Comments on: Thompson’s weak plan for transit

By: Getting There Is Half the Fun, and Half a Dollar More - City Room Blog - NYTimes.com

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 16:54:31 +0000

[...] review of William C. Thompson Jr.’s proposed transit strategies, and how they rate. [Second Ave. [...]

By: Alon Levy

Alon Levy — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 08:37:59 +0000

1. Thompson has been holding back the entire campaign.

2. It makes more political sense. The machines are digging. Great. Make them stop at 10th Avenue and put a station there. Drop the wild-eyed development schemes, which always involve some politically connected developer getting billions of dollars from the city government to build luxury apartments.

By: Benjamin Kabak

Benjamin Kabak — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 05:01:27 +0000

I too am willing to give him the benefit of the doubt on it, but two things:

1. If that’s what he means, then why not say it? Don’t hold back your punches on the campaign trail. My bet is that he hasn’t thought it through enough.

2. Does it make more or less political sense to pull out of a project that is being TBM’d right now? The machines are digging. It’s pretty much reached the point of no return without some serious political blowback.

By: Alon Levy

Alon Levy — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 04:59:38 +0000

Review MTA capital projects to make sure projects like the 7-line extension continue to make economic and transportation sense. If they don’t, look at other options like light rail or BRT that could do the job less expensively.

To me this reads as “The 7 extension is a waste of money and needs to be scrapped yesterday.” This suggests good transit sense, certainly better than it seemed when Thompson was campaigning against bike lanes.

By: Scott E

Scott E — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 02:51:03 +0000

Whether or not Thompson is capable, either by skill or by power, of fulfilling some of these promises is irrelevant. As anyone who reads the user comments to MTA-related articles on the Daily News or New York Post web sites knows, the majority of the public – the voting public – THINKS the mayor has totalitarian rule over the MTA, and they blame Bloomberg for everything. Thompson can either educate, which would effectively help his opponent, or he could just play to the public’s belief.

By: rhywun

rhywun — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 00:33:45 +0000

the city has a $60 billion capital budget

I’m not sure what that means. Are you saying we spend that much on schools and roads and stuff every year? Holy crap.

By: Benjamin Kabak

Benjamin Kabak — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 23:47:22 +0000

That’s a perfectly acceptable answer. But if that’s going to be our solution, then city officials should stop demanding more services — services that cost money — from the MTA. Sound like a fair trade-off?

Anyway, the city has a $60 billion capital budget. More than $60 million should go to the MTA.

By: rhywun

rhywun — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 23:45:03 +0000

You keep saying the city needs to fork over more money. Where is it supposed to come from…? We’re already worn out from funding billion-dollar stadiums and out-of-control pension costs and health care fraud.

By: JP

JP — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 23:05:09 +0000

thanks for doing that, Ben.