MTA to UES: Excuse Us While We Lay Track Through Your Apartment

To make an omelette, as they say, you’ve got to break some eggs. And to make a Second Avenue subway, it seems, you’ve got to break some leases. There’s news today about the East Side tenants who will eminent-domained out of their apartments, forced perpetually to stand clear of those closing doors. Some numbers to consider …

Number of Second Avenue apartments from which tenants will be removed so that the MTA can build entrances to the Second Avenue subway: 60
Original number of residential relocations requested by the MTA: 127
Year these relocations will start: 2008
Number of blocks to be covered by first leg of Second Avenue subway: 33
When service is scheduled to begin on that leg: 2013
Maximum monthly subsidy available to a relocated tenant under eminent-domain law: $5,250
Number of months the subsidy will last: 42
Number of months from 2008 to 2013: 48

2nd Ave. Wary of Subway Plan [Newsday]