
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 7, 1990                   TAG: 9003071903
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A/8   EDITION: EVENING 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: NEW YORK                                 LENGTH: Short

NEW YORK RESTORES SUBWAY BENCHES

The Transit Authority is restoring the benches it began removing from subway stations to get the homeless to leave.

Advocacy groups for riders and the homeless had complained about the removal, which began with 10 benches from Grand Central Terminal and two other stations.

"Perhaps the TA moved too quickly," TA President Alan Kiepper said Tuesday. "We were trying to do the right thing for our passengers but obviously the riders want them back."

The transit agency estimates 2,500 homeless people seek shelter in the subways; advocates for the homeless say the number is 4,000 to 5,000. Panhandling men and women are a fixture at many subway entrances.

Agency official Bob Slovak said last week that the benches had "been taken over by the homeless . . . have been defecated on, urinated on."

by CNB