This is going to spur so much development; its exciting to think about the potential. Can’t wait for this to finally open up.
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Second Avenue Subway - December 18, 2014
86th Street Cavern
Second Avenue Subway Update - 86th Street Cavern Completion by MTAPhotos, on Flickr
Second Avenue Subway Update - 86th Street Cavern Completion by MTAPhotos, on Flickr
Second Avenue Subway Update - 86th Street Cavern Completion by MTAPhotos, on Flickr
Second Avenue Subway Update - 86th Street Cavern Completion by MTAPhotos, on Flickr
Second Avenue Subway Update - 86th Street Cavern Completion by MTAPhotos, on Flickr
Second Avenue Subway Update - 86th Street Cavern Completion by MTAPhotos, on Flickr
Second Avenue Subway Update - 86th Street Cavern Completion by MTAPhotos, on Flickr
Second Avenue Subway Update - 86th Street Cavern Completion by MTAPhotos, on Flickr
96th Street Cavern
Second Avenue Subway Update - 96th Street Cavern by MTAPhotos, on Flickr
Second Avenue Subway Update - 96th Street Cavern by MTAPhotos, on Flickr
Second Avenue Subway Update - 96th Street Cavern by MTAPhotos, on Flickr
Second Avenue Subway Update - 96th Street Cavern by MTAPhotos, on Flickr
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Sweet!
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Articles from 2013. Phase 2 still needs funding
Where is the Second Avenue Subway going?
By Dana Rubinstein 3:25 p.m. | Oct. 23, 2013
At the end of 2016, if nothing else goes awry, the first phase of the Second Avenue subway will open.
For the more than 200,000 daily riders expected to ride the Q train east to Second Avenue and north up to 96th Street, the Second Avenue Subway will be a considerable boon.
For the M.T.A., which struggles to maintain its aging system as is, the opening will represent an accomplishment, but a fractional one.
The 30-plus blocks of new subway, the three new stations and the $4.45 billion outlay comprise only the first of a four-phase subway plan that has been nearly a century in the making.
When or even whether funding for the second phase, which tentatively calls for extending the subway up to the 125th Street Metro-North station at Park Avenue, will materialize is “uncertain,” according to Gene Russianoff, the staff attorney at NYPIRG’s Straphangers Campaign.
“The question is where is the money gonna come from,” said Peter Derrick, a transit historian.
In late 2011, Michael Horodniceanu, the M.T.A.'s head of capital construction, said that "sections two, three and four will be for our children or grandchildren."
But when I talked with M.T.A. spokesman Adam Lisberg, he said that the M.T.A. was in fact planning to “update the environmental impact statement in order to do Phase II, because it was done years ago and we want to make sure that all of the conditions still apply.”
How long will that take?
“I don’t know.
Dan Doctoroff and John Zuccotti Don’t Think the East Side Needs Another Subway
By Stephen Jacob Smith | 07/31/13 2:19pm
http://nyoobserver.files.wordpress.com/2013/07/tbmtunnel1.jpg?w=300&h=199
The Upper East Side is only among the densest neighborhoods in the country—why does it need another subway? (Photo by Patrick J. Cashin of the MTA.)
Last night at the Forum for Urban Design’s Next New York dinner, there were many good ideas for improving the city’s transit infrastructure, collected in a booklet given out to attendees. Peter Derrick wants to integrate and beef up New York’s regional railroads, Bob Yaro’s advocated yet again for the TriboroRX radial outer borough rail line and Ben Fried’s suggested a more robust bus rapid transit network.
But not everybody’s ideas for transit struck us as so enlightened. Bloomberg (first the mayor, and now the corporation) executive Dan Doctoroff and Brookfield’s John Zuccotti sat on stage and chatted, and we could scarcely believe our ears when they started talking about the Second Avenue subway: they hate it.
