They are the stations where paint isn’t enough.
While the peeling and flaking 77th Street R train station is about to get a new paint job, The Brooklyn Paper has learned that Bay Ridge’s other grimy stations may not get one because they suffer from such serious infrastructure problems that a paint job would offer only an inconsequential uplift.
The MTA says it’s including 77th Street in a $52-million project that will put a fresh coat of paint on stairways, platforms and mezzanines throughout the city — but the gritty Bay Ridge Avenue, 86th Street and 95th Street stations will not be included in the job.
In choosing which stations to repaint, the MTA did not consider stops that suffered from larger problems — like water leaks, transit spokeswoman Deidre Parker said.
“It depends on when they were last painted, or if they were rehabbed recently,” she said. “If they need other extensive work, they’re not going to paint over existing problems.”
Parker “did not have information” about why other Bay Ridge stations were not included in the repainting.
An visit by a Brooklyn Paper photographer exposed the chipping ceilings and grimy walls at the Bay Ridge Avenue station, peeling tiles and rampant rust at the 86th Street stop, and the general shabbiness at the 95th Street station.
The MTA is in the process of planning repair work for the beleaguered 86th Street Station with money that’s already been allotted, but there isn’t enough money available to fund a total renovation, Parker said.
The MTA wouldn’t say when or if there are plans to repair the Bay Ridge Avenue station or the 95th Street stop.
The news that the 77th Street stop will be repainted comes just two months after the MTA scratched longstanding plans to renovate the decaying Smith and Ninth Street F- and G-train station, the decrepit Fourth Avenue and Ninth Street F- and R-train station, 10 dingy stops along the D line between the Ninth Avenue and Bay 50th Street, and four shabby stations along the N line between the Eighth Avenue and 18th Avenue.
Councilman Vince Gentile (D–Bay Ridge) is disappointed that the MTA is focusing on aesthetics at the 77th Street station instead of fixing the “rancid” 86th Street station, or improving the shoddy R train service throughout Bay Ridge.
“We won’t refuse a little paint on the walls to make it look nicer, but it kind of feels like the community is getting the brush off,” said Gentile spokeswoman Dena Libner. “The R train is basically a joke. It’s unreliable, it runs as a shuttle at night — there are other issues more important than peeling paint.”
