MTA

This summer I wrote about the need for increased public subsidies for mass transit and about the importance of keeping transit fares as low as possible. Due to over borrowing for capital improvements during the Pataki administration and the reduction in revenues from the City's real-estate transfer tax, estimates of the size of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's budget deficit continue to grow. The most recent estimate is for $1.2 billion in red ink next year. The MTA has proposed a "doomsday budget" of massive fare increases and widespread service reductions. They are hoping that the prospect of higher prices for less service will somehow scare the courageous and forward-looking leaders in Albany into action.  read more »

City and state officials are positioning themselves to garner funding from any new federal stimulus package for various transportation and infrastructure projects. Most of the projects are smaller-scale and nearly ready to start development.

It’s hoped, officials say, that new federal funds from the stimulus will push the projects forward.

“Infrastructure is huge for us,” said a state official, who said that in addition to infrastructure funding, the state is seeking help from Washington on unemployment insurance and food stamps, among other issues. “Anything that will put people back to work and get the economy flowing again in short order.  read more »

The Straphangers Campaign today issued its 11th annual “State of the Subways” Report card, rating the L as the best of 22 subway lines, followed by the 7. Both of these lines are participating in a management pilot program and are run by Line General Managers who have been given a greater degree of independence, as well as accountability to the riders on these two lines.

"The L ranked highest because it performs best in the system on two measures—regularity of service and announcements—and well above average on three other measures: frequency of scheduled service, delays caused by mechanical breakdowns and the percentage of dirty cars," a statement released today by Straphangers said.  read more »

One of the central elements of Mayor Bloomberg's plan for a sustainable New York City is to improve mass transit and get people out of their cars and into busses and subways. In addition to better and more frequent transit service, the city also needs to ensure that the price of mass transit is kept under control. In the aftermath of the defeat of congestion pricing, we see that mass transit in this region is under greater financial stress than at any time since the fiscal crisis of the mid 1970's.

State and local tax collections are in decline, and the MTA bears the burden of the Pataki philosophy of borrowing to fund transit infrastructure.  read more »

New York City produces a lot of garbage. Over 36,000 tons of solid waste is produced every day by the city's 8,300,000 residents and millions of workers and visitors. While New York still has not developed an effective waste management system, and the Bloomberg Administration made some unfortunate changes in recycling rules in their first term, there seems to be a growing awareness that we have a major problem on our hands. The solution to our waste problem has four key dimensions:

1. Waste reduction.
2. Better waste transport.
3. Better waste disposal.
4. Increased recycling.

A small, but symbolically important part of the recycling puzzle is recycling waste in public spaces.  read more »

On March 17, 2008, Lieutenant Governor and former State Senator David Paterson was suddenly placed in the center of Albany's storm and assumed the Office of Governor. While it may seem premature, we decided to review the environmental record of his first 100 days. New York State's League of Conservation Voters is known for their thoughtful representation of the electorate's interest, so we asked them for their view of our accidental governor's environmental record. Marcia Bystryn, president of the New York League of Conservation Voters observed that:

"In the course of his first 100 days, Governor Paterson has shown that he can work effectively with the Legislature and that he understands the importance of an environmental agenda.  read more »

I'm on vacation this week, enjoying the sun, surf and sand here in Long Beach New York, where we've had a small summer home since 1987. I'm on the West End of town, where the biggest problem over the last few years has been the proliferation of second and third cars and the difficulty of parking on the narrow and crowded streets: Until this summer. This summer the big news is the price of gasoline. In the last year and a half, the price of gasoline has doubled. In January, 2007 gasoline was less than $2.20 a gallon, today it is well over $4.  read more »

Elliot Sander has begun to add a bit of flair to his public remarks.

Earlier this month, the normally staid, modest CEO of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority told an Assembly hearing that the agency’s finances are “going over the cliff,” warning that another fare hike could come in 2009. On Monday, speaking to reporters gathered at the agency’s Madison Avenue headquarters, he added that the agency was “facing a crisis,” that “riders should be concerned” and that “we are really approaching a time of reckoning.”