“A silly little spur that doesn’t generate anything other than some convenience for people who are perfectly happy to live where they lived before,” Mr. Doctoroff said. Why, he wondered, was the city going through with it, “even though it’s a subway that doesn’t have any value added?” A “pet project” of the MTA and Sheldon Silver, he called it.
Are we talking about the same subway…? The one that will serve one of the densest neighborhoods in the city? The one that’s supposed to relieve a subway line that carries more passengers than the entire Washington Metro system? The one that’s been planned for the better part of a century? The one that Yorkville was upzoned in anticipation of decades ago? The one that, despite having only four stops, is projected to carry more riders than the entire length of the L train?
…But alas, the comments were the perfect illustration of the mile-wide chasm between transit planners and real estate folks when it comes to picking projects. Transit planners think of projects in terms of the riders who will be served (200,000 each weekday for the Second Avenue line’s first segment, from 63rd Street to 96th)—to many transit advocates, a neighborhood with an existing population deserves infrastructure more than an empty one whose sole constituency is developers.
Real estate insiders, on the other hand, think of transit primarily as a way of spurring development, and are not swayed by arguments about easing overcrowding or serving tax-paying citizens. And it wouldn’t be the first time Mr. Doctoroff has argued that transit should serve the needs of developers over existing New Yorkers—when the 7 train stop at 10th Avenue and 41st Street was cut, he downplayed the significance, since buildings were already going up in Hell’s Kitchen without it. (By that logic, what was the point of the entire Independent Subway System, now the A/C/E, B/D/F/M and G trains?)
Mr. Zuccotti did, however, cheer on the 7 train extension to Hudson Yards, lauding the Bloomberg administration’s “outstanding performance.” (Nevermind that it lost a station along the way.) Mr. Doctoroff also made reference to the project paying for itself. (Nevermind that the city has had to chip in a quarter of a billion dollars so far to make up for lackluster tax revenues at Hudson Yards.)
…All in all, the comments by the two former titans of New York City development were an excellent reminder that the interests of the transit-riding public should not be confused with the interests of politically-connected real estate developers.
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The East Side subway line needs relief.
Transit 2014: As Ridership Booms, Megaprojects Delayed
By: Jose Martinez on December 19, 2014
http://media.ny1.com/media/2014/12/19/images/transite8bd3461-2e5d-49f8-a60c-286c4ac53f20.jpg
It was a year of record ridership, funding challenges and more delays for transit megaprojects that have long been in the works. NY1’s Jose Martinez takes a look at the stories that made the biggest headlines on the transit beat in 2014.
They squeezed 'em in in 2014.
"It’s hard to get on sometimes, on the train,” said one rider.
With ridership at its highest level since 1949, the MTA had seven days in October when more than six million riders took the subway, topping the previous record set one month earlier.
To help meet that growing ridership demand, the agency pushed for full funding of its $32 billion capital program. But there’s still a $15 billion gap.
"It’s far from a wish list. It’s a needs list,” said MTA Chairman Tom Prendergast.
In November, the $1.2 billion Fulton Center opened years later than expected, easing transfers among nine lines and gaining early admirers with its glass centerpiece.
"Once you see it from the inside, my God, it’s beautiful,” said one New Yorker.
…LIRR unions also got a deal, theirs coming days before what would have been the first strike on the railroad in 20 years.
In May, an F train skipped the tracks in Queens, injuring 32 riders in a derailment that officials blamed on unrepaired track defects.
What to expect in 2015?
The long-overdue opening of the way over-budget World Trade Center Transportation Hub could finally happen late next year.
For more of a sure thing, though, another MTA fare hike is set to take effect in March.
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NYC transit in 2014: 10 best and worst moments, according to Straphangers Campaign
By Dan Rivoli on December 29, 2014
The year in transit had highs and lows for riders, from heinous crime and dangerous accidents to the MTA trying to modernize and expand a 24/7 transportation system being squeezed under record ridership.
