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Fair Commuters ask for more security and comfort
Residents seek upgrades at Long Island Rail Road stations
Local elected officials and residents are pushing for improvements at the Cedarhurst, Hewlett and Woodmere Long Island Rail Road stations, three of the five stations on the Far Rockaway line’s route through the Five Towns.
Since late 2012, the Cedarhurst station has been the scene of more than a dozen incidents of bias graffiti, including swastikas, drawn on commercial billboards and etched into the panels of the platform shelters. A Far Rockaway teen who attended an alternative yeshiva in Cedarhurst was arrested in connection with eight of those incidents. But there were more after the February 2014 arrest, including two swastikas carved into panels at the Cedarhurst station during a two-week period in January.
Cedarhurst resident Jeffrey Leb was one of a few commuters who suggested the installation of security cameras at the station, saying they could help reduce the number of such incidents and assist police in apprehending the perpetrators. “The last two years of anti-Semitic hate graffiti on the LIRR platforms have underscored the need for increased security,” Leb said.
State Assemblyman Todd Kaminsky (D-Long Beach) took up the cause during his campaign last year, and continued to push for the cameras in a Jan. 4 letter to Patrick Nowakowski, president of the LIRR.
The installation of security cameras was announced in February, and Nowakowski said that the process would be expedited, though the timetable has not been made public.
Woodmere overpass
Last October, Woodmere residents and commuters Jacob Okun and Adam Silver began an online petition campaign, asking the LIRR to construct a pedestrian overpass at the Woodmere station. The petition currently has 277 signatures.
Okun and Kaminsky met with Hector Garcia Jr., a government affairs specialist for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, and lead branch manager Patrick Gerakaris in January. “We walked them through the issues, and they’re cognizant of the safety issues,” Okun said. “There was a reluctance for a walkway. They didn’t want to create more breaks at the station, so an overpass is the viable option.”
Okun said that LIRR officials told him they would initiate a study and begin looking at what can be done. Silver described the Woodmere Boulevard intersection at the station as “perilous” because of traffic, and said that the situation became more hazardous this winter as plowed snow blocked access to street crossways and commuters had to walk in the road.
“I’m glad the LIRR has responded to our request by taking the first step toward a solution and initiating a study at the station,” Kaminsky said. “I will work with the LIRR and the community to move quickly and see if an overpass, or some other infrastructure improvement, could alleviate the dangers and inconveniences now faced by Woodmere residents to get to their trains.”
Hewlett shelters
Hewlett Harbor village Mayor Mark Weiss, who commutes into the city, sent a letter to Nowakowski on Feb. 24, asking that the LIRR look into adding substantially improved shelters on the Hewlett station platform.
“I use the train several times a week, and the station is significantly more congested and the station platform is more crowded,” Weiss said. “The openings of the shelters are very large, and don’t offer adequate protection for the commuters who cram into them.”
Weiss suggested that the shelters be enlarged to accommodate more commuters, provide better protection from the weather and be heated. He said that Bob Brennan, director of the LIRR’s Government and Community Affairs Department, called after he sent the letter, but he hasn’t heard from Nowakowski.
“We have reached out informally to the mayor’s office to say we are in receipt of his letter and will respond as soon as possible,” Arena said.
Have an opinion about needed LIRR station improvements? Send your letter to the editor to jbessen@liherald.com.
