Upper Manhattan community leaders protest inaction on Port Authority Bus Terminal issues

New York, NY- Today at noon, NYS Senator Adriano Espaillat, NYS Assembly Member Gabriela Rosa and NYC Council Members Ydanis Rodriguez, Transportation Committee Chair and Mark Levine, Parks Committee Chair will join community leaders and organizations in calling for a major shift in community responsiveness as the US$183.2 million redevelopment of GWB Bus Terminal moves forward.

Uptown residents are set to face long periods of construction, truck traffic, congestion and loss of public space, for a project that will bring only big box and chain stores that pay poverty wages. Participants will voice their continued frustration with developers Tutor Perini Corp. and SJM Partners, and the Port Authority for:

-Lack of adequate space offered to the Washington Heights community.

-Loss public space: a subway entrance at 175th st. and second floor of the terminal.

– The failure to guarantee a living wage for prospective employees.

– The refusal to fully fund a traffic study and the additional traffic enforcement needed.

– The lack of outreach to local and MWBEs in the area to date.

Who: NY State Senator Adriano Espaillat, NY State Assembly Member Gabriela Rosa, NYC Council Transportation Committee Chair Ydanis Rodriguez, NYC Council Parks Committee Chair Mark Levine, NY Communities for Change, Northern Manhattan Improvement Corporation, WEACT for Environmental Justice, Community Board 12, La Fuente, Northern Manhattan Coalition for Immigrant Rights, Community League of the Heights and the Bodega Association of the US, Dominican Women’s Development Party, Washington Heights-Inwood Chamber of Commerce, Make the Road.

When: Today at noon.

Where: The corner of 179th St. and Fort Washington Ave., Manhattan.