The Straphangers Campaign shared with amNewYork its list of the top 10 best and worst moments in transit for 2014 that showed the MTA continuing to move out of Superstorm Sandy’s shadow more than two years after it heavily ravaged the subway system and increase service after the Great Recession hurt the agency’s finances.
“Transit has definitely had worse years. Sandy was the extreme example,” said Gene Russianoff, a transit advocate and lawyer for the Straphangers Campaign.
Russianoff said the riding public may disagree that record ridership, for example, could top a 10-best list for transit, but he said this was a highlight for the MTA.
“They just think of fewer seats and more elbows,” he said. “We think the system is meant to make this a mobile and vibrant city and it’s serving that purpose with a vengeance.” …
The MTA’s chief spokesman Adam Lisberg agreed that funding the capital program is a top priority.
“The most important concern for us and for our customers is to fully fund our capital program, which will allow us to renew, enhance and expand a mass transit network that now routinely carries 6 million subway customers every day,” Lisberg said.
BEST:
Record ridership: September saw the busiest day on the subways – five times. There were five days with more than 6 million riders, topping off at 6,106,694 on Sept. 23. October had even more record-busting ridership, with seven days that clocked more than 6 million rides.
Transit tax breaks: Fares keep going up, but riders will soon get a bit of relief. The city this year passed a law requiring most businesses by 2016 to enroll employees in a federal commuter program that gives a tax benefit for transit costs like a MetroCard.
Make 'em pay: Developers looking to build had city officials seeing dollar signs as they look to fund expensive transit projects. The company behind the proposed One Vanderbilt skyscraper plans to spend more than $200 million to fix the jam-packed Grand Central station; the No. 7 extension to the far west side was funded in anticipation of the Hudson Yards development…
WORST:
The search for more money: MTA officials say the entire transit system needs repairs and new equipment costing $32 billion over five years. But the MTA cannot cover the cost entirely on its own and needs to find another $15 billion to close the gap.
Cash grab: Transit advocates got into a beef with Gov. Andrew Cuomo this year over $30 million taken from a pot of money dedicated to transportation. The Cuomo administration had defended the budget maneuver as paying off debt from transit projects, while noting an increase in state money to the MTA.
Ye Olde C Trains: More than a decade into the 21st Century and the MTA is still using trains from the middle of the last one. Trains on the C line first hit the tracks as early as 1964. The C line is expected to get a modern fleet of trains in 2017.
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2015 transit outlook: What’s ahead for riders
By Dan Rivoli on December 29, 2014
The new year for transit will bring challenges in handling a growing ridership with unique demands on top of a fare hike. These are set to be some of the biggest stories across the city in 2015
Fare hikes: The riding public will be forced to pay a bit more for transit next year when the MTA puts in place a 4% fare hike that could mean a $2.75 ride with an 11% cash bonus and a 30-day MetroCard that costs $116.50. Riders will face this new price for two years until the next planned fare hike in 2017.
Capital ideas: Officials will be asking government at all levels for help in coming up with the $15 billion the MTA needs for a $32 billion blueprint through 2019 for fixing up stations and equipment, buying new train cars and continuing Second Avenue Subway construction.
No. 7 train goes west: It’s been more than a year since Mayor Michael Bloomberg got the first (ceremonial) ride on the new leg of the No. 7 train to the far West Side from Times Square. Riders can expect to take a trip on the first expansion of the subway system in decades by April at the earliest – unless the MTA has to push off the opening date.
Overcrowding: Transit officials are sensing that the days in the past few months when subway ridership cracked 6 million are becoming the new normal. Riders in 2015 can expect to see how the MTA will deal with the subway crunch in the short term, such as public awareness ads against taking up too much space and more platform workers to get people in and out of train cars quickly.
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Platforms for Art Under the City (If You Notice)
An Art Tour of the Subway System With the Director of MTA Arts & Design
By RALPH GARDNER JR. Jan. 7, 2015 7:52 p.m. ET
Sandra Bloodworth, the director of MTA Arts & Design at the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, suggested we meet at the 77th Street Lexington Avenue subway station. We were embarking on an art tour of New York City’s subway system.
