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Second Avenue Street Damage Causes Havoc for Residents and Cars

By Amy Zimmer | April 11, 2011 6:54am

By Amy Zimmer

DNAinfo News Editor

UPPER EAST SIDE — They're worse than mere potholes, residents say.

Deep gashes and uneven stretches where asphalt has been torn up and re-patched thanks to Second Avenue subway construction have been causing havoc to cars and instilling fear among pedestrians.

"I've lived in the city over 45 years. I have never seen it like this," said Rita Popper.

She blamed a nearly 8-inch hole on East 92nd Street between Second and First avenues for cracking her car's axel a couple of weeks ago, sending it to the shop for $4,000 worth of repairs.

She wasn't happy about her car, but she's even more concerned about her neighbors' safety as they walk the streets.

"We have a very large percentage of elderly people," said Popper, 72, president of the 576-unit Knickerbocker Plaza tenant association. "They're walking around with their walkers and wheelchairs."

Monica Carnival, 73, who uses a walker, said she has to be very careful on the streets and often asks for help crossing.

"I can't afford to fall," she said. "You can see I'm wearing sneakers. You couldn't wear a pair of good high heels. Forget it."

"The streets are gouged," said David Rosenstein, 67. "It's bad. It's very bad. The result is we have more cyclists on the sidewalks trying to bypass it."

A deliveryman on the sidewalk going up Second Avenue at 91st Street hit Rosenstein more than a year ago.

Ed Maynard's wife sprained her ankle last week when stepping onto a "belly" on 90th Street and Second Avenue, he said.

"It's terrible. It's a maze of unknown," said Maynard, 64.

Residents in this pocket of Manhattan have lived through the blasting of for the Second Avenue subway tunnel while their streets have become a warren of construction sites.

Popper, who recently voiced complaints in a meeting with city officials, couldn't understand why the streets couldn't be smoothed out.

"We've gone through a lot," Popper said. "To be able to safely cross is not out of line."

"We're not asking for the construction to go away. But they really have done nothing to make it habitable while the construction is going on," she continued. "Making walking safe for the next six years should be a priority."

Popper said when she reached out to the Department of Transportation and MTA they each said the other responsible, leaving the people in cross streets stuck in the middle.

The DOT told DNAinfo that the contractor is responsible for fixing potholes in the construction area.

An MTA spokesperson agreed, saying, "The condition of the street is the contractor's responsibility and we have instructed the contractor to fix the potholes."

The hole where she cracked her axel had been filled in last week, Popper discovered. But on a tour of the area, she was able to point out many other holes that hadn't been fixed.

"I'm not a complainer. I don't like idle talk," Popper said. "But there is a way to make this smooth. I'm not asking for something that doesn't exist." She told one city official: "I want to give rolling pins to the guys putting the black stuff down."