The turn to apocalyptic verbiage comes at a time when the straits are growing increasingly dire for transit infrastructure in New York, particularly for the M.  read more »

WNBC.com got hold of a March 25 letter from Police Commissioner Ray Kelly to Madison Square Garden Chairman James Dolan, Vornado Realty chief executive Steve Roth, and the heads of the M.T.A. and Amtrak, faulting the parties for holding up the installation of a security perimeter around Penn Station to protect what he called “the single most critical transit hub in the United States” from terrorist attacks.  read more »

One day you're a New York City subway toll booth worker, then you total your car in an accident that lands you in physical therapy, which is sort of boring (plus you have no cash to buy a new car). So, you enter a screenwriting competition on a whim, hoping to score some prize money. And the next thing you know, you're rubbing elbows with Hollywood bigwigs who think you're so good they ask you to write a sequel to a famous gangbanger flick!  read more »

New York City commuters awoke this morning to the grim reality that improved mass transit service is not in the cards anytime soon; but if it’s any consolation subways have gotten (slightly) cleaner since 2005, according to the ninth annual “Subway Shmutz” report released today by the Straphangers Campaign.

On the whole, the results will probably not do much to brighten an otherwise gloomy day for subway passengers—unless you happen to ride the L or the 7. Between Sept. 20, 2007, and Jan. 11, 2008, Straphangers inspected 2,200 subway cars on 22 lines and found that half were “clean," up from 47 percent when the last survey was conducted in 2005.

Subway cars were rated on the cleanliness of floors and seats, according to the M.T.A.’s official standards. The ones that were "basically dirt free" or had "light dirt"—"occasional 'ground-in' spots but generally clean"—were rated clean.

The survey found nine lines had improved noticeably (2, 7, B, E, G, J/Z, L, M, and V); six had deteriorated (3, 4, 6, C, D, and Q); and seven lines remained basically unchanged (1, 5, A, F, N, R, and W).  read more »

In his State of the MTA address today, Metropolitan Transportation Authority Chief Executive Elliot (Lee) Sander imagined aloud the Second Avenue Subway running from the Bronx into Brooklyn and on to Queens.  read more »

Any good development firm worth its salt has got to have a former City Hall staffer or two on hand to navigate the bureaucracy. Last month, Brookfield Properties sent its latest government hire, Joshua Sirefman, into a meeting to help present the company’s multi-billion dollar plan for the West Side rail yards to a joint city-Metropolitan Transportation Authority selection committee.  read more »

In a press conference in the Times Square subway station today, the mayor announced the groundbreaking (without shovels or dirt) of the 1.5-mile extension of the No. 7 subway line, a keystone in the city’s efforts to expand midtown to the far West Side.

While officials, including Governor Spitzer, Representative Jerrold Nadler, and City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, lined up at the press conference to pledge their support for the start of the project, the decision of who will pay to finish it—should there be any cost overruns—has been pushed off to a later day.  read more »

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority found some extra money in its budget as it redid its books over the past few months and now says it will hold the base fare to $2. Other charges, such as monthly cards, commuter rail fares and bridge tolls, will go up, though less than anticipated, the MTA said.

The announcement came after Governor Spitzer formally called on the state agency to maintain the base fare after he "listened to the public's serious concerns about paying more, especially while times are tight."

The MTA's press release is after the jump.  read more »

The Tishman Speyer plan looks, in comparison to Extell’s eclecticism or Brookfield’s urbanism, downright conservative (or, if you prefer, stately). It is not enormously high (about 1,000 feet), and is almost perfectly symmetrical along an east-west axis. The towers grow progressively smaller as they move to the west.

Its edge comes from the money behind it: the Speyers joined up with Morgan Stanley in a 50-50 partnership, and the investment bank will own its own 3-million-square-foot building. That’s the one in the right rear in the above picture. The fountain area is called “The Forum”; in the foreground stands what Tishman-Speyer/Morgan Stanley is calling “The New York Steps.”

Having a bank as a main tenant is nothing like having an international, multimedia company around, nor even a sexy magazine publisher, but maybe that’s what people are talking about when they compare the greater Hudson Yards neighborhood to Canary Wharf in London. With just 3,000 apartments (300 of which are affordable) and 10 million square feet of office, Tishman Speyer’s proposal leans more heavily commercial than any of the others. Despite the fact that financial firms work around the clock, somehow this bid does not seem like it will do much for the nightlife along the Hudson.

The designer, Helmut Jahn, has done sweeping statements for Jerry Speyer before--consider the Sony Center in Berlin--and maybe he will here again, after the bid gets through committee.