Ms. Bloodworth is also the co-author, with William Ayres, an independent curator, of “New York’s Underground Art Museum.” It details the 250 works decorating the subway system and the 50 more in progress.
Ms. Bloodworth wanted to show me Robert Kushner’s “4 Seasons Seasoned,” a mosaic from 2004, above the stairs as you descend onto the 77th Street subway platform.
I’m all for art in the subways. If any place on Earth can benefit from beautification, it’s New York City’s system.
But here’s the problem: I consider the 77th Street Lexington Avenue my home station. However, even given my relative affection, and the fact that I patronize it several times a week, I can’t, in utter candor, say I truly noticed Mr. Kushner’s work until Ms. Bloodworth pointed it out to me.
And indeed, the flower mosaic is rather lovely.
“My intention,” the artist explains in “New York’s Underground Art Museum,” “is for people to enter the station, pass through the turnstile, look up and take note, and then go on their day feeling a little lighter, having glimpsed something beautiful for a passing moment.”
…Our next stop was the 59th Street Lexington Avenue station and Elizabeth Murray’s whimsical 1996 “Blooming,” described in Ms. Bloodworth’s book as one of the most ambitious works in the MTA system.
Even though it’s unavoidable, I can’t say I’ve paid any attention to it previously, my focus solely on finding the closest exit.
Ditto Christopher Sproat’s “V-Beam” from 2000 on the Grand Central No. 7 subway platform. Actually, I had earlier spotted the work—a combination of florescent lights, stainless steel, signage and a fan system. I just didn’t realize it was art.
Ms. Bloodworth politely declined to speculate on the completion date for the Second Avenue subway. However, when that glorious moment arrives it will be accompanied by eye-catching art. Renderings of which can be found in “New York’s Underground Art Museum.”
Among the artists is Sarah Sze. She’ll be doing a monumental mosaic along the escalators descending into the 96th Street station. Pixilated mosaic portraits by Chuck Close of New York cultural luminaries have been commissioned for the 86th Street station.
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While Brooklyn neighborhoods like Greenpoint and Crown Heights may be blowing up with new development, they still don’t have anything on the Upper East Side in terms of sheer volume. The impending completion of the Second Avenue Subway, crawling and sputtering to the finish line after only a few millennia or so of delays, has spurred a ton of new residential towers from the likes of Extell Development, Icon Realty Management, Zeckendorf Development, and others. And, of course, the Upper East Side is just very, very cool.
Here’s a map of some of the most notable new residential development that’s sweeping through Yorkville, Carnegie Hill, et al, including the future most expensive apartment in New York City history.
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Former MTA Leaders Back Push for Transit System Capital Funds
By Jose Martinez on January 13, 2015
http://media.ny1.com/media/2015/1/13/images/mta_funds7c8f1ad7-34fc-460b-8895-f7d1700fe027.jpg
The push for billions of dollars in capital funds marked for the transit system’s future is getting support from leaders out of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s past. NY1’s Jose Martinez filed this report.
You’ve got subway cars from the 1960s that need replacing and rickety stations in need of repair. Alongside newer trains, there are signal system upgrades and expansion projects like the Second Avenue Subway.
How to pay for it all? The Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s Capital Program, which since the early 80s has put more than $100 billion into a once-rotting transit system.
“We’ve come so far of the days of the daily transit misery, when the MTA’s motto could have been, ‘This system is being taken out of service,’” says Gene Russianoff of the Straphangers Campaign.
Nearly half of the MTA’s $32 billion Capital Program isn’t funded yet. So on Tuesday, three former MTA chiefs and the Empire State Transportation Alliance put out the call for help.
“The governor, the legislature and the mayor must do the heavy political lifting to find new revenue sources to fund a $15 billion gap,” said Elliot “Lee” Sander, who was the MTA executive director from 2007-2009.
