Skip to Content
Streetsblog New York City home
Streetsblog New York City home
Log In
Brooklyn

Pricing Foe Hakeem Jeffries Demands G Train Service Increase

30_04hakeemjeffries_i.jpgHow cynical is this? Brooklyn Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries is calling on the MTA to increase service on the G train. His office just sent out an invitation to a "Save the G Train" rally on Wednesday, May 21 at 6:30 pm at the Lafayette Avenue Presbyterian Church in Fort Greene.

Hakeem Jeffries was, of course, in the perfect position to negotiate G train service enhancements during the congestion pricing debate a couple of months back. Instead, the Assemblyman who oversees Flatbush Avenue, the traffic-choked on-ramp to the free Manhattan Bridge, aligned himself with legislators from Westchester, south Brooklyn and eastern Queens against congestion pricing:

Speaking on behalf of a district where 70 percent of households do not own a car, where only 2.2 percent of daily commuters drive alone to work in the pricing zone, where the households that do own a vehicle earn nearly twice as much as the ones that don't, Jeffries said that he opposes congestion pricing because, among other reasons, "it's unfair to working families."

Thanks, in part, to Jeffries and his State Assembly colleagues' refusal to hold a debate or take a vote on New York City's congestion pricing plan, the MTA is staring at a $17.5 billion deficit in its $29 billion capital plan and service increases are about as unlikely as ever. "Save the G" advocates need to hold Jeffries accountable.

Here, by the way, are some of the other improvements that working families (and everyone else) in Jeffries' district lost when he and his colleagues shot down congestion pricing:

    • Flatbush Avenue's B41 was number one on the list of bus routes that would have seen increased service using the $354.5 million federal grant.
    • Brooklyn's first-ever Bus Rapid Transit route, one of five routes citywide, was (and still is) slated to run through Jeffries' district, along Bedford and Nostrand Avenues. That project would have been paid for by congestion pricing money too.
    • The Department of Transportation was looking at parts of Jeffries' district for a possible residential parking permit program to help protect neighborhoods from park-and-ride commuters.

Stay in touch

Sign up for our free newsletter

More from Streetsblog New York City

Thursday’s Headlines: Tisch Comes Clean Edition

NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch finally commented on her department's crackdown on cyclists. Plus more news.

May 15, 2025

Tisch Rap: NYPD Criminal E-bike Summonses Surge 4,000 Percent

The NYPD wrote twice as many criminal court summonses to e-bike riders in two weeks than it wrote all of last year — an astronomical increase that is a remnant of a repudiated racially biased police practice.

May 15, 2025

Quiet Desperation: NYPD’s Tisch Didn’t Tell DOT About Her Crackdown on Cycling

The NYPD commissioner did not inform her counterpart at the Department of Transportation that police would begin issuing criminal summonses to cyclists.

May 15, 2025

Not the Same Ol’ MTA: Cost of Upgrading Subway Signals is Cut in Half

A new design-build strategy, plus removing old signals fully, is credited for cutting costs in half. Take that, Sean Duffy.

May 15, 2025

Lander, Labor Activists Slam Cuomo After ‘Goliath’ DoorDash Gives $1M

The donation from the the app company is seen as a way of influencing a possible future mayor to side with the tech giant.

May 14, 2025
See all posts