Newsday from New York, New York • 23

Cuts in Urban Aid, Housing Assailed New York (UPD Mayor Edward Koch and City Council President Carol Bellamy yesterday blasted the latest moves by federal budget director David Stockman to eliminate major urban aid programs and subsidies for low-income housing construction. Koch, a Democrat, appearing before the Presidents Commission on Housing at a public hearing in midtown Manhattan, said the Reagan administration is "seeking to destroy the cities of the country, not just New York City, by cutting back and eliminating all the federal housing programs." In prepared remarks, Koch said the city is facing a housing crisis, with more than 165,000 low-income people awaiting public housing assistance. Koch said the city," which has a vacancy rate of about 2 per cent, desperately needs more housing. The current recommendations to take away public subsidies for construction would mean no low-in-come housing will be built, he said. The mayor said later he was hopeful that Reagan, who bias not given final approval to any new program cuts, would listen to mayors around the country and reject Stockmans moves to cut or eliminate what Koch called "economic development funds" for cities.

Koch repeated earlier statements that Stock-mans cuts in social programs have gone "for too deeply, eliminating muscle and meat as well as fet" and he urged Stockman to re-examine defense spending to look for areas to cut there. "There is nothing sacred about a military program, he said. The mayor said he hopes to see a nationwide voter crusade next year, an election year for the House of Representatives and the Senate, to turn around the Reagan administrations budget policies. it I NcwidayDu NtrlU A sign warns drivers of a severe bump ahead for traffic on the upper level of the Queensboro Briggs Funds for Bridge Repairs "The supporting brackets on the two outer roadways are not strong enough to support any vehicular traffic, Ferraro told the DOT lari: year when trying to get money appropriated for the bridge.She said then that during last years transit strike, "policemen had to monitor the pe- destrian load carefully for fear it might cause tire outer roadways to collapse. Work has also been started on access ramps to the bridges upper roadway on the Queens end of the bridge.

Once the access ramps are finished, possibly by the middle of next year, a 25-million reconstruction to rehabilitate the upper roadway will begin. When it is finished, buses will be able to use the upper deck. T. J. Collins The federal Transportation Department has awarded a $28.

8-million grant for the continuing' rehabilitation of the Queensboro Bridge, which began in March, Rep. Geraldine Ferraro (D-Maspeth) announced yesterday. Ferraro also said that DOT has awarded $5.6 million for repaff work on the Manhattan Bridge. Last year DOT provided $18.6 million so repairs on the 71-year-old Queensboro Bridge could begin. The state provided a 20 per cent matching grant.

The repair project calls for $125 million to be spent on the bridge during a 15-year period. In March, work began on the outer roadway of the bridge, which had been closed to autos for the past two years as a safety measure. Bellamys comments were prompted by reports from Washington that Stockman was once again looking to eliminate all new spending after 1983 for Community Development Block Grants and Urban Development Action Grants. "Conkdering the Reagan administrations professed goal of building a partnership between the public and private sectors, it seems odd that the administration is planning to eliminate the one program with just that goal UDAG, Bellamy said. "UDAGs use public funds to encourage private developers to invest their own dollars in projects that otherwise might not be built, she said.

She noted that $76 million in UDAG fiinds has resulted in the total investment of $678 million in 31 projects among them the Portman Hotel in Times Square and the South Street Seaport. Panel Proposes Low-Income Transit Fare MIA said the poor would be hit hardest by fore hike. "The poor are least able to absorb these increases or to substitute other modes of transportation, Committed chairman Michael Gerrard said. "Our plan would lighten the burden on the poor and protect their mobility. The plan would be costly to a transit system that is already riddled with deficits.

Based on a fore reduction of 25 cents for those eligible, the loss of should be held at 75 cents. The gap in revenue would be paid by increasing the general fore an additional three or four cents, and perhaps by increasing transit subsidies now paid by the city and other municipalities served by the system. The committee began studying ways to alleviate the impact of fore increases on the poor when the transit fore rose from 60 to 75 cents in July. At the time, a special consultant to the Continued from Page 3 were $10,000 for a family of four and $3,500 for an individual. The income-eligibility levels were devised by computing 75 per cent of the-U-S.

Bureau of Labor Statistics estimate of what a "lower-level" family budget is for residents of the New York City-New Jersey metropolitan area. If the transit fore rose to one dollar, the committee recommended, fores for those eligible under this formula TA Express Bus Study Assailed fere-box revenue to the transit system would range from approximately $29 million to $42 million, depending on how many people are eligible. The committee estimated that about $5 million would be needed to administer the program annually. MTA spokesman Arthur Perfell aid that the authority was not the proper agency to create such a program. He said the MTAs current fere-reduction programs, such as the half-fare program for the elderly and handicapped, were instituted at the request, of the city government.

The city pays the MTA umut $90 million annually to make up for the revenue lost through the programs. "It was a governmental decision that they would subsidize certain classes of riders, Perfell said. "If a reduced-fare program for the poor were to be put in place, the committee would be far better off petitioning the proper level of govemnfont to put in that program and provide for its cost It appeared unlikely yesterday that the Koch administration would consent to a committee-style plan. A spokesman for Mayor Edward Koch said the best way to keep the poor from being hit by fere increases is to keep the increases themselves down. And fines should be kept down, spokesman Evan Cornog said, by increasing state, regional and lock taxes, which fell heaviest on those with higher By J.

Collins The city council presidents office yesterday blasted a Transit Authority study of sons express bus service for Queens and othor boroughs, saying that the survey was so mismanaged the TA may never get federal fiinds for it and has been unable to come up with a final report one year after the study ended. TA spokesman Robert Huber said the TA had not seen the critique and would not. have any comment until it had. However, the inspector generals office of the TA completed its own report on the prqject last month and TA President John D. Simpson, on the basis of that report, has called the study "an atrocity.

"We may have spent $140,000 out of the fine box for essentially nothing, said Lisa Goldflusa, an aide to Council President Carol Bellamy, who prepared the critique of the TA project In" her report Goldflusa explained that zone express bus service, which involves a bus picking up passengers at all local stops on a line up to a designated stop, where it then proceeds express to a specific point, such as a subway stop, was successfully initiated in 1977 on the Q44A Union Turnpike Route in Queens. The express operation increased riderahip on the line by per cent and is still in operation. Encouraged by the, results, the TA then decided to do a $150,000, 18-monthtudy of the feasibility of pending the service to six other bus routes, three of them in Queens. Among other things, Goldflusa found that the study had four different prqject directors from May, 1979, until its official termination in July, 1981, and "was apparently rudderless fir a period of at least one month, and My two wmntba, with no project director at all. The TA is working on a fourth draft of the final report it must submit to the Tri-State Regional Planning Commission, which will then decide if the prqiect was carried out as agreed and is eligible for 80 per cent federal funding.

Also, Goldflusa found that the Q12 route, serving Little Neck-Douglaston end upper Flushing, which was one of the routes selected for study, was chosen in an effort to placate community residents unsatisfied with their bus service, even though the TA knew from data on hand that the line not suitable for zone express service..