“You are either going forward or you are going backward. And it is much more expensive to restore a system that has fallen into neglect than it is to maintain it properly,” said Peter Stangl, MTA chairman from 1991-1995.
That’s something no rider wants—but the trick is finding the funds.
Without them, the Capital Program could be scaled back—meaning, perhaps, a delay in the next phase of the Second Avenue Subway, which would extend from 96th to 125th Street.
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Spinola opens up on de Blasio, Moreland and 30 years at REBNY
By Konrad Putzier on January 15, 2015
When the 119th Annual REBNY Gala takes place tomorrow night, board president Steven Spinola will be honored with the Harry B. Helmsley Distinguished New Yorker award.
The event will mark the culmination of a 30-year career with REBNY that has seen him help guide the industry through one of the worst terrorist attacks on US soil, a Great Recession and a devastating hurricane.
As he prepares to step down from the presidency later this year, Spinola spoke with Real Estate Weekly about his experiences dealing with five different mayors, the role of corporate and private money in U.S. politics and what it’s been like working with his wife for 18 years ….
REW: What do you consider the biggest challenges to the real estate industry today?
Spinola: Everybody is happy right now, except they worry about land prices. Cost is significant. On the residential side, is there enough affordable product? Two thirds of New Yorkers rent their apartments and one third buy – that’s the opposite of the rest of the country. But (rental developers) are having trouble competing on prices. So there’s a conflict there.
We want to keep condos being built, but we also don’t want to lose out on the rentals.
And one of the biggest issues facing real estate in the city New York is its current and future transportation network. All of this affects real estate, along with the perception of where the city is going, including crime.
REW: What kinds of transportation projects are needed?
Spinola: The 7-line extension (to Secaucus), we need to finish East Side Access, the Second Avenue Subway is only partially done. We probably need to improve the airports. They’re terrible, especially LaGuardia. It would be great if we could get some kind of transportation system to LaGuardia. And we would love to see a one-seat ride from Lower Manhattan to Newark.
REW: Do you take the subway to work?
Spinola: I do not. I drive to work from Long Island. I used to say I’d start taking the Long Island Railroad when they open up East Side Access, but I couldn’t wait.
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60 years after its demise, rare videos reveal Third Avenue elevated line
By Lou Lumenick on January 16, 2015 | 12:45pm
Here’s some rare newsreel footage of the very last elevated subway line to run through Midtown Manhattan — along Third Avenue — which ceased operations in the very different city of 60 years ago.
There were originally four elevated lines running almost the entire length of Manhattan. But there were complaints about the trains’ noise from tenants of largely long-gone tenements adjoining the tracks, and from businesses below, which complained about the steel infrastructure blocking light and traffic.
The elevated lines along Second, Sixth and Ninth Avenues, made redundant (at least on the west side) by underground subway routes, shut down and were demolished between 1938 and 1942.
But the Third Avenue El received a reprieve until after the war. That’s because plans for a Second Avenue Subway drawn up in the 1920s had stalled, and tearing down the El would strain the East Side’s only subway line on Lexington Avenue.
Pressure to scrap the El increased because of the postwar construction boom in the city, with sections of the Third Avenue line running from South Ferry to Chatham Square closed beginning in 1950. The main part of the line — from Chatham Square to East 149th Street in The Bronx ceased operations on May 12, 1955. The very northern portion of the line, running from East 149th Street to Gun Hill Road in The Bronx, operated until 1973.
And that long-promised Second Avenue subway? Work has proceeded fitfully since the 1970s, and the first section — from 63rd Street to 96th Street — is finally scheduled to open in December 2016. As someone who rode on the Third Avenue elevated as a child, all I can say is: Don’t hold your breath.
MTA finances subject of lawmakers’ panel
By Dan Rivoli on February 1, 2015
State lawmakers will take a look into the MTA’s financial situation at a hearing today that aims to “stop the continuing cycle of increased fares and decreased service.”
