Wealthy Property-Owners Use Frivolous Lawsuit to Halt Critical Improvements to Public Transportation

TransAlt Says Streets Are Public Spaces That Should Serve Public Need, Not a Wealthy Few

Today a judge ordered the City of New York to halt plans for a busway on 14th Street in response to a lawsuit from a group of residents who live near the planned route.

Tens of thousands of New Yorkers desperate for relief along the failing bus line will be left in the lurch because of this frivolous lawsuit from a small group of very wealthy New Yorkers. This sort of small-minded and self-interested behavior -- prioritizing private car use for the most privileged New Yorkers over the basic needs of the city -- has degraded the public transit system to the sorry state it is in today.

This lawsuit will cost the City and the MTA both time and money, neither of which New York has to waste. More importantly, it will prevent concrete improvements to the lives of tens of thousands of working New Yorkers from coming to fruition. We are in a transit crisis and a climate crisis, neither of which New York City will be able to make meaningful progress to endure as long as rich 1%-ers sue at the slightest inconvenience. 

That this small group of West Village residents and their lawyers have used every dirty trick in the book to delay and forestall needed improvements is shameful. That they also hide behind progressive values, calling idly for the advancement of mass transit while doing everything in their power to stop its progress, is worthy of absolute derision.

New Yorkers are no longer going to accept this old way of doing things. We are going to fight to ensure that the best interests of New York’s huge majority of working commuters are no longer held hostage to the whims of the hyper-empowered few. Stay tuned.