NYC Transit Interim President Sarah Feinberg appeared live on NY1 Mornings on 1 to discuss the future of public transit and responses to customer surveys showing concern over crime and harassment.
A transcript of the interview appears below.
Pat Kiernan: The MTA has a problem when it comes to riders feeling safe. Look at some of the numbers here. This is March this year compared to March of last year. NYPD data showed transit crime down about 32%, 175 total cases in March 2020, 118 cases reported last month where the ridership is way down though. When you when you look at the view from January through March of this year, we saw major felony crime down 53% compared to the same period last year. The subway averages three major felony crimes a day. There are fewer robberies and grand larcenies. There was an increase in felony assaults, there were three murders in the transit system this year, through March. This morning union leaders sent Mayor de Blasio a letter asking him to assign a greater police presence to the subway system and focus more on mental health services on the transit system. The Interim President of the Transit Authority, Sarah Feinberg is with me now more to talk about this. Sarah is this a perception of crime and of safety concerns problem or is there a reality of safety concerns on the subway?
Sarah Feinberg: Hey, good morning. It's good to be with you. I think it's a little bit of both. I mean, certainly, you know, look, the numbers should be in a better place, given how low ridership is right? I mean if we were at regular ridership those numbers would be wonderful, but the truth is we are about 30%, so I'd like those numbers to be down further. But the reality is, it matters how you feel in the system. So, we've got, you know, two million essential workers who are in the system now, who are riding the system, active passengers. We've got millions of people who are at home, who are thinking about how am I going to come back, when am I going to come back, how am I going to come back to the office, how am I going to come back to the city? I want them to feel really good and safe and confident and secure when they re-enter the system. That's really important and I feel like that's the next three to six months.
Kiernan: Does some of that safety come in numbers? In other words, if there were a lot of riders around you, is that a deterrent to crime in a different way?
Feinberg: Absolutely. And we're seeing this across the country. Philadelphia, Atlanta other cities we're dealing with the same thing. Everyone agrees when ridership really comes back the system is going to feel better and it's going to be safer as well. That's why the next three to six months are so critical. You know we're not asking for 1000 police officers permanently. I don't want to have a really heavy police presence in the system forever. I want to really focus on the next couple of months so we can get people back and help the city come back.
Kiernan: What's your response to this union letter where they're asking the Mayor to get involved?
Feinberg: Look, I think they're exactly right. Like these are union leaders who not only represent millions of New Yorkers. They're millions of workers who are using the system now or who want to use the system in the coming weeks and months. So not only do they represent those millions of workers, they're also some of the most important and biggest cheerleaders for the city. You know, they are the ones who are rooting for New York to come back and they're doing everything they can to help bring New York back. So look, we've seen a big push over the last couple of days. The Mayor, the NYPD are saying we're going to make a big push in Midtown. We're going to have a surge of police in Midtown because we want the businesses of Midtown to feel better. I'm all for that. But we need to make the whole city feel better. It's not just about Midtown. If you can put a bunch of police in Midtown, you can put police into the subway system and make sure essential workers are feeling better too.
Kiernan: So there seems to be a lack of alignment on some of the strategy with the NYPD. The head of the Transit Bureau, the NYPD’s Transit Bureau, accused MTA Leadership of fear mongering about crime and safety in the system. How can you work with the NYPD to make sure that we're getting the most we can out of this?
Feinberg: Look, we have a really good relationship with the NYPD. It's a partnership that's gone back decades. You know we have to deal with each other all day, every day, you know, seven days a week, 365 days a year. So that relationship is really good. I have a lot of respect for the Mayor, a lot of respect for Commissioner Shea, a lot of respect for Chief O'Reilly, that relationship will be fine. I think it's really important for us to just work together these next three to six months. Let's make people feel more comfortable. Let's help bring the city back, you know, I think we can do that together without, without being defensive.
Kiernan: Sarah final question. You expanded, you reduced the overnight shutdown to two hours on the trains. How did that go, and do you see that as a path to returning to 24/7 subway service?
Feinberg: It was great. It went really well. Look the New York City Transit workforce, tens of thousands of men and women made it go as seamless as you can imagine. You know, we saw ridership pick up between 4 and 5 am which is great. A lot of those essential workers, who you know who would have started their commute between 4 and 5 or holding off until 5. So those folks are coming back after the hour of 4. Not seeing much between 1 and 2, that's not surprising. You know lowest ridership in the 24-hours is always 2 to 4, so not seeing much between 1 and 2, but 4 to 5 is picking up so it's good news.
Kiernan: Sarah thanks for coming out on a breezy Monday morning to talk to us. We appreciate it.
Feinberg: Good to see you. Thanks.