“We think that by having our tenant and partner pretty much guarantees the success of the project,” Mr. Speyer said. “We have a tenant. We have the capital. We’re ready to buy the land and to do what needs to be done.”

The joint proposal for the West Side Rail Yards by the Durst Organization and Vornado Realty Trust is obsessed with getting people to the far West Side. The developers propose a subterranean “people mover” below 33rd Street that would carry up to 20,000 riders an hour from Penn Station to 11th Avenue (although it was not clear just who would pay for it); a pedestrian skyway that floats over the entire site and Hudson River Park; and a new headquarters for Condé Nast.

“We felt that we wanted to maintain the kind of porosity that we get in the best parts of the city,” said architect Rafael Pelli, who designed the plan along with FxFowle. “We are really trying to relate it to Union Square, Bryant Park or even a Times Square. We are thinking about how this is going to be a diverse and useful area and attract people from a greater catchment area rather than an enclave.”

The plan, one of five submitted to purchase the yards from the MTA, envisions four office or mixed-use towers, the tallest of which will be 1,205 feet tall. (It's online here.) The new Condé Nast headquarters would go at the southeast corner of 33rd Street and 11th Avenue. Overall, the plan is heavier on residential space than the other four proposals, with about 7,000 apartments, an unspecified number of which would be affordable.

A broad low-lying kunsthalle on the southeastern flank would house a cultural institution; its 120,000-square-foot floor plates, Mr. Pelli said, would be ideal for flower and antique shows (and, one might add, provide competition for the troubled Javits Convention Center expansion plan on the other side of 34th street).

The project, in keeping with Douglas Durst’s environmentally progressive reputation, includes a number of green features, among them a co-generation plant to capture the heat thrown off by generating electricity; a treatment plant that would allow the complex to reuse wastewater for plumbing purposes; and bris soleil, a type of awning that would shade out the summer light while letting in winter light.

Vornado, with its $18 billion in assets, is lending some financial heft to the bid.

“A lot will rely on the capital strength of the bidder,” Vornado Chairman and Chief Executive Steve Roth said. “I think it is obvious that this is an enormously complex project so the success of the project may ride and fall on the financial strength of the winning bidder; that will be a very important differentiating tactic.”

Probably never had so many of New York’s real estate elite crammed themselves into such a small space as happened Sunday afternoon at the press preview of proposals to develop the Western Rail Yards: Steve Roth, Stephen Ross, Jerry Speyer and his son Rob, Ric Clark, Gary Barnett, Steven Holl, Helmut Jahn and Rafael Pelli. S.I. Newhouse even dropped by, very casually dressed, as proof that if Mr. Roth’s bid won, he’d move Condé Nast west to 10th Avenue.

They all crammed themselves into a vacant storefront on West 43rd Street to show of their versions of New York’s future: towering buildings that will pack some 30,000 residents and workers into a six-square block area along the Hudson River, between 30th and 33rd streets. The architectural models themselves costs tens of thousands of dollars; the bids, submitted last month, ate up a few million, according to a number of developers.

Not surprisingly, the five teams talked a lot about how their particular plan creates a vibrant new neighborhood-- this, after all, is the retail version of the plans. No financials were disclosed, and the point is to try to curry favor with the public to create a popular favorite. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority--which, with the Bloomberg administration’s input, will choose the winner in the next few months--has got to pay more attention to how much money each team is offering, when they’d be able to pay it, and how likely they’d get it done.

“There are two or three of these that are done by teams that are really competent,” said Mr. Roth, “and in the end I think it's going to be the financial part of the deal that is going to differentiate them.”

Each of the plans profess to save the northern section of the High Line and promise to provide at least some affordable housing. The tallest buildings would stretch 1,000, 1,100, even 1,300 feet into the air. (The Empire State Building now clocks in at 1,250 feet.) The cost, according to a number of the developers, will likely come in between $10 billion to $20 billion, with completion anticipated in the early 2020’s

There were also plenty of wild and creative ideas, like, from Brookfield Properties, Diller Scofidio & Renfro's towers (pictured above) that are joined by a quarter-mile running track; mechanisms to reuse sullage for irrigation; patent-pending technology to create a better platform over the rail yards; a movie screen on which 20th Century Fox could premiere new films; and so on.

