The City of New Rochelle announced today that the bathrooms at the Metro-North Train Station in New Rochelle would be re-opened immediately handing a victory to vocal critics of the decision to close the bathrooms last bathroom without a public hearing. The decision hands a major victory to Council Member Richard St. Paul who opposed both the decision and the way in which the decision was made.
OFFICIAL STATEMENT FROM CITY OF NEW ROCHELLE:
New Rochelle Railroad Station Restrooms To Re-Open
City & Metro-North Team Up To Enhance Security, Improve Conditions
February 8, 2001 — The City of New Rochelle is re-opening the restrooms at the New Rochelle railroad with enhanced security standards and improved physical conditions thanks to assistance from Metro-North Railroad.
Following discussions with the City of New Rochelle, Metro-North offered to include the restrooms within the station area under supervision by MTA Police. With the restrooms reopening, patrols will occur at least once a day.
In addition, Metro-North will contribute to the replacement of restroom fixtures.
“New Rochelle’s railroad station is among the busiest on the New Haven line, and all who use it deserve a full range of services,” said Mayor Noam Bramson. “This enhanced partnership with Metro-North will permit us to maintain facilities that meet the public’s expectations.”
“Metro-North is pleased that the restrooms at the New Rochelle station soon will reopen,” said Metro-North President Howard Permut. “Maintaining restrooms is a challenge both at stations and on-board trains, but we all must make the effort on behalf of our customers and residents.”
“Keeping the station restrooms in good condition will remain a financial and operational challenge, but Metro-North’s assistance will make a big difference,” said City Manager Charles Strome.
The station restrooms had been closed on January 15th, 2011 because of the escalating costs associated with vandalism.
One restroom will re-open on a unisex basis on Thursday, February 10th. Hours of operation will be set initially at 5:00am to 1:00pm, seven days a week, with further adjustment possible based on consultation with Metro-North and examination of station use patterns, including that of Amtrak
riders. The second restroom requires repairs prior to opening, and these repairs will commence immediately.As a product of discussions concerning the restroom, the City and Metro-North will also consider working together to market the New Rochelle railroad station more effectively to commercial tenants, utilizing Metro-North’s extensive contacts and marketing services.
Developing…
Well done.
I think the City played this one very well. The closure was probably intended to get the MTA to kick in some more anyway. Even if the City couldn’t afford to maintain the bathrooms, they are such a high visibility and touchy subject, that they would have found the funds by any means possible. The only thing that made sense to me was that this was a means to get the MTA to respond quickly, and it worked. What I’d really like to see is a full time attendant. And if we all work together, I think we can make many more improvements.
Are you nuts?
Jerry — this is just plain silly.
You think Chuck and Noam purposely embarrassed the City with weeks of negative media coverage in order to get Metro-North to kick in a few grand and have an MTA cop walk past the bathroom a few times a day? You think they wanted all the heated emails, radio show call-ins, blog posts, comments, TV and radio reports casting New Rochelle in a negative light?
It is absolutely not the case that “the only thing that makes sense” was that this was some clever ploy. What makes sense is that Chuck and Noam acted stupidly and precipitously generating a backlash they did not anticipate and beat a hasty retreat.
If you think Chuck and Noam deserve credit for getting some very minor concessions from Metro-North in exchange for associating the City of New Rochelle with broken, fouled, public restrooms then you are seriously deluded.
That you are the second person today who has sought to portray this as some sort of victory for Chuck or Noam is disturbing.
Mr St paul, Thank you!
Now that is how it schould work!
To bad it even happend.