From L to R: Jose Sanchez, Dr. John Palmer, MTA CEO Elliot "Lee" Sander, Assembl. Keith Wright, State Sen. Bill Perkins.
Photo courtesy of NYC Transit.
The idea was raised more than a decade ago and on Thursday elevators it happened: elevators were opened the 2/3 station just outside outside of Harlem Hospital at 135th Street and Lenox Avenue.
“It is always critical for us to pay attention to our mobility impaired customers,” MTA CEO Elliot "Lee" Sander said. The two elevators, one of the uptown and one on the downtown side of the station were funded with $18 million from the Federal Transit Administration.
More interesting, perhaps, than the ribbon-cutting, was the MTA’s clear need for friends in Albany during the event, which was attended by Assemblyman Keith Wright and State Sen. Bill Perkins of Harlem.
Sander took the opportunity to address the agency’s need for help and funding from Albany, before Wright took the podium.
“As Lee said, I am on the capital budget program review committee and that means the MTA wants me for my money,” Wright said to laughter.
He quickly made it clear that you can't get money for nothing. “The point is to make sure that the MTA is responsible when they set out these billions of dollars in contracts, to make sure the folks from the indigenous communities in which they’re working will benefit, will work on the job, and make money from these jobs," Wright said to applause. “That’s one thing that Lee Sander and I have been talking about."
In March, the MTA’s “Blue Ribbon Panel for Construction Excellence” suggested “expanding contractor/subcontractor diversity, specifically by greater participation of minority-and women-owned business enterprises.”
