April 17, By Christian Murray
“Experience New York City’s Best Kept Secret.”
That is the slogan touting Long Island City that is going to be plastered on subway trains and in stations for much of this year, while No. 7 train weekend service is down. It will be part of the public service announcement notifying No. 7 train riders that they will be required to use shuttle service on weekends.
The MTA is about to put the public service announcements up at every No. 7 train station and on each No. 7 train , according to Marisa Baldeo, a MTA spokeswoman. It will also be putting the posters up at a number of other stations and on a variety of different train lines, although Baldeo did not know which ones.
The posters–which also refer to Long Island City as “on the grid, under the radar”– are currently at the printer and have not gone up yet. The posters include pictures of MoMA PS1, The Chocolate Factory, The Noguchi Museum, Alobar and LIC Living.
However, the campaign has kicked off online, with marketing material found on the MTA website as well as on screens at stations.
The campaign is the result of a number of local business owners and leaders calling on the MTA to help aid the commercial district. while service is down. The business owners claimed that they would suffer on weekends, since many of their customers could not be able to get to their stores/restaurants. The MTA agreed to help.
However, the MTA has not provided the community with a shuttle bus—that goes to Grand Central– that has been requested for years.
However, the agency did change its work schedule on the weekend of May 17-18, so people can get to LIC Springs!, the LIC Arts Open and the LICFlea Food with greater ease.
