By Jill Colvin
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MIDTOWN — Midtown residents and business owners turned out in force Monday night to oppose a new stop for intercity buses on Eighth Avenue.
Tripper Bus Company has asked the city to approve a new stop on the south-east corner of Eighth Avenue and West 30th Street to ferry passengers back and forth from Bethesda, Md., and Arlington, Va.
The company is being booted from their current spot on Seventh Ave. and W. 35th Street because of upcoming construction at Madison Square Garden, and says maintaining a central location is crucial.
Residents and business owners on the street slammed the plan at a Community Board 5 transportation committee meeting, complaining they're already plagued by congestion on the block.
"We've had enough. We just can't have this anymore," pleaded Cassandra, 43, who has lived on the corner for 19 years, and asked that her last name not be used.
She said the block is already clogged by traffic, including lines of buses backed up from Seventh Avenue, UPS and FedEx trucks. The new stop would force her to push her children's strollers through crowds that would only grow worse.
"It is absolutely ridiculous," she said. "It's just not fair."
Nalaka Kuruppu, who owns the NRS Wine and Liquor store a block south, said that he already has to deal with ten to 15 buses per day stopping right in front of his store. He said passengers line up, blocking his entrance, while drivers leave garbage by his door.
"It's terrible. It's a mess," he said, and urged the board to deny the application.
Paddy O'Reilly, who owns the Molly Wee Pub across the street from the proposed stop, said he also worries about masses of passengers treating his pub like a public bathroom.
"I'm very concerned about buses picking up there," he said.
Tripper owner Betty Ungar said she's been searching for more than a year for an appropriate spot, and said that of 15 to 20 sites the company has proposed, this is the only the Department of Transportation has endorsed.
"We're trying to make everybody happy," she said, and urged the board to give her a chance.
Board members said that in light of the opposition, approving the stop would be impossible.
"I just think it's patently unfair to force a neighborhood to suffer through this," board member Kate McDonough said.
Board member Alan Miles said the level of opposition was unlike anything he'd ever seen in his time on the committee.
"We have hit a tipping point," he said, adding that the neighborhood would be better served by having buses move to less congested streets, like Eleventh Avenue.
Others called for a comprehensive plan to deal with new bus stops as Madison Square Garden construction expands.
"We're going to be inundated by many more [applications]," warned board member Nancy Aber Goshow.
Board member Joel Maxman argued that denying the company a replacement stop in the district could be a huge hardship.
"I think it's unfair to take a business like that and put it out of business," said Maxman, who urged fellow members to come up with a realistic solution for buses displaced by construction.
In the end, the committee voted to send Tripper back to the drawing board to come up with another spot and asked the DOT to develop a plan for all the buses it expects to be displaced.
