The state must install an elevator in the Sheepshead Bay subway station to make it easier for aging or disabled straphangers to get where they need to go, members of Community Board 15 are demanding.
“There are a lot of senior citizens who try to access the B and Q at Sheepshead Bay Road and it’s near to impossible for them to climb those steps,” said chairwoman Theresa Scavo.
Board members requested the lift as part of the city’s 2018 budget, but the Metropolitan Transportation Authority “chose not to respond,” said Scavo, who is now inviting the state agency to come to the neighborhood and see how dire the need is.
“I think we deserve at least a response,” she said. “I will make an invite to the MTA and let’s see who comes.”
And the elevator is such a necessity in the large elderly community — about 25,000 seniors live in the district — that local pols are willing to chip in for the cost, said Assemblyman Steve Cymbrowitz (D–Sheepshead Bay) who plans to fund $1.3 million toward the project from his office’s budget.
“Look on a map. We’re a no-man’s land as far as subway accessibility is concerned, and this is unacceptable,” said Cymbrowitz. “I understand that $1.3 million may be just a fraction of what it will cost, but I’m demanding that the MTA turn its attention to the district that needs these accessibility projects the most.”
Councilman Chaim Deutsch (D–Sheepshead Bay) said he would chip in, too, but did not say how much of the likely $10–$15-million construction tab he’d pick up.
The nearest handicap-accessible stations are at Kings Highway and Stillwell Avenue, but locals shouldn’t have to hop on a bus just to be able to ride the subway, said one Community Board 15 member and Sheepshead Bay resident, who is also a member of handicap-accessibility advocacy group the 504 Dems.
“I have disabilities, they may be hidden but there’s some days I have no energy to walk up steps, and I would have to go to Kings Highway. Thank God we have one at Kings Highway,” said Debbie Greif. “Right where the Sheepshead Bay train station is is so many seniors and people with disabilities that having a second station with an elevator would be a major help.”
