Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Subway Escalator Update - Is Pointing Out the Number of Roosevelt Island Escalators an Aspersion on RIOC and/or MTA?

Image of escalator replacements by Kevin Smith

RIOC President Steve Shane responds below to this earlier post concerning the escalator replacement at the Roosevelt Island subway station that pointed out only 8 of 10 escalators were being replaced. Mr. Shane forwards the message below from MTA's Alissa Kosowsky, Assistant Director of Government & Community Relations, explaining why only 8 of the 10 Roosevelt Island subway escalators are being replaced. He also takes umbrage at his perceived tone of the post which he believed cast certain aspersions. Decide for yourself.

From Mr. Shane:
Further response to both of your aspersions about 10 escalators vs 8
under repair.

"The easy answer is that those two escalators are newer than the
others and do not need replacement. I am working on getting you their exact
age.
Alissa"
My response:
Thank you for the additional material regarding the two escalators not being repaired. I will certainly update post to reflect information.

However, your characterization of my post as casting "aspersions" is troubling to me because that is never my intention nor do I think the post can be reasonably read to be an "aspersion" which is defined by Merrriam-Webster as " a false or misleading charge meant to harm someone's reputation ". My observation was a reasonable inquiry as to why MTA is only replacing 8 of 10 escalators, particularly when not too long ago all ten elevators were out of service.

Do you really think that anything in the post was false, misleading or meant to harm someone's reputation? If so, specifically what?

Also, FYI - The Up escalator from the lower mezzanine to mid-level mezzanine was not working at approximately 3:20 this afternoon.
Back to Shane:
If I'm too sensitive to your nuance so that I read into your post the underlying message of don't those dopes even realize that there are 10 escalators, not 8, then I apologize. I intended the use of "casting aspersions", as written, in the context.
Accepted.

UPDATE: I forgot to mention that on the same day as this exchange, I was admonished during Community Planning Board 8 Park's committee meeting for being rude. I guess my mother never taught me manners.

1 comments :

Anonymous said...

According to the MTA website, 4 escalators are out of service... I assume they are referring to the ones that never seem to be working even though they should, as opposed to the ones that are actually being repaired.

Every day I leave and return to the Island, at least one set of escalators is out of order. And often, the elevator is out of commission as well. Is there any reason for this? I guess by that, I mean... Is there anything us Islanders can do?

Shouldn't the elevators be REQUIRED to work, given that RI has many disabled residents who may be stranded if the elevator isn't functional?

It becomes very frustrating watching the construction workers ogle and harass ladies while they stand around on the platforms, seeming to not work on the escalators being repaired OR the ones we're supposed to be using while the others are being fixed.