On January 24th the MTA held its very public budget hearing and guess what, not one person from Gerritsen Beach, Marine Park or Sheepshead Bay/Plumb Beach went to save the B31, B2 or B4.

According to various news reports more than 500 people gave a loud and clear message to the MTA board’s by showing up to testify for their respective buses. The meeting went past midnight to allow testimony.

As a community, we stand to lose the MOST if these services are to be cut. The B31 would have daily overnight service cease between 1:30 and 4:30 a.m. The B4 and B2 would not have any weekend service. Since we had not a single person at the hearing we will now lose the most.

My petition which got about 300 signatures was handed over to Marty Goldens office which Martys office had collected a total of 500 signatures (not sure if thats 500 with mine or without mine). Although petitions are good and all, when the MTA sees heads and faces protesting service cuts for specific buses, it holds more weight than a stack of petitions.

Lew Fidler stated at the last property owners meeting that he does not believe that the services will be cut. He is “very optimistic” that these service cuts will “go away” after the state adopts a payroll tax of 1/3 of 1/2. He also wants his constitutients to know that the tolling of the east river bridges has nothing to do with the planned cuts. The toll money would be designed to increase service, not to stop the cuts.