Flushing LIRR Station Is A Disgrace

As the New York Mets continue their post-season play at Shea Stadium, more and more people are using the MTA Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) station in Main Street Flushing to get to the games.
They are greeted with a disgraceful station that can barely serve the community with just basic functionality. It is not a station to be proud of; rather it is a blemish on the face of Flushing's booming business district.
Downtown Flushing is one of the busiest and most complex transportation hubs in the country. The LIRR station is the mid-point connection between Manhattan and Long Island on the affluent Port Washington line and a transfer point to the city's various subway and bus lines.
Poorly designed with two steep separate entrances to and from the inbound and outbound platforms it is a hardship for the elderly or handicapped to use. In fact, it is not wheelchair accessible and does not comply with city building code or the Americans with Disabilities Act regulations.
During the entire 2005 NYC Transit strike, the Flushing station was often bypassed during the rush hours.
Adding insult to injury, both the Auburndale and Murray Hill Stations of the same Port Washington line, directly east of the Flushing station have been beautifully renovated.
Back on April 20, Assemblymembers Jimmy Meng and Richard Brodsky, Senator Toby Ann Stavisky, Peter Koo, President of the Flushing Chinese Business Association, James Dermody, President of the LIRR, Community Board 7, and John Choe, Chief of Staff of Councilmember John Liu's office conducted an inspection of the station.
Subsequently on September 22, Assemblymember Meng wrote to Peter S. Kalikow, Chairman of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to say that in following-up after the inspection of the station in April, his office found evidence to support the claims of the community as to the unsafe and unhealthy conditions at the Flushing facility.
Meng sent photos of garbage strewn about, at both the station and the surrounding premises. Meng wrote that he had personally witnessed stray animals and even rodents running about the station.
Get angry.
Write Chairman Kalikow at the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, 347 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10017.
Tell him to use some of his considerable power and surplus money to fix the MTA's LIRR Flushing station.