By Mary MacElveen
January 26, 2010
Have you ever read a newspaper article that left you tearing your hair out, banging your head as you read it and screaming into the atmosphere? Well, last week, one article left me doing just that. It did not deal with larger national and international issues, but a local issue that I have been screaming about for such a long time and that issue is mass transportation. Seriously, I do not know how many key-strokes I have hit in support of better mass transportation here in Suffolk County, NY. My fingers ache at this time.
After reading: Architect urges Long Island build 'walkable places' which was published in last week’s Newsday, all I wanted to do was scream into the atmosphere.
At this point due to the recession and yes foreclosures: Who is fiscally safe to purchase a newly built home, even with the amenities of mass transportation? Given our high tax bracket, high utility rates, high property taxes and such: Who can afford to purchase one of these newly proposed homes? The answer is NO ONE! Within my own community, I have seen home-after-home fall to foreclosure and this architect proposes building more? I am still scratching my head at that notion and idea.
As reported by Newsday in this article: “Nancy Douzinas, president of the Rauch Foundation, which publishes the index. To stimulate ideas, she announced a design contest, "Build a Better Burb," that will offer prizes to professionals, the public and children. The grand prize will be $10,000. Details are to come in March.” Huh? Seriously, I do not understand this prize giveaway. Oh wait! Get children involved who do not understand the complexities of our current real estate market. Give them some crayons and paper and wish them the best. This is the best they can do?
Back in the fifties, many suburbs were created, but what was left out was how to connect each with the other. Yes, we built roadways so that people could drive from one to another. Feel free to Google Robert Moses. But we were short sighted and did not foresee the future where mass transportation would be key within the suburbs. Even now, mass transportation is on the cutting block due to the deficit being felt by each New Yorker. To build new communities and to enhance them with mass transportation is backwards thinking. In my not so humble opinion, enhance mass transportation first.
Due to budget cuts coming from Albany, the LIRR (Long Island Rail Road) will suspend transportation between Ronkonkoma and Greenport during the winter months and bring it back online during the summer season. Last Friday: Newsday’s front cover screamed out: “LI’s unemployment rate up again, to 7%” and these bozos want to build new communities? With what money? If 7% are not working, just how can they afford to purchase these new high-density communties?
There are many ‘walkable communities’ already in existence, but without a way of getting people from point A to point B who do not own a car here in Suffolk County and I have been screaming about that for years-upon-years. You see, due a medical condition, I do not drive and must rely on a pathetic mass transportation system here in Suffolk County. Our existing mass transportation system does not operate at night or on Sundays where people do work and shop. We who are at the mercy of this pathetic mass transportation system must take cabs which cost an arm and a leg. If you wish to take a cab from Sound Beach, NY where I live to Miller Place, NY where I work it will cost you $8 bucks as opposed to a bus that costs you a buck fifty each way.
In reading: "Tahchieva said "retrofitting or repairing" suburban sprawl involved "enhancing and revitalizing downtowns." It means making areas that once catered to cars pedestrian friendly: adding sidewalks, landscaping and transforming dangerous intersections, for example, into a town square." Many communities have sidewalks on busy thoroughfares such as Miller Place and Rocky Point, NY. No, they do not need landscaping. What they need are buses in order to get to those communities in order to shop and work. The dangerous intersections are mainly attributed to automobile accidents and not buses. In fact, I work near the intersection of Miller Place road and Route 25A in Miller Place, NY and I can tell you MOST accidents are due to automobile collisions and not buses.
When Tachieva stated: "So much depends on design. You can achieve very high densities with buildings that don't look scary." I feel this is putting the cart before the horse. We first need mass transportation instead of entire communities being built which at this time do not have the fiscal dollars to support them.
Those who are proponents of these high density communities must ask themselves: If we build them, will they come?
Author’s email address is, xmjmac@optonline.net
This is copyrighted material: Should you wish to use any portion of it, please email the author for permission.
