the block,"
said Mark Lilli, owner of the Factory Cafe, just a
few yards from where the entrance off Bedford would
be. "It's going to disrupt the whole
neighborhood." According to Lilli and other
merchants, the construction work, which is
tentatively scheduled to begin later this year,
would limit the pedestrian traffic that is essential
for their businesses. Many of them, having already
been forced to close for an extended period after
Sept. 11, say they cannot survive another prolonged
drought of customers so soon.
Opponents also say the new entrances would also
eliminate parking spaces, disrupt traffic on a vital
crosstown thoroughfare and clash with the historic
district, whose 19th Century row houses and narrow,
tree-lined streets make it among New York's most
charming -- and desirable -- neighborhoods. "Is
that the only place they can put them?" said
Arthur Stickler, president of Community Board 2, one
of the neighborhood groups leading the opposition.
"Why can't it be done without these
above-ground entrances?"
Coleman said the new entrances would be four feet
wide and would not take up any space on the
sidewalk, instead eliminating some of the parking
lanes on the curb of the street. He also said
emergency exits are not an option and that the Fire
Department recommended full-service entrances
instead.
But still, many in the neighborhood seem convinced
that there is a better way to go. All along
Christopher, from Hudson Street to Waverly, posters
adorn store windows with messages that read "No
PATH Expansion" and "Historic Christopher
Street endangered by new PATH entrances." At
4:30 p.m. today, opponents of the project will stage
a rally, marching from the existing PATH entrance on
Christopher to Sixth Avenue to decry the plan.
"I don't want it at all, let it stay the way it
is," said one woman, who has lived in the same
apartment on Christopher for 61 years and who
declined to give her name. "It's going to take
everything away from here." In response to the
outpouring of opposition, and after hearing from
neighbors during public forums held this past
winter, the Port Authority has commissioned an
independent study to assess the situation and make
recommendations. That report will be ready within
the next two weeks, Coleman said.
Meanwhile, on the Jersey side of the river,
commuters interviewed yesterday said they would
welcome new entrances at those stations. "If
they opened another side (at Christopher Street)
that would help," said Ethan Turgeman, a
Bayonne resident who takes the PATH from Grove
Street into Manhattan every morning. "People
get packed in there, it's inconvenient."
Turgeman said he used the Christopher Street station
until trains started skipping that stop because of
the crowds.
"If there was a little panic in there, people
would die," he said.
Others, like Brian Drennan, a former Jersey City
resident who now lives in Queens but works in a
record store on Christopher, seem to have more mixed
feelings. "I can sympathize," said Drennan,
who used to take the PATH from Journal Square in
Jersey City to Christopher Street every day.
"They need another entrance, but maybe along
the (Hudson River) where there aren't a lot of
businesses." The store where he works depends
on a steady flow of pedestrians and Drennan said
turning part of the street into a construction site
would probably cut down on the street's foot
traffic. "I just hope they can do it without
putting us out of business," he said.
June 14, 2002 |
