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The Metropolitan Transportation Authority has lifted a ban on alcohol ads — dropping its public health activism in a desperate bid for more revenue.
The 180 was approved last month, undoing a ban in place since 2017.
The move has already drawn the ire of public health workers who gathered outside MTA headquarters on Wednesday to blast the transit agency before a scheduled board meeting.
“Promoting alcohol is a really curious decision for an authority that oversees bridges, tunnels and busways,” said Julia McCarthy, senior program officer with the New York Health Foundation.
The MTA is hoping to generate an extra $7 million and $10 million a year from the ads — but McCarthy said alcohol advertising has a damaging effect on children and people recovering from substance abuse.
“Alcohol ads encourage adolescents to start to drink earlier and in greater amounts, and they also trigger cravings that can affect those in recovery,” she said.
Janno Lieber, the MTA’s chairman and CEO, told reporters that there will still be limits on alcohol ads, with the displays blocked from digital billboards during peak hours for student commutes, he said.
The MTA billboards may still display alcohol ads if they are “not readable within 500 feet of a school, playground, or place or worship,” according to agency documents.
But the new rules do allow alcohol ads at “major commuter rail hubs and stations next to large venues where alcohol is lawfully sold,” the documents said.
And advertisements promoting “train wraps” will also be allowed on S shuttle trains between Times Square and Grand Central.
“We had adopted a couple of narrowly tailored, common sense exceptions to it that make sure that the original purpose of the ban, which remains in effect, is achieved, which is protection of school kids from exposure to them,” Lieber said.
The cash-strapped MTA’s decision is a turnaround from 2017, when leaders at the time called the new ban “a big step forward.”
“These ads are sometimes on the outside of buses where tens of thousands of people can see them, including children” board member Ira Greenberg said at the time, praising the move.
The MTA had estimated alcohol ads only generate $2.5 million annually and then-MTA Chairman Joe Lhota said the money would easily be made up.
With the recent flip-flop, McCarthy questioned whether there would be a return of tobacco ads, which have been prohibited since 1992.
“With the MTA welcoming the alcohol industry back in, New Yorkers are now looking to question whether cigarette or vaping companies will be next,” McCarthy said.
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