Municipal Control for NYC Metro
March 6, 2019 8:48 AM Subscribe
“We have been living in Robert Moses’ New York for almost a century, and it is time to move on." Following years of MTA corruption, delays, stagnation, mismanagement, accidents, and scandals, NYC Speaker Corey Johnson delivers a bold solution: Give NYC Control Of The Subways, Five Questions raised By Speaker Johnson’s proposal, this is about “breaking car culture”, the entire 104 page PDF. Maybe a proposed Wall Street tax could help?
Why should some schmuck in Albany get to run a public transit system that is within, and largely used by, residents of New York City?
Counties served by LIRR and Metro-North should have a seat at the table, but busses and subways belong to New York City and should be controlled by its government, not the Governor. Doubly-so if that governor is Andrew fucking Cuomo.
Don't blame me. I voted for Cynthia.
posted by SansPoint at 9:19 AM on March 6, 2019 [15 favorites]
Counties served by LIRR and Metro-North should have a seat at the table, but busses and subways belong to New York City and should be controlled by its government, not the Governor. Doubly-so if that governor is Andrew fucking Cuomo.
Don't blame me. I voted for Cynthia.
posted by SansPoint at 9:19 AM on March 6, 2019 [15 favorites]
Let's not forget congestion pricing, which Cuomo and de Blasio both currently support - let's hope they don't find a way to screw it up. They're talking about it as a way to fund much-needed MTA work, and hopefully bringing the system under city control would let fewer meddlers into that decision-making process.
I'm still salty that in 2008, a vote on congestion pricing in the dang state assembly (!) was stopped by Sheldon Silver, which killed congestion pricing and made NYC lose out on something like $400million of federal money for transit improvements.
Silver went on to be sentenced to 12 years in prison on federal corruption charges for unrelated matters. Fuck that guy. I wonder how healthy the city could have gotten in the past 10 years without his meddling.
posted by entropone at 9:21 AM on March 6, 2019 [8 favorites]
I'm still salty that in 2008, a vote on congestion pricing in the dang state assembly (!) was stopped by Sheldon Silver, which killed congestion pricing and made NYC lose out on something like $400million of federal money for transit improvements.
Silver went on to be sentenced to 12 years in prison on federal corruption charges for unrelated matters. Fuck that guy. I wonder how healthy the city could have gotten in the past 10 years without his meddling.
posted by entropone at 9:21 AM on March 6, 2019 [8 favorites]
I saw Corey Johnson speak at a transit event last month and came away incredibly impressed. He seems to relish the details and makes a point to educate himself thoroughly on the issues that come up.
posted by beisny at 9:22 AM on March 6, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by beisny at 9:22 AM on March 6, 2019 [1 favorite]
*begins looking up appropriate chants and sacrifices to the transportation dieties to make this happen*
posted by Grimp0teuthis at 11:18 AM on March 6, 2019 [2 favorites]
posted by Grimp0teuthis at 11:18 AM on March 6, 2019 [2 favorites]
Americans REALLY have a hard time perceiving how the whole country (or just individual states) can benefit from paying for stuff that only a portion of the population uses. [see also: Healthcare and Education]
So I've always wondered if one of the big disadvantages the MTA has compared to similarly sized metro systems is that it doesn't get any funding from the national government for its operating budget (it does recieve some for capital expenditures). As far as I know, the metro systems of London, Paris, Mexico City, Moscow, Seoul, Madrid and Tokyo all get direct government grants for a portion of their running costs. Many of them also share some amount of infrastructure with their national rail systems, which bear part of those costs.
Of course this also stems from the fact that in the US doesn't have dense cities, aside from NYC and a couple of others. As a result, the idea that urban populations should have access to public transportation is an alien concept to the middle class and the elite throughout much of the country.
posted by theory at 2:02 PM on March 6, 2019
So I've always wondered if one of the big disadvantages the MTA has compared to similarly sized metro systems is that it doesn't get any funding from the national government for its operating budget (it does recieve some for capital expenditures). As far as I know, the metro systems of London, Paris, Mexico City, Moscow, Seoul, Madrid and Tokyo all get direct government grants for a portion of their running costs. Many of them also share some amount of infrastructure with their national rail systems, which bear part of those costs.
Of course this also stems from the fact that in the US doesn't have dense cities, aside from NYC and a couple of others. As a result, the idea that urban populations should have access to public transportation is an alien concept to the middle class and the elite throughout much of the country.
posted by theory at 2:02 PM on March 6, 2019
Americans REALLY have a hard time perceiving how the whole country (or just individual states) can benefit from paying for stuff that only a portion of the population uses.
You said a mouthful.
I once had to talk my student co-op -- a group of people who had chosen to live in community -- down from a proposal to subject the food budget to a line-by-line vote, with items being purchased only if a majority wanted that particular item. I'm not sure if this is more illustrative of Americans' blindness to mutual benefit or of co-opers' covert love of procedure, but still. This attitude is bred so deep in many of us who are otherwise liberal-minded.
posted by aws17576 at 6:41 PM on March 7, 2019
You said a mouthful.
I once had to talk my student co-op -- a group of people who had chosen to live in community -- down from a proposal to subject the food budget to a line-by-line vote, with items being purchased only if a majority wanted that particular item. I'm not sure if this is more illustrative of Americans' blindness to mutual benefit or of co-opers' covert love of procedure, but still. This attitude is bred so deep in many of us who are otherwise liberal-minded.
posted by aws17576 at 6:41 PM on March 7, 2019
On ‘Busway,’ Would-Be Transportation God Corey Johnson Falls at the First Hurdle. One day after Council Speaker Corey Johnson gave the livable streets speech of his (or pretty much anyone’s) life, he ended up in a nasty public brawl with his would-be partners in the activist community — and to a lesser extent at Transportation Alternatives — over his apparent objection to a “busway” plan for a car-free 14th Street during the repairs to the L train.
posted by showbiz_liz at 8:13 AM on March 8, 2019
posted by showbiz_liz at 8:13 AM on March 8, 2019
Let's not forget congestion pricing, which Cuomo and de Blasio both currently support - let's hope they don't find a way to screw it up.
It's happening! Yay! I might do a post on this in a day or two unless someone beats me to it.
posted by showbiz_liz at 9:17 AM on April 1, 2019
It's happening! Yay! I might do a post on this in a day or two unless someone beats me to it.
posted by showbiz_liz at 9:17 AM on April 1, 2019
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@BrooklynSpoke Who knows what will happen with the mayoral election, but that speech was every transit and transportation nerd's wish list going back years.
@dahvnyc i am loathe to spew praise on politicians, who are craven narcissists, but that was truly the best transportation speech anyone could have hoped for. hit all the right notes.
As noted in the "Five Questions" link, though, a lot of the things in the proposed plan will be opposed by other powerful Democratic political actors in NY/NYC. The city council may be able to do some things unilaterally, but other chunks of this could be compared to the Green New Deal in that they're aspirational statements of what we should be doing, regardless of how politically possible it is currently.
Basically I see this proposal as a shot across Mayor de Blasio's bow and as the first policy announcement of Corey Johnson's obviously-happening-but-not-technically-announced 2021 mayoral campaign.
posted by showbiz_liz at 9:15 AM on March 6, 2019 [1 favorite]