Showing posts with label Mass Transportation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mass Transportation. Show all posts
Monday, January 25, 2010
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Email sent to Suffolk Cty., NY politicians regarding mass transportation
To My Elected Officials, October 22, 2009
At the bottom of this email to all of you, I will name all of you whom I elected to serve the people. I fully believe that transportation within Suffolk County, NY is key to getting people where they need to go. I am not speaking of cars or other forms of personal transportation, but mass transportation. First due to the economy, many cannot afford to own a vehicle, fill its tanks and pay for the insurance. How are they supposed to get from point A to point B? By bus? I invite all of you to look over the Suffolk County bus schedule and see if there are buses for you to take to your work or those who work for you.
As you will see, NO buses run on Sundays or after dark and people do work on Sundays and after 6 PM throughout the week. So, how are they supposed to get to and from work or shopping for that matter? This is where I wish that politicians would place themselves in our shoes for at least a week to see the burdens we face.
I can attest to the fact that being an epileptic who does not drive for medical reasons, being without personal transportation is akin to being a prisoner in one’s home. I am at the mercy of cabs for the most part and let me tell you as a cashier at Stop and Shop who makes $7.50 per hour the fare to my job costs $8 dollars per fare. Thankfully there is a bus that I can take, but it is not frequent enough and only costs me $1.50 to get there. However, it does take me ten-to-fifteen minutes to walk to my bus-stop and after being on my feet for hours, walking is the last thing I want to do.
If I am scheduled to work on a Sunday or at nights, I am out of luck and I am then at the mercy of Lindy’s Cab Company. How would you like a life like that? I have had friends and family say to me: “Call me if you need a ride” and while I am grateful, it is NOT their responsibility to get me to and from work. It is mine.
Do you finally get it now of the hardships we who do not drive for medical or economic reasons face? This is our world and welcome to it.
As a former political activist who routinely receives emails asking exorbitant amounts of moneys to donate to this campaign or that, it sickens me when I have to plead to all of you to help me get from point A to point B by bus. At times, I feel as if no one is listening to my pleas by only wish money sent to all of you in order to help you get elected or re-elected. Well my wallet is closed shut!
All I am asking or rather pleading for all of you to do is to help me and others like me get to work or shopping and liberate us from our prisons when we have no way of getting to where we want to go. That is what we elected all of you to do. It is time you serve we the people and not the other way around!
Sincerely,
Mary MacElveen
Email sent to:
Congressman, Tim Bishop
County Executive, Steve Levy
County Legislator, Dan Lasquadro
Councilwoman, Jane Bonner
Assemblyman, Marc Alessi
State Senator, Ken LaValle
At the bottom of this email to all of you, I will name all of you whom I elected to serve the people. I fully believe that transportation within Suffolk County, NY is key to getting people where they need to go. I am not speaking of cars or other forms of personal transportation, but mass transportation. First due to the economy, many cannot afford to own a vehicle, fill its tanks and pay for the insurance. How are they supposed to get from point A to point B? By bus? I invite all of you to look over the Suffolk County bus schedule and see if there are buses for you to take to your work or those who work for you.
As you will see, NO buses run on Sundays or after dark and people do work on Sundays and after 6 PM throughout the week. So, how are they supposed to get to and from work or shopping for that matter? This is where I wish that politicians would place themselves in our shoes for at least a week to see the burdens we face.
I can attest to the fact that being an epileptic who does not drive for medical reasons, being without personal transportation is akin to being a prisoner in one’s home. I am at the mercy of cabs for the most part and let me tell you as a cashier at Stop and Shop who makes $7.50 per hour the fare to my job costs $8 dollars per fare. Thankfully there is a bus that I can take, but it is not frequent enough and only costs me $1.50 to get there. However, it does take me ten-to-fifteen minutes to walk to my bus-stop and after being on my feet for hours, walking is the last thing I want to do.
If I am scheduled to work on a Sunday or at nights, I am out of luck and I am then at the mercy of Lindy’s Cab Company. How would you like a life like that? I have had friends and family say to me: “Call me if you need a ride” and while I am grateful, it is NOT their responsibility to get me to and from work. It is mine.
