by Emma Davey I’m privileged enough to live and work in Greenpoint. That means I’m here 24/7 for most of the week.
And on the weekends, I like to take that opportunity to explore that collection of five boroughs that we call New York City. This was the fourth weekend in a row where my plans took me further south in Brooklyn. Coincidentally, for the fourth weekend in a row, the MTA suspended G train service from Court…
8
Free to read, funded by readers. Join as a member and get a free gift.
Greenpointers has covered Greenpoint & Williamsburg since 2007 — community boards, rezoning fights, local businesses, and the people whose lives and work give the neighborhood its character. Local news is collapsing across the country, but we're still here: independently owned, no corporate backing, no paywall. 18+ years, 280k+ monthly readers and followers, funded by the community we serve.
Why your support matters
After the weekend outage we were treated to complete suspension during rush hour this morning. The outer boroughs are clearly an afterthought for the MTA.
On the one hand, Greenpoint residents have to contend with being reliant on the least reliable train in New York City. On the other, it’s the only neighborhood in NYC with a 3-mile walking audio ghost story starting at the Pulaski Bridge…
Hear hear!
Now could we just get a full-length train. Anything to compensate for this mess.
You didn’t mention the current totally inadequate shuttle service. I was lucky enough to get jammed onto a bus at court square (the only one waiting there) and people at the next stop could not board because the bus was too full. At least during that first summer shutdown they made an attempt to sece passengers with a shuttle. Guess they ran out of f’s. So glad congestion pricing made the subway so much better as promised.
Thank you for this. I had to get to Park Slope for the No Kings March on Saturday and then, later, to Ft. Greene for a birthday. What would normally have been two reasonably easy trips on the G from Greenpoint became a lengthy shuttle-to-train schlep and, for the birthday, an expensive car trip. It’s not right to have to keep throwing chunks of time and/or chunks of money at the MTA’s problem.
On Monday at 8:15am it took me one hour to get from Nassau Ave to the Court Square subways via shuttle bus because there were no shuttle busses available. Probably 8 ‘out of service’ bus lines passed the Nassau avenue stop. I eventually took a packed B62, which was running extremely late. There were throngs of waiting commuters who could not board due to the bus being full. Ultimately my commute to the upper east side took 1h 45 min.
The G shuttle bus has been the most reliable of any actual bus I’ve ever had to take in NYC in more than 2 decades. I consistently take it on weekends at varying times of day. I would prefer the actual train to run after a summer of no service, but the shuttle bus is still solid. The shuttle bus is definitely better than neglected bus lines outside Greenpoint.
If the current city leadership wasn’t so anti-car, you’d be able to own your own car and go wherever you want 24/7. These socialists love to hate on cars closing streets, putting citibikes everywhere, movie and TV shoots, sidewalk dining but they love the money they can squeeze out ofndrivers from congestion pricing, tickets, etc.