Station Update

At the platform yesterday.  More photographs to follow!

"Apparently this is the season of good subway news. According to a notice from Community Board Six the refurbishment of the 4th Avenue/9th Street subway station will be completed this month. The two year project included exterior brick work, replacement of lighting and restoration of entrance globes and entrance doors. The MTA also promised to reopen the east side entrance to the station, which they did in February of last year. Perhaps the biggest news is that commercial tenants will occupy the storefront spaces under the elevated station within a matter of months. No word on what kind of tenants are coming. Community Board Six also announced that the remaining work on the $275.5 million Culver Viaduct reconstruction project should be finished by the end of the year."  (Brownstoner, May 9)

Alas, this news was announced was not announced last Friday, but on May 9, 2013.  

Here's another rosy MTA projection, from 2011, before work began later that year:

"The refurbishment of the 4th Avenue and 9th Street Station ... were explained in greater detail at last night’s CB6 board meeting. Marty Markowitz has secured $2 million and Assembly Member Joan Millman’s gotten $800,000 for the renovations. The job will include exterior brick work, repairs for the Culver Viaduct, replacement of lighting, and restoration of entrance globes and entrance doors. Perhaps the most notable improvement is the re-opening the east side entrance to the station, which will eliminate thousands of pedestrian crossings on 4th Avenue. The second exciting plan is repairing and filling the dormant retail space near 4th and 10th. All this should be complete (fingers crossed!) by the end of 2011." (Brownstoner, February 10, 2011).

Whilst the reopening of the east side entrance has been a big improvement, it seems like there's an awful lot of renovating still to be done.  The interior still floods during heavy rainfall, the archway over Fourth Avenue & the station entrances remain unfinished, and the commercial spaces remain empty. In fact the lobby on the west side looks pretty much unchanged from when renovations began. I've grown quite attached to the dingy charms of the station over the many years I've haunted its platforms, so it's not a huge deal personally, but you have to wonder at the waste of time and money this project seems to involve.