And yes, the fact that it’s useless is a general problem. But Schumer isn’t going to defund a project just because it’s a bad New Jersey commuter tunnel. The reasons ARC is bad are technical, and he wouldn’t know the problems unless he got into the business of auditing those projects one by one. I can almost understand him if he leaves that job to New Jersey’s politicians.

Alon Levy: “Obama has no reason to do symbolic things for New York – he should be doing them in swing states.” Yes, you are identifying part of the problem here!

” Schumer knows this and prefers that Obama quietly fund important things for the region. For example, the stimulus gave billions to ARC”. You have to be kidding me! ARC was a priority under the last administration. Please don’t treat us like idiots! Most of ARC is being financed by PA-collected tolls, NJ Turnpike tolls and whatever else can be ripped from the pockets of NJ taxpayers, and the federal contribution was approved by the last administration. You know that.

“ARC is expensive crap, but that’s a problem for New Jersey.” Uh, no, spending $10 billion on a tunnel that is of marginal utility is a problem all around. ARC is, by simple math, using money that won’t be available for other projects, so it would be nice if it was as useful as it could be.

Also: New York’s HSR application was rotten and it’s a good thing it got next to nothing.

But when it comes for pitching for mass transit who can forget his tireless advocacy for the most expensive project that will actually decrease total mass transit options for New Yorkers the Lower Manhattan Rail Connector the fantasy “one seat ride to Kennedy”. It couldn’t possibly be built or paid for but that didn’t stop the Senator from pitching for it for the better part of the last decade.

Then you have to factor in that his political clout likely saddled New York City with the dubious talents of his wife Iris Weinshall. Ms. Weinshall never helped pull Federal Operating money from Washington despite her direct connection to the Senate. And, during her period as Commissioner of Transportation the City and State contributions to the MTA Capital program withered to her exquisite silence. And, its not like during those boom years she pushed the system to pay off some debts so the Operating budget would have less weight to carry in the bad times to come.

So, when you compare the damage his wife has done, Ms. Gillibrand has been an effective advocate for the rider.

That’s a month by month look at 2009. His accomplishments both as a Congressman and Senator are impressive and too numerous to list here. Perhaps he hasn’t gotten a few of your favorite things, which appear to be roads roads and more roads, done, but if Gillibrand becomes half the senator that Schumer is, NY would be in good shape.

Really? What exactly has NY’s party loyalty gotten NY or Senator Schumer? He has been a champion of Farley Station for how many decades now? Where is that project? Upstate he’s championed the Peace Bridge replacement, which has been in the “championing” stages since roughly Clinton’s first term. If he does have the clout he certainly isn’t using it to get our infrastructure into the modern ages. That may be mainly because modern politicians don’t see the transformative power of these types of projects anyway. Chuck seems more concerned with getting like minded judges onto courts than actually making sure someone can get from Fairfield County to Nassau County in less than three hours.