Puzzled 7-train commuters Wednesday morning gazed from a packed train at a cardboard-cutout version of New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, standing lifeless on the Grand Central Station platform.
A flesh-and-blood man spoke on his behalf: “We would like the real governor to show up instead of the cardboard cutout to tell riders why he's not giving money to the MTA,” said Nick Sifuentes, an organizer for Riders Alliance.
It wasn't the first time the public transit riders group had toted a cardboard Cuomo along the 7 line: back in July 2015, the governor's stand-in fielded grievances from exasperated straphangers, as seen in the video below.
Credit: STREETFILMS on Vimeo.
Their complaints obviously fell on cardboard ears; on his second trip with the Riders Alliance, cardboard Cuomo's came with a speech bubble that read, "That is a problem, I'm sorry."
“We’re out here today because Governor Cuomo made a promise to riders last year,” Sifuentes said Wednesday as he propped up the governor's double. “That promise was that he would fund the MTA capital plan."
Sifuentes and the Riders Alliance say that promise was broken when the governor excluded the billions of dollars of funding that he agreed to last year from his 2016-17 budget. (uomo and Mayor Bill de Blasio have disputed how to pay for the MTA budget, among many other things.)
Riders Alliance organizers cautioned that without more state funding, riders will have to face either fare hikes or service reductions.
“[The MTA] can either raise fares or reduce service. They have no other option,” Sifuentes said. “They can issue bonds but the way to pay back the bonds is to raise what riders are paying. If the governor does not follow through on the promise of $7.2 billion, that is the only option.”
The group plans to continue to canvas subway platforms with the cardboard cutout and collect signatures from riders to urge the governor to allocate more funds.
Conditions on the 7 line Wednesday aligned perfectly with the Alliance's demonstration: the platform at Grand Central filled up with waiting passengers, as a mechanical issue at the Times Square station plagued the train with delays.
The state would probably never read their hate tweets.
@MTA why do you do this to New Yorkers? Why did the 7 train going to Manhattan stop working? This isn't fair! Stop playing with us!
— Jamir (@Jayyy_C89) February 3, 2016
