Residents Express Concerns Over Second Avenue Subway

NY 1 News, April 4, 2006

While it's still only in the initial planning stages, residents are already raising concerns over the Second Avenue subway project.

The MTA said the Second Avenue subway line is moving forward as planned at a community board meeting Monday night. The project will be built in phases: the first portion is an extension of the Q line, between 96th and 63rd Streets, which should be completed by 2012, but MTA officials said residential buildings could be demolished by 2008 to make way for the line.

That came as bad news to many residents.

"There are people in my own building who've lived in these apartments for 30 years, and for them that's serious uprooting," said an area resident.

"I think this will be very destructive to the Upper East Side. I think it will change the face of the Upper East Side forever," added another area resident.

Eventually, the MTA plans to have the Second Avenue line extend all the way down the east side of Manhattan to the Financial District.

For now, that lower portion is being called the T line.