Skip to main content

Featured Post

Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park infographics: what's built/what's coming/what's missing, who's responsible, + project FAQ/timeline (pinned post)

Barclays Center says escalators and elevator at transit entrance are working, but service seems limited by both security and maintenance issues

This is the sixth of several posts on the 6/9/20 Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park Quality of Life meeting, the first ever virtual meeting, held on Zoom. The first concerned non-transparency. The second concerned the timing for new construction. The third concerned neighborhood checkpoints. The fourth concerned ongoing construction and social distancing. The fifth concerned arena operatons.

At the meeting, Barclays Center spokeswoman Mandy Gutmann responded to questions about the status of the elevator and escalator, often out of service, at the arena plaza. As shown in the photos below, for security purposes, police have limited access to the the transit entrance, but people can get there.

"The elevator is currently operating, and according to availablity reports we receive from Schindler, the operator, it’s functioning 92% of time," Gutmann said. "There are short periods it goes down and has to be re-set... Our security has been consistently checking to ensure the elevator is functional."

That doesn't mean it's fully up to snuff. Gutmann said "we still plan to do a full overhaul of the system" and "hope to begin work in the very near future."

"One of the MTA escalators, which was out for a few weeks"--actually, the problem has been chronic--"that escalator is back up and running and we apologize if that outage inconvenienced anyone. The outage took a little longer than our average response period, because the parts had to be fabricated, but that escalator, again, is back up."

In practice, not clear

After the meeting, I sent Gutmann the first two photos (which I took), one from the afternoon of Tuesday, 6/2/20, and the other from the evening of Sunday, 6/7/20, indicating one escalator wasn't working and the elevator was blocked.

I didn't hear back. A neighbor also sent a photo of the situation this morning, which showed the elevator not blocked and one escalator not working. Bottom line: evidence suggests that that escalator is out. So if it's been paused for security purposes, they should tell us.

Tuesday, 6/2/20

As highlighted in the first photo, there's a metal fence in front of the elevator and a yellow "Do Not Enter"/Maintenance" panel in front of the down escalator.

June 2
Sunday, 6/9/20

The second photo, taken during a rally, similarly shows the yellow sign at the first escalator, and police behind the metal fence guarding the elevator.
June 7
Friday, 6/12/20

As shown in the photo below, taken this morning during the commuter hour, the elevator was open for business, with the yellow "Maintenance" sign used to block the stairs. A metal fence blocked the down escalator which, as the photographer told me, wasn't working.

June 12

Comments