"We belong here"? At arena plaza, with escalators out (how long? for renovation work?), the elevator's not quite a substitute.

July 22

In my 6/4/22 report conveying the Barclays Center press release regarding renovation work on the arena plaza, I skipped over one part without sufficient skepticism.

"The construction will NOT take both the elevator and escalators out of service at the same time," the press release stated.

The implication was that people who really need to get upstairs without climbing stairs will have an option. 

That may be so, though do keep in mind that it's tough to get a stroller up the escalator when the elevator's out.

But that glosses over the vastly different capacity between escalator and elevator; the former, of course, has far more capacity. 

Outage persists

July 26

When I exited the subway hub on Friday, July 22,  both escalators were down, as shown in the photo above, without any signage suggesting the elevator as an alternative. 

Like everyone else I saw, I climbed the stairs.

Note: there was no work going on at the plaza near the escalators, so it was unclear to me whether plaza renovation work--or, more likely, general operational challenges--had put the escalators out of service. 

Both the escalators and elevators have frequently been out of service.

This Monday, July 25, I queried the arena: when did the escalators go out of service? when will they back? is there a relationship to work on the plaza?

I haven't heard back yet. It shouldn't be so hard to find out. That's a basic failure of accountability; the information on service outage and expected restoration should be publicly posted.

Who belongs?

The next evening, July 26, I stopped by, and the escalators were still out, as shown in the photo above left, looking back toward the entrance to the subway.

As the advertising/art sign suggests, "We belong here," but one asterisk on that claim is "at least if we take the stairs."

Meanwhile, as shown in the photo at right, the arena company is still reaping revenues from advertising inside the oculus, as well as the digital signage over the doors. Peek through and see the branding for SeatGeek Plaza.

As I wrote yesterday, keeping the plaza--and not building the Urban Room--doesn't just benefit the master developer of Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park, it's a bonus for the arena operator.

Put another way, @EmpireStateDev 's failure to ensure completion of the Urban Room was a transfer of public value to the private operators of @barclayscenter, one which was never disclosed, analyzed or approved. @JoAnneSimonBK52 @phara4assembly @JabariBrisport @BKBPReynoso https://t.co/X8o7Afu9ac

— Gib Veconi (@GibVeconi) July 27, 2022