NEW YORK—The corner stores and mom and pop shops are likely to be hardest hit when the L train halts its brisk rattle through the Canarsie Tunnel between Brooklyn and Manhattan in 2019.
Of the 400,000 daily L train straphangers, 225,000 are tunnel travelers, who will be forced to cross the East River somewhere else once the L is confined to the Brooklyn mainland for 18 months.
Small businesses along the entire length of the L train route will lose out—from Canarsie to East New York, said Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce Executive Vice President Andrew Hoan.
“This is the lifeblood of north Brooklyn, the L train, and there could be businesses that close up shop,” Hoan said. “Or, even more importantly, there are businesses that are thinking about opening, about making investments right now, that are saying, ‘We’re no longer going to make those investments; we’re no longer going to expand; we’re no longer going to hire employees; we’re not going to build a new business.’”
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) kicked nerves into high gear in January when it announced that some sort of shutdown was inevitable, to allow for badly needed repairs after Superstorm Sandy damage in 2012.
Last month, the MTA’s decision to fully close the tunnel and the Manhattan portion of the line for 18 months answered the first unknown. But the full extent of the annoyance won’t be clear until alternative transportation options are unveiled, for which a timeline has yet to be set.
The shutdown will begin no sooner than January 2019—eons away for some, but close enough to cause concern for those whose livelihoods depend on the subway to deliver their customers.
“The impacts are going to be felt by the businesses that live off foot traffic,” Hoan said. On the Brooklyn side, the pain is predicted to be sharpest for the businesses around the Bedford Avenue stop in Williamsburg—which will become the last stop on the L line.