A joint hearing of the state Senate’s transportation and infrastructure committees at 10:30 a.m. in Albany will grill officials on the MTA’s budget and finances. The MTA is hiking fares and tolls in March as part of a planned series of hikes every two years. The MTA’s finances are balanced up to 2017, though the agency is facing a $322 million deficit in 2018, according to budget documents. Meanwhile, transit officials have been pushing for money to finance a $32 billion capital program – a $15 billion funding gap remains – to keep the system in good working order and build megaprojects like the Second Avenue Subway and bringing Metro-North into Penn Station.
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They need to fire the top management.Glad that the state is finally looking into it. MTA while essential for the city suffers a serious problem of corruption and mismanagement. Fares shouldn’t have to go up constantly.
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Made (mostly under) Manhattan
Written by Douglas John Bowen on Tuesday, February 3, 2015
Amid myriad ongoing rail project work in New York’s five boroughs, four subway programs in Manhattan signify the ups and downs of adjusting and growing a century-old system for the second 100 years.
In the city that never sleeps, rail transit developments nevertheless remain largely unnoticed, mostly because so much of it is underground. So the opening last November of lower Manhattan’s Fulton Center was critical progress on several levels, including a physical presence that, at least in part, was visible for New Yorkers to actually see at street level.
Fulton Center (seen above) also doubles almost as a talisman, a psychological lift and sign that New York, after pausing for nearly a half century, is once again addressing and growing its vital subway system—not anywhere near rivaling Beijing or other Chinese cities, and not expanding with the robust visibility of cross-continental rival Los Angeles, but growing all the same, and with growing ridership as well, on some days now exceeding 6 million subway passengers.
The impetus for such rail progress is at least threefold: a civic-pride need for Manhattan to retain its “world-class” status in the 21st century; a civic yearning, bolstered by federal funding, to recover from the scars visited by 9/11; and a coldly analytical reaction to the looming threat of climate change and its potential impact on New York Harbor, highlighted by the very real damage visited upon the Northeast by SuperStorm Sandy in October 2012.
And while the tripartite spurs have generated widespread repair, rehabilitation, and new construction throughout at least four of New York’s five boroughs, four of the high-cost, high-profile subway projects predictably can be found in the high-cost, high-profile borough, Manhattan.
…SAS slowly nears reality
Over on Manhattan’s East Side, the ever-ephemeral Second Avenue Subway (SAS) is slowly but finally becoming a reality, at least in part, though since SAS first surfaced as a concept in 1929, New Yorkers remain understandably skeptical of its functional existence.
Here, unlike the No. 7, construction of the $4.45 billion, two-mile Phase 1 has been unavoidably “more intrusive,” Horodniceanu observes, since SAS will serve “the densest residential area in the country, 100,000 people per square mile.” As well, the project has had to dodge sewer lines and other existing infrastructure “outside the walls of the station” or subway tunnels, and many residents, small businesses, and property owners “had no trust” in MTA when the project’s latest push ceremonially commenced in the spring of 2007, Horodniceanu says.
Though SAS primarily utilized tunnel-boring machines, and not New York’s traditional “cut and cover” construction, fears of disruption and dirt (real and anticipated) prompted MTA Capital Construction to initiate an outreach program along the entire route, including not just casual contact with New York’s Community Boards but also “monthly meetings with building representatives, contractors, and MTA officials on what’s to come,” Horodniceanu says, with an unofficial MTA motto of “no surprises” being the goal. For him, SAS became more than just moving Manhattan schist.
"Civil engineering, he says, “is a profession that’s supposed to serve the people.” SAS Phase 1 is expected to serve 200,000 daily riders upon opening, an anticipated mix of “new” riders mixed with others opting for the new line instead of the consistently overcrowded Lexington Avenue (4, 5, and 6) East Side service.
