Jay Walder made headlines last week when he announced an MTA thought experiment. The authority, said the CEO and Chairman, may consider shutting large segments of train lines from Friday night until Monday morning to better expedite the weekend repairs. With larger chunks of routes closed for shorter periods of time, the MTA can be more productive with its capital improvements.
Into this fray went the supposedly pro-transit Mayor Michael Bloomberg. When reached for a comment, the third-term mayor who famously commutes via subway had the following to say to the Wall Street Journal: “I can think of only once in the last eight and a third years where we held for more than a minute or two,” Mr. Bloomberg said. “I never find any service interruptions.”
Bloomberg ran an appealing campaign for his third mayoral term by highlighting a 33-point plan to reform mass transit, but it’s clear that the mayor had no intentions to follow through. This statement simply highlights his mentality. Bloomberg has his drivers take him from his house to the subway, and he uses the 6 train for show during the work week. I’d love to know when the mayor last took a train ride on the weekend that involved service disruptions and diversions. As the MTA struggles along, we certainly shouldn’t expect the mayor to do it a thing about it. After all, the trains run on time for him.
18 comments
Bloomberg barely spends the weekends in NYC, let alone riding the subway and having to realize the B train is running as the M, making all local stops, except during evenly-numbered hours when it is running as the G train and making all express stops, except when it isn’t.
No, most weekends, Mayor Mike can be found at his enormous gated compound on the island of Bermuda, which, last time I checked, was not one of the five boroughs.
what an ass
Yes, Bloomie is a rich man. Yes, he lives on Bermuda when he can. Wouldn’t you?
Look, we’re lucky enough that he’s self-aware enough to ride trains at all. At least he’s getting *some* idea of what the rest of us have to deal with…
Attacking for no reason serves no purpose.
The problem with the MTA is the ridiculous, entrenched bureaucratic executive structure, which sucks up money and slows any form of progress.
Mayor Mike is just a blip to them, a blip that will be gone soon enough.
Come on, this is a little unfair. Bloomberg may be a bit out of touch, and is way too cozy with the Republikans for my tastes, but his Subway usage habits have nothing to do with whether or not longer-term shutdowns are a good idea. I happen to think it might be, at least on marginal lines. It might also save some money, because I’m sure stopgap measures to temporarily restore service are expensive.
Besides, attacking Bloomberg for not doing enough for the Subways is a waste of time…until Bloomberg actually has some say in the matter. The state is the one that’s screwing us over by refusing to modernize regulations.
And remember, *somebody* is affected somehow no matter what you do. A helpful anecdote about myself: I happen to be someone who rides a lot off-hours, so I am disproportionately likely to be the victim of a nightly shutdown like we saw on the L through much of 2009. If the L Train could have been shutdown nonstop for a few weekends and maybe a Monday instead, it would have done me a favor. Now, I know it shouldn’t be about me, but it shouldn’t be about Bloomberg either – it should be about getting the system in a state of good repair in the most cost-efficient and economically viable manner.
Bloomberg spent $2 billion of city money on a completely useless subway extension. He could have used the money for operations, or for capital projects like smartcards and countdown clocks, or for bribing the union into accepting OPTO, or for SAS. He could have taken an active role in SAS management, bringing some of his famous business skills to make sure the line doesn’t cost 7 times as much as comparable subway projects around the world. And he could have lent political support to bridge tolls, rather than bailing out once the plan didn’t have his name attached to it.
The 7 project was financed by tax increment financing (expected revenue from future increases in tax collections after the areas served are redeveloped), which I think is a fairly sensible way to fund mass transit projects when possible. But I don’t see how that leaves the money to be spent elsewhere.
I doubt the union is going to be bribed into making nearly half its operations crew redundant with OPTO. That one’s in the state legislature’s lap too.
I’m not well enough informed on the SAS matter to comment definitively. Although, again, Bloomberg probably doesn’t have much control over what waste there is. Construction is *still* in the MTA’s house, and reforming work rules and contractor bidding is probably also going to have to come from the state.
Or, the state will need to devolve power to reform these things to the city.
The tax increment financing is a sham: the Hudson Yards deal was never that good to begin with and has since collapsed, the collapse of the housing bubble made new condo and office tower construction less attractive, etc.
That may well, but they probably have a decade or two to reverse that problem. I even agree the idea was rather stupid. I think there are better places to build more rapid transit than Manhattan, frankly. But I don’t see the 7 extension as “pointless” – I just see better service in/between the outer boroughs as better than either the 7ext or SAS.
Nonetheless, the notion that there was $2B lying around to spend freely on any of a platter of alternatives seems very unlikely.
Bloomberg’s never had an upzoning request refused by City Council. If he’d wanted to spend money on a Utica subway or Triboro or SAS phase 2 or an eastward 7 extension, he could have probably rammed in enough upzoning to argue tax increments would eventually pay for the line.
Well, Bloomberg doesn’t do a lot to displease councilmen. Not being a member of the Democratic club probably limits his ability to play hardball.
Rezoning to require rail transit in new neighborhoods is probably asking for NIMBYs to throw a shitfit. It’s no wonder he hasn’t asked. Again, the rules need to be changed.
The “weekend shutdowns” were incredibly effective in London, that’s all I can say.
They don’t do them on every section of line. They do them on outlying branches, and they do them on downtown sections where there’s an “close enough” alternative service. That’s most sections, but (for instance) they just couldn’t do it on the westside core of the District/Picadilly Line.
They announced them well in advance so that people could reschedule plans for different weekends.
I think most of the lines were repaired with only 2-3 weekend shutdowns total, or in some cases even only one, versus maybe 6 months of weekend diversions and reschedulings.
I think most places in NYC could handle the weekend shutdowns, the exception being the Lexington Avenue Line trunk on the east side.
This probably isn’t a huge concern on the 4-track trunk lines anyway. It’s going to affect 2- or maybe 3-track lines, including 2-track branches. That includes the L, G, 7, J/M/Z, A north of 168th, etc..
Um, folks…why’d ya elect him to begin with? Not that Thompson was better but anyone that believes what this doofus says is fooling themselves..
They are ALREADY doing total weekend shutdowns in some places.
How about when they replace the F with the shuttle bus between Church Ave. and Jay St.?
How about when they replace the #1 with the shuttle bus between South Ferry and Chambers St.?
Consider the massive inconvenience that is the result when they do that.
And the G. They shut the G down on weekends quite a lot.
How come they have to do them so many times?
The London scheme involved concentrated “blockades” with 24-hour work during those periods.
Somehow I suspect in NY the repair unions are not willing to actually do continuous work…. or something….
I think that the reality is that any elected executive officer needs to be anywhere at anytime in any given moment and in a most expeditious and secure manner. Therefore, whether it be Mayor Mike, Gov. Paterson or any of the former or future elected officials need to have vehicles at their disposal.
Wow, landlords in NYC are scumbags some times. Thanks Columbia J-School…