Business owners argue they may not be able to weather a service shutdown on most weekends in June and December — two of their busiest months of the year.
A G train at the Smith and 9th Street station in 2019. Photo by Susan De Vries
by Ethan Stark-Miller, amNY
A group of 55 Brooklyn business owners urged the MTA board on Tuesday to shift several planned G train service suspensions, many of which are slated for next month and December, from weekends to weeknights, in a letter shared with amNewYork.
In the missive, the business owners, located in Greenpoint and Williamsburg, argue to the agency board that they may not be able to weather a service shutdown on most weekends in June and December — two of their busiest months of the year.
They noted that without G train service to both neighborhoods in June, their establishments could miss out on increased foot traffic from several events taking place across the city that month, including the start of the FIFA World Cup and NYC Pride. That is especially the case for Greenpoint, they argue, because the G is the neighborhood’s only subway line.
The Flushing Avenue stop in Williamsburg in February. Photo by Susan De Vries
“We urge the MTA to shift to weekday overnight closures and cancel the planned weekend closures, particularly in June and December,” they wrote. “These vital months encompass some of the busiest weeks of the year for our businesses – NYC Pride, the World Cup, and Christmas.”
The letter’s signatories cover a wide range of business owners, including those of restaurants, coffee shops, bars, and clothing stores. They include Keith Sirchio and Monurai Bhakdina, co-owners of Little Tiffin restaurant; Adam Saucy, owner of Odd Fox Coffee; Dylan Wells, owner of Ray’s Hometown Bar; and Rachel Despeaux, owner of Awoke Vintage.
Several local elected officials, many of whom first raised alarms over the coming shutdowns, also co-signed the letter. They include City Council Members Lincoln Restler, Assembly Member Emily Gallagher, and Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso.
Dig we must, MTA insists on G train project and schedule
MTA spokesperson Kayla Shults did not provide a comment in response to the letter, but instead pointed to comments MTA Chair and CEO Janno Lieber made on the issue during last month’s agency board meeting.
The transit boss had insisted it is far more difficult for the agency to get the work done quickly on overnights than on weekends.
“Overnights are really of limited value, because by the time you set up and you take the work down, you have a really short time period to get the work done, and it’s disruptive,” Lieber said at the time. “We have to take weekends to do some of this work.”
While the MTA has acknowledged there will be around 10 weekend shutdowns, it has yet to confirm the exact dates, which were first shared by local elected officials last month after they were briefed by the agency. They said other outages are slated for weeknights.
Restler’s office last month shared the shutdown schedule that the MTA floated to him and other elected officials. They said the outages will take place between Bedford-Nostrand Avenues in Brooklyn and Court Square in Queens on the weekends of June 6, 13, and 20; August 8 and 15; September 12; and December 5, 12, and 19.
The Broadway station in Williamsburg in 2024. Photo by Susan De Vries
Shults noted the MTA has shifted outages originally scheduled for the weekend of June 12 to 15 to the weekend of July 10 to 13.
Regardless of when the shutdowns occur, the MTA has said it will run shuttle bus service along the G line as an alternative. But the business owners argued that both shuttle buses and regular bus service are inadequate substitutes for the G.
“Buses in the neighborhood frequently run with 30-minute headways even on weekdays, and shuttle bus service ranges from surprisingly fast to slower than walking,” they wrote.
In response to backlash over the service shakeups, MTA officials have said the weekend suspensions are necessary to repair the G train tunnel connecting Brooklyn and Queens under Newtown Creek, continue modernizing its signal system, and install 5G service. The G has undergone similar outages both last year and in 2024, when parts of the Crosstown Line were out of commission for much of the summer.
But while the business owners acknowledged the importance of the repair work, they said it should not come at the expense of their ability to make ends meet.
“We all want better-performing trains and understand the necessity of this work, but this progress cannot come at the cost of our livelihoods,” they wrote.
Editor’s note: A version of this story originally ran in Brooklyn Paper. Click here to see the original story.
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