The exhibit of the five proposals, which includes architectural models, displays and videos, will be open to the public every day for the next two weeks, from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., starting today (with the exception of Thanksgiving). The address is 335 Madison Avenue, although the storefront is really located at the northwest corner of 43rd Street and Vanderbilt Avenue. Comment cards will be available for visitors to give input.

The Real Estate will post synopses of the five designs throughout the day.

The public hearings on the MTA’s proposed fare hike have been a great exercise in civic catharsis, letting people tell the transit agency just how much they dislike the idea of paying more for their daily commutes.  read more »

Five developers have bid on the Western Rail Yards. The bids came into the yards' owner, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, by 5 p.m. on Thursday, and they include the usual heavyweights of New York City building.

1. Extell Development Company
2. Brookfield Properties Developer LLC
3. The Related Companies
4. TS West Side Holding, LLC (A Joint Venture of Tishman Speyer and Morgan Stanley)
5. Hudson Center East LLC and Hudson Center West LLC (A Joint Venture of Vornado Realty Trust and The Durst Organization, Inc.)

For the MTA's statement on the selection process, which should drag on toward at least spring, click here.

For earlier Observer coverage of the architects who could get to shape the yards, click here.  

With rain on the way, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority is taking extra steps now to prevent Wednesday’s fiasco from re-occurring, like moving portable pumps throughout the subway system, readying extra buses and deploying more staff to guide confused riders.

But it sounds like there is only so much that can be done.

Only one portable pump, for example, was put into use on Wednesday because there was only one place where it could be used, according to Mike Lombardi, the head of subway operations for New York City Transit.  read more »

“You can say that today is the beginning of a new West Side Story,” Governor Sptizer said at a news conference this morning on West 33rd Street. But, it turned out the allusion was not to Leonard Bernstein’s musical, but rather to a dry, existential black-and-white drama penned by, well, a whole cast and crew of politicians. “The old West Side story related to this particular site was one of gridlock, delay and continuing discussion.”

Just over a year ago, the city was trying to wrest the John D. Caemmerer Rail Yard from the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. And a year before that, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver blocked Mayor Bloomberg’s dream of building a football stadium on the western portion of the rail yards. Somehow, the city and the M.T.A. have since agreed on a development scheme that was unveiled today in the form of a request for proposals, an invitation for developers to bid on rights to build 12 million square feet on the six blocks bounded by 10th and 12th avenues and 30th and 33rd streets.

The M.T.A. wanted specs that would maximize its profit, so as to plug a $1 billion hole in its capital plan. The city wanted amenities like five acres of parkland, a new public school and a yet-to-be-named “major new cultural facility.”

The plan stayed pretty close to that which was presented at a May 8 community meeting, Ann Weisbrod, the president of the Hudson Yards Development Corporation, told reporters after the press conference. And as such, it may still meet with resistance from community residents who were pushing for more affordable housing and the preservation of the High Line.  read more »

Governor Spitzer is expected to come to town tomorrow to release the request for proposals for developing the M.T.A. rail yards on the West Side, according to two individuals close to the process.

The move is, frankly, a bit anti-climactic: the four development teams who have been reportedly working on plans to turn the six blocks there into a skyscraper city have gotten pretty far along already, just based on informal conversations with officials.  read more »

The Governor nominated H. Dale Hemmerdinger, a real estate executive and Democratic donor, this afternoon to be the next M.T.A. chairman, subject to Senate approval.  read more »

The Chief Executive of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority spoke warmly of Mayor Bloomberg’s congestion pricing plan this morning, calling it “an extremely valuable contributor to the M.T.A. capital program,” though he stopped short of endorsing it.

“It is viable and can be made to work,” Elliot (Lee) Sander said at a breakfast sponsored by Crain’s New York Business newspaper.

He warned, though, that the M.T.A. would have to beef up the transit system in order to accommodate the increase in mass transit ridership.

“It could not happen overnight,” he said.

David Weprin, a Queens City Council Member and opponent of congestion pricing who was in the audience at the New York Hilton, took that comment as a bad sign.

“It sounds like they are not ready and that is a real problem,” he said.  read more »

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority said today that the new head of the Long Island Rail Road would be Helena Williams, the former president of the agency’s Long Island bus division who later became deputy under Nassau County Executive Tom Suozzi. She most recently had worked as senior counsel for Cablevision.

State Senator Dean Skelos, a senior Long Island Republican, told Newsday, “She's going to face real challenges as president of the Long Island Rail Road.”  read more »