Makeshift bed inside the NYC Subway
Photo: Andrés Correa Guatarasma / Courtesy
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Although the official version about the disappearance of sidewalks to sit – or sleep – in New York Subway stations points to cleanliness reasons, the evidence suggests that it is a strategy to reduce homelessness, linked to violence on the rise in public transport.
Yesterday, City Council Leader Corey Johnson asked MTA President Pat Foye at a hearing if the seats had been removed to “prevent the homeless from sleeping in them.” “The short answer to that question is no, that’s not why the banks were removed,” Foye said.
MTA (NYC Transit) Acting President of Transit Sarah Feinberg added that the benches were simply temporarily removed for cleaning and returned this week. But then he admitted that the MTA has removed them in the past as a “last resort” to solve “camping problems”.
“After a thorough cleaning and disinfection due to an unsanitary condition, New York City Transit is replacing the benches at the 23rd Street / 6th Avenue station,” spokesman Tim Minton had previously said.
The MTA did not elaborate on the nature of the “unsanitary condition.” But when the disappearance was first noticed on Friday, the explanation was another: “The benches were removed from the stations to prevent the homeless from sleeping on them”, the MTA originally tweeted in response to a passenger who asked wryly about the missing sidewalks.
That explanation quickly racked up negative responses and the post was eventually removed, acknowledged spokeswoman Abbey Collins, who later went on to mention the MTA’s efforts to help the homeless in the system.“The Metro is not a substitute for a shelter and homeless New Yorkers deserve much better care,” commented. “We have been working with the city on this important issue and have asked more medical and mental health resources Dedicated employees urgently needed to solve the homeless crisis that has been exacerbated by the pandemic”.
A similar tactic was also employed last year, removing the backs from the benches at Manhattan’s West 4th Street Station to discourage sleep, he said. New York Post.
Violence and The city’s “mental health crises” are wreaking havoc on the transportation system, Feinberg denounced in January, in a new letter sent to Mayor Bill de Blasio.
From May 6, The New York Subway closes every night from 1 to 5 a.m. for a deep cleaning and an attempt to evict the homeless that, in many cases, move to the streets, to later return to wandering in stations, wagons and / or buses.
How do you square this? Foye explicitly answered that the benches were not removed to prevent homeless people from sleeping on them, but Feinberg later confirmed the MTA has removed benches in the past as a “last resort” to fix “encampment issues.”https://t.co/eEgtFYwqje
— David J. Meyer ???? (@dahvnyc) February 10, 2021
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