Do you finally get it now of the hardships we who do not drive for medical or economic reasons face? This is our world and welcome to it.
As a former political activist who routinely receives emails asking exorbitant amounts of moneys to donate to this campaign or that, it sickens me when I have to plead to all of you to help me get from point A to point B by bus. At times, I feel as if no one is listening to my pleas by only wish money sent to all of you in order to help you get elected or re-elected. Well my wallet is closed shut!
All I am asking or rather pleading for all of you to do is to help me and others like me get to work or shopping and liberate us from our prisons when we have no way of getting to where we want to go. That is what we elected all of you to do. It is time you serve we the people and not the other way around!
Sincerely,
Mary MacElveen
Email sent to:
Congressman, Tim Bishop
County Executive, Steve Levy
County Legislator, Dan Lasquadro
Councilwoman, Jane Bonner
Assemblyman, Marc Alessi
State Senator, Ken LaValle
Monday, July 13, 2009
My letter to Newsday citing Suffolk County's pathetic bus system
July 13, 2009
Dear Editor,
As I read your article, LI Bus rolls out fleet of 100 greener vehicles, I seethed in anger being a resident of Suffolk County, NY. While Nassau County will get this new fleet of buses, the bus system in Suffolk County is one of the most pathetic bus systems going. While money was doled out for these buses, very little has been done to solve our transportation problem here in Suffolk County. If you are not a driver for any number of reasons, try getting from point A to point B. You can’t with a bus system where one has to wait and wait for a bus.
Our buses do not even run on Sundays, and don’t people shop and work on that day? If one cannot afford a car due to this abysmal economy, those living in Suffolk are at the mercy of cabs whose rates are through the roof as opposed to the $1.50 fare. I have spoken out of this over a number of years, yet NOTHING has been done. Over the years, I have read of road expansion projects being approved, yet no funds allocated for improving our bus system? If one can call it a bus system. So, I am at the mercy of cabs. Not being able to go where you want is akin to being a prisoner in one’s own home or apartment.
To those politicos who have the power of the purse, here is an experiment to try. Pretend you do not drive or have a car, and figure out how in the world you are going to get to work, shopping, a doctor’s appointment for one day. This has been my life living here in Suffolk County since 1991. While I love where I live, life was easier for me when I lived in Nassau County. At least I could go to any corner, board a bus that could take me where I wanted to go, and even on Sundays. While I have used myself as an example, I am speaking out for the countless citizens who deserve a first-rate bus system like Nassau County’s.
Sincerely,
Mary MacElveen
Dear Editor,
As I read your article, LI Bus rolls out fleet of 100 greener vehicles, I seethed in anger being a resident of Suffolk County, NY. While Nassau County will get this new fleet of buses, the bus system in Suffolk County is one of the most pathetic bus systems going. While money was doled out for these buses, very little has been done to solve our transportation problem here in Suffolk County. If you are not a driver for any number of reasons, try getting from point A to point B. You can’t with a bus system where one has to wait and wait for a bus.
Our buses do not even run on Sundays, and don’t people shop and work on that day? If one cannot afford a car due to this abysmal economy, those living in Suffolk are at the mercy of cabs whose rates are through the roof as opposed to the $1.50 fare. I have spoken out of this over a number of years, yet NOTHING has been done. Over the years, I have read of road expansion projects being approved, yet no funds allocated for improving our bus system? If one can call it a bus system. So, I am at the mercy of cabs. Not being able to go where you want is akin to being a prisoner in one’s own home or apartment.
To those politicos who have the power of the purse, here is an experiment to try. Pretend you do not drive or have a car, and figure out how in the world you are going to get to work, shopping, a doctor’s appointment for one day. This has been my life living here in Suffolk County since 1991. While I love where I live, life was easier for me when I lived in Nassau County. At least I could go to any corner, board a bus that could take me where I wanted to go, and even on Sundays. While I have used myself as an example, I am speaking out for the countless citizens who deserve a first-rate bus system like Nassau County’s.
Sincerely,
Mary MacElveen
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