MTA Chair and CEO Janno Lieber emerges from one of the new elevators. MTA photo by Marc Hermann
WILLIAMSBURG — The installation of six elevators at the Metropolitan Avenue subway station on the G line and the Lorimer Street station on the L line — which are linked together via a free transfer — is a milestone not only for the North Brooklyn community, but for the MTA’s program of making its subway stations ADA-accessible as rapidly as possible.
The opening of the elevators at Metropolitan Avenue/Lorimer Street this week brings the number of ADA-compliant subway stations in the system up to 151, according to MTA Chair and CEO Janno Lieber, a Brooklyn resident.
In Brooklyn, 11 other subway stations have been made accessible since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the MTA. These serve a wide variety of neighborhoods, from Bay Ridge to Crown Heights to Flatbush to Williamsburg to Canarsie.
“Four years ago, if I wanted to go to Williamsburg and enjoy McCarren Park and seeing live music, I couldn’t take the subway here,” said MTA Chief Accessibility Officer Quemuel Arroyo, who uses a wheelchair himself. “This is no longer the case. First Bedford Avenue (on the L line), the Greenpoint Avenue (on the G line), and then Grand Street (on the L line), just last summer, have been made accessible.”
Arroyo stressed that ADA accessibility is not only for the disabled community — elevators can also help people carrying packages, families with strollers, and the elderly who may have trouble walking up stairs.
Members of the local North Williamsburg community were also well represented at the ceremony on Monday. Among them were Dan Wiley, representing U.S. Rep. Nydia Velazaquez; Simon Weiser, first vice chair of Community Board 1; Johanna Pulgarin, district manager for CB1; and Luis…
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