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January 23 - February 5, 2013
South Ferry is years away from reopening Continued from page 1
100-year storm could come next week. And he said, ‘No no no, it won’t come for 100 years.’ I said, ‘Why don’t you build some steps where the people come in?’ He said, ‘We can’t do that. People don’t like walking up and down.’” Bowman went on to say that because of climate change, “the ground under our feet is shifting” and that 100-year-storm benchmark needs to be modified. “We’re playing Russian roulette as a city,” he said. The $600 million repair estimate exceeds the $545 million spent to expand and reno-
vate the station only four years ago. “We prepared as best we could,” said Ortiz. “The station was designed to withstand some flooding in Lower Manhattan but not a 14-foot storm surge, which we encountered during Hurricane Sandy.” On Oct. 29, 2012, an estimated 14 million gallons of water surged into the South Ferry station, flooding it from 80 feet below ground to the mezzanine. Now the M.T.A. is looking at $350 million for physical repairs; $200 million for signal replacement; $30 million for third-rail equipment and $20 million for line equipment. Ortiz said that the M.T.A. would not “tie Sandy-related costs to any potential fare increases” should the federal government not come through with sufficient funds to fix the damage. However, he said that even if the M.T.A. gets everything that “we’re supposed to get from the feds, there still will be money that we will have to cover.” He said that Sandy-related costs would oblige the M.T.A. to incur an additional $900 million in debt service. This money would be used not just to repair the South Ferry station but for repairs throughout the M.T.A. system. The No. 1 IRT train formerly terminated at South Ferry. In 2009, the station expansion was financed primarily with federal money earmarked for the rehabili-
Photos by Metropolitan Transportation Authority
Wynton Habersham, chief electrical officer for the M.T.A.’s New York City Transit’s subway system, offered a look at the South Ferry station Jan. 17.
tation of Lower Manhattan after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. At the time, Community Board 1 and the Downtown Alliance opposed the renovation because they felt that that there were other transportation investments that could have ben-
efited Lower Manhattan more. Ortiz said that it was possible that the South Ferry station might be able to offer modified service even before being fully restored, but it is too early to know that for sure.
Downtown questions for Verizon Continued from page 9
ers. Windram replied that they were talking to those building owners, and that the plan to get service restored as quickly as possible meant that they were simply trying to plan ahead, not giving priority to anyone. Levendos noted that residential services will take “a little more time” but alternative wireless services will be offered until they can get the fiber optics connected or copper repaired. These free wireless alternatives include call forwarding, cell service and wireless broadband and are free of charge until the buildings are deemed to be back on the network. But being back on the network in Verizon’s book does not necessarily mean that service has been restored to a customer. Independence Plaza North resident Donald Jenner’s building, 310 Greenwich, is officially listed as “service restored” but he and several of his neighbors still do not have phone service. The reason is simple: he does not want fiber optic cables to replace the copper wires currently installed in his apartment. “Customers are being told in
Independence Plaza, if you want telephone service, point blank, you must have FIOS,” he said. Jenner gets his Internet from EarthLink, which has an agreement with Verizon to use the copper wire network to resell internet service. In fact, Verizon must share the copper wire infrastructure with other companies to deliver phone and internet service. They do not have to share access to their fiber optic network. “That’s my biggest problem with Verizon. If they replace the copper, [my internet service] goes away instantly,” he said. In the meantime, he said he was being charged for service because he refused to have them complete the switch-over. “I paid the bill in November thinking it was for October, but it was actually for November — when I did not have service,” Jenner said. But he was told that, “We consider this building to be restored, because FIOS is available” in his building, though not his apartment. He plans to dispute that claim in civil court in the coming weeks. The advertisements going out to customers in areas equipped with fiber optics, said Jenner, is for a FIOS bundle, which means a phone line, Internet and
a cable television connection for about $75-90 per month for the first year. Which is not a bad deal considering the costs of each line on its own. Jenner said he pays about $65 at the moment for two phone numbers, one of which is long distance. But that amount is regulated by the Public Services Commission, whose mandated rates Levendos claimed will not change for “plain old telephone service.” A Verizon spokesperson later qualified that assertion, saying rates will be “very similar” to existing prices for phone and internet. There are no such guarantees for Verizon’s FIOS bundles — after a year, the rates may get significantly higher. It’s a public policy issue that has made Assemblymember Deborah Glick cautious, according to a letter sent out to her constituents in December. The letter detailed a lot of questions, but one of the more pointed ones concerns the “monopolistic aspects” of Verizon’s stated goal to put FIOS into every block and every home in New York City. “It is my understanding that the phone companies are not required to lease space on its fiber optic network to competitors. Therefore, by removing copper lines it will be impossible for customers in those
areas to have any choice about their phone service. This is a damaging change that creates a monopoly without public review,” Glick wrote. While Verizon had mobile units and tents set up immediately following Hurricane Sandy, grassroots outreach has since died down, something that Verizon has since committed to addressing. But perhaps the most agreed-upon criticism of the communication firm was also the most ironic. At both the City Council and Community Board level, Verizon was asked to keep people better informed about the changes taking place in their neighborhoods. Community Board 1 suggested that Verizon set up booths in large housing complexes to make information more available to the average customer. “There are these conspiracy theories going around. I think a lot of it happens to be the fact that people are calling up Verizon or calling up their officials, people that might not be as well versed as you,” Adam Malitz said at the C.B. 1 meeting. “If they had you there to answer their questions, they won’t go, ‘Well this is Verizon trying to screw me over.’”