It’s not that New Yorkers automatically will appreciate—or even notice—system improvements or expansions. But with New York’s population expected to top nine million by 2030, the four subway projects, buttressed by widespread if less spectacular work systemwide and reinforced by other MTA regional rail projects, plus other improvements—whenever they might come on line—will be needed, and used.
River Views, and Soon a Subway
On the Upper East Side, Yorkville Rebounds
By Alison Gregor on February 4, 2015
One of Manhattan’s more inconspicuous neighborhoods despite its size — it sprawls between 79th and 96th Streets from Third Avenue to the East River — Yorkville has myriad types of housing, including high-rise rental complexes, co-op towers, new condominiums, townhouses and apartments in former tenements.
Its roughly 78,000 residents are a hugely diverse group. These days the area is drawing large numbers of young people, including young families, as well as retirees seeking more value for their dollar, according to real estate agents in the area.
“Prices are really on the ascent,” said Rena Goldstein, an associate broker with Halstead Properties who lives in Yorkville. “But the prices of apartments in Yorkville are still more competitive and more reasonable than other parts of Manhattan, and there are more listings to choose from.”
The average sales price in Yorkville, at $891,503 in 2013, was at its highest since 2005, according to data from the appraiser Miller Samuel. However, its average price of $846 a square foot was still well below the average of $1,176 for the entire Upper East Side.
Yorkville’s prices have risen despite the housing market collapse in 2008 and two prominent issues in the neighborhood: a planned garbage transfer station on the East River at East 91st Street, and several years of Second Avenue subway construction that drove away businesses and home buyers until recently, Ms. Goldstein said.
“It was poison,” she said of subway construction. “People would come to see a building, and it would shake because of the demolition, and they would just turn around and walk out.” Now, “the blasting has finished, and the most disruptive construction is done, so buyers are back.”
One reason Yorkville’s home prices may still be eclipsed by those on the rest of the Upper East Side is its distance from the subway, a 10- to 15-minute walk from parts of the neighborhood. That will change to some extent with the opening of the Second Avenue subway line from 96th Street to 63rd Street, which is scheduled for the end of next year.
De Blasio: M.T.A. budget hole an ‘Albany question’
By Dana Rubinstein on February 4, 2015
In an interview Wednesday evening, Mayor Bill de Blasio described the gaping hole in the M.T.A.'s five-year capital plan as an Albany issue.
“I think clearly this an Albany question first and foremost,” he told NY1’s Errol Louis. “Not only do we need to preserve the payroll tax that’s playing such a crucial role now, but I think we have to have a real debate about what Albany should do with its resources and what’s fair for the whole state.”
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority is effectively controlled by Governor Andrew Cuomo even though New York City is the focal point of its operations.
It’s five-year, $32 billion capital plan, which is designed to upgrade the system and keep it in a state of moderately good repair, has a $15.2 billion funding gap that no one has quite figured out how to fill.
The governor hinted he might slim down the plan when he described it as “bloated.”
But the city has also been under some pressure to contribute more to the M.T.A.'s bottom line, given how much it benefits from the system.
An Independent Budget Office report released last month, at the request of a group of subway advocates, found that New York City’s contribution to the M.T.A. capital plan, at roughly $100 million a year, has severely lagged inflation.
On the Market: Brooklyn! Brooklyn! Brooklyn!
By Kim Velsey | 02/05/15 9:00am
…And apparently Yorkville is now so mysterious to this Brooklyn-obsessed city that The New York Times saw fit to write a “living in” column on it: “One of Manhattan’s more inconspicuous neighborhoods despite its size—it sprawls between 79th and 96th Streets from Third Avenue to the East River — Yorkville has myriad types of housing.” Bottom line: comparatively reasonable rents and the end of Second Avenue subway construction approaching could mean a small resurgence for the never not-popular neighborhood.
Tattoo you: Upper East Side gets hip
Low rents attract a far younger crowd and shops to match.
