Manhattan Borough President supports Second Ave. subway.

Manhattan Borough President C. Virginia Fields was the featured speaker at the October 27th membership meeting of the New York Association of Realty Managers (NYARM).

Well over 100 professionals, members and non-members alike, gathered at the legendary Frank's steakhouse to hear Fields, who began by remembering her last visit to a NYARM meeting during her successful campaign to become Manhattan Borough President. She thanked NYARM and those individuals who helped make her election possible, and then shared her thoughts about pressing issues on the island.

Foremost among them, she said, was the Second Avenue subway line - a project long-awaited, desperately needed and yet completely stalled. A full-length Second Avenue subway, which would stretch from 125th Street to the Battery, is absolutely vital to New York's future, she argued.

"No city in the United States relies so completely on good public transportation as New York City," Fields pointed out. "Manhattan remains the economic engine of the New York metropolitan region. Each day, more than 3.3 million people enter Manhattan's Midtown and Wall Street business districts, and good public transportation is the only way this phenomenal daily crush of people can move about on a 24-square-mile, 24-hour a day island."

Fortunately, she added, the economic engine of Manhattan is expected to keep humming, generating some 400,000 new jobs in the process over the next two decades. These new jobs are essential to all five boroughs, but this growth will be strangled unless the transit system is expanded, especially on Manhattan's East Side, in East Midtown and in Lower Manhattan, she said.

Subway riders from all the boroughs would benefit from a full-length Second Avenue line, she said, because pressure would be taken off the overcrowded Lexington Avenue trains, while helping to accommodate the thousands of Long Island Railroad commuters who will begin arriving at Grand Central when the LIRR East Side connection project is completed in a few years.

Of course, the subway line would also redress a long-lasting injustice to the tens of thousands of East Side residents of neighborhoods zoned for high-rise development 40 to 50 years ago. The expectation then was that area residents would be served by a Second Avenue subway, she said. But that expectation has never been met.

According to Fields, the MTA Board recently approved a disappointing and inadequate partial Second Avenue line that would begin at 125th Street, make its last southbound stop at Second Avenue and 72nd Street, and then turn west and run on unused westbound "N" and "R" tracks at 63rd Street. "This 'stubway,' as I call it, will not do the job: it will not connect to Grand Central, it will not reach the Lower East Side, and will not relieve overcrowding on the Lexington Avenue line," she argued.

Yes, the project will be expensive, she said. But it will be more expensive in the long run to do nothing at all. The MTA plan still must be approved by a four-member committee representing the Mayor, the Governor, the Speaker of the Assembly and the Majority Leader of the State Senate.

With interest rates at historic lows, MTA ridership at all-time highs, and strong support throughout the region, "the time may never be better for achieving the critical mass of political and financial support needed to make the Second Avenue subway a reality," Fields said, encouraging everyone to phone or fax their support to the Mayor, the Governor and other legislative leaders.

Founded 41 years ago, the New York Association of Realty Managers is a leading organization dedicated to the advancement of the property management profession. NYARM offers a certification program, special events and seminars, monthly meetings, a monthly newspaper, social functions and a host of other membership benefits.