BY Adrianne Pasquerelli on January 26, 2015 I 10:30 A.M.
When Kathryn Creech moved from North Carolina to New York three years ago, she picked a place on the Upper East Side for its affordability—and because of her blissful ignorance of the neighborhood’s rock-bottom ranking on the hip scale.
“If I’d known then what I know now, I don’t think I would have ended up on the Upper East Side. It has that uncool stigma,” said the 27-year-old, who works as a baker in (infinitely cooler) Greenpoint, Brooklyn. But last year, when she and her husband, who also works in Brooklyn, wanted to move to a new place, they didn’t look far. Instead, they packed up and moved to a one-bedroom apartment eight blocks south, on East 77th Street.
“We have a community here,” she said, noting that in recent months a number of bars and restaurants with a “downtown vibe” have opened nearby.
Long associated with stuffy seniors and well-to-do ladies who lunch, the mix on the Upper East Side now includes its share of people with beards and tattoos, not to mention those who eat vegan muffins. Lured to the neighborhood by rents that are well below those in Williamsburg and the Lower East Side, and a plethora of building types—from walk-ups to high-rises—young creatives are streaming in and giving the area a new vibe. Retailers from Warby Parker to the Meatball Shop have noticed the seismic shift and opened stores to capture the new crowd.
Big brands move in
Meanwhile, larger brands, such as Apple, are planning outposts. Brokers predict the trend will only intensify as more retailers feel the pull of the Upper East Side’s changing demographics, coupled with its relatively inexpensive shop rents. The long-awaited completion of the first leg of the Second Avenue subway, slated for 2016, is expected to enhance the neighborhood’s drawing power.
The $15B reason why your commute could get worse
By Andrew J. Hawkins on February 11, 2014
http://www.crainsnewyork.com/apps/pbcsi.dll/storyimage/CN/20150211/BLOGS04/150219964/AR/0/Subway.jpg?q=100&cci_ts=20150211132904
The MTA’s $32 billion capital plan is only half funded, raising concerns about the state’s willingness to fill the gap. Photo by Buck Ennis
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority has a problem: Its $32 billion capital plan is $15 billion short of being fully funded. But a new study says it is all of New York’s problem, too.
The five-year capital plan, due to be finalized later this year, has wide-ranging implications for the Western Hemisphere’s largest public transportation network, according to a study by the Urban Land Institute New York and the Permanent Citizens Advisory Committee to the MTA, released Wednesday.
The plan mostly pays to keep the system in good-repair as well as projects like East Side Access and the Second Avenue Subway. Failure to fully fund it would result in longer wait times and commutes, delayed improvements to station accessibility, and the perpetuation of poor service, especially in certain communities.
“The MTA’s capital program helped bring a struggling subway system back to life in the early '80s,” said Robert Lieber, chairman of ULI New York and the former deputy mayor for economic development under Michael Bloomberg, in a statement. “Today, the MTA faces a new set of challenges, be it the growing threat of climate change or growing competition from other cities. With New York City at a crossroads, the need for a robust capital program is stronger than ever.”
According to the study, 90% of residents in the New York metropolitan region are served by the MTA, which includes Metro-North, the Long Island Rail Road and the city’s subway and bus systems. Since 1982, annual ridership has increased 72% on New York City subways, 32% on city buses, 73% on Metro-North and 19% on the LIRR. On-time performance improved by 14% on NYC subways, 6% on buses (since 1989), 17% on Metro-North and 6% on the LIRR, the study finds.
The sheer scope of MTA ridership is staggering. Every weekday, the 4/5/6 subway line carries more commuters than the total transit ridership of San Francisco, Chicago and Boston combined.
The system enables a concentration of jobs that helps business thrive, the report argues. “The business density of the New York region is 10 times that of the average U.S. city, by far the highest of any U.S. metropolitan area,” the study reads. "Dense urban employment centers achieve significantly higher productivity relative to metropolitan areas of lesser density