Second Ave. Sagas

For better or worse, Cuomo and de Blasio put marks on MTA Board

Written by

Benjamin Kabak

in

Thanks to a confluence of circumstances — including some holdover appointees and others schedule to expire — this week witnessed a flurry of MTA Board appointees. While none have been announced officially, it’s clear now who Mayor de Blasio and Governor Cuomo have tabbed for the board, and their appointees betray a transit divide.

Early in the week, Gov. Cuomo nominated his buddies. He named former aide Lawrence Schwartz and Peter Ward, head of the New York Hotel & Motel Trades Council, to the Board. Neither have any transit experience to speak of, but both are what some with less diplomacy might call cronies of the governor. Much as he did with the Port Authority, the governor has appointed his friends and allies to a board with particular importance to the region’s transit system.

Meanwhile, although Bill de Blasio hasn’t seemed to grasp the importance of transit to New York’s success and, in particular, his affordable housing initiative, he at least has people whispering sweet somethings about MTA Board appointees. The Mayor named City Council Transportation Committee Chairman Ydanis Rodriguez, the Tri-State Transportation Campaign’s Director Veronica Vanterpool and community leader David Jones to the Board.

So who are all of these appointees replacing? de Blasio’s picks will fill one vacant seat and replace John Banks and Jeffrey Kay, two holdovers from the Bloomberg Administration, giving the mayor control over his four seats. The governor’s men have earned a more skeptical look from the transit-erati as Ward is replacing Allen Cappelli. The Staten Island native, and one-time Carl McCall campaign guru, has been an outspoken supporter and defender of transit. He understands the need to fund the capital campaign and, as a Paterson appointee, hasn’t fallen in line with the Cuomo party line of seemingly pretending not to know what the MTA is. Cappelli says he wanted to be appointed, and Staten Island pols say that, contrary to tradition, they weren’t consulted. But them’s the politics these days. When the MTA Board meets next, it will look quite different indeed.

Comments

11 responses to “For better or worse, Cuomo and de Blasio put marks on MTA Board”

  1. Roxie

    Jesus. This entire thing is just falling apart. The more bad news I hear about our regional transit situation, the more convinced I get that I need to get clear of the blast radius before the mentality that’s applied to transit issues becomes the party line across the board for anything that doesn’t benefit Albany, rich gentrifiers, or both.
    And I say that as someone who’s lived in NYC my entire life. Proud and defensive as I’ve been of my city in the past, I’d rather get clear than stick around and watch at least two of our boroughs fall further and further into being slums while the other 3 get a thick slathering of mayonnaise to cover up the cracks.

    Reply
    1. Nathanael

      Andrew Cuomo’s a barely mitigated disaster, statewide. (Mitigated by the fracking ban.) I think most of the people voting for him in the primary thought he was Mario. I really hope he runs for President so we can be rid of him before 2018.

      Reply
      1. Spendmor Wastemor

        But AC and BD are Progressive, men of the people (myn?), Social Reformers. You must not speak ill towards the Guardians of the Revolution!

        Reply
        1. Bolwerk

          You do realize “revolutionary” and “reformer” are opposing tendencies, right? Revolutionaries (examples: anarchists, communists, fascists) tend to sneer at reformists for being ineffectual milquetoasts or asslicking sycophants, and reformists (examples: liberals, conservatives, and social democrats) tend to see revolutionaries as extrajudicial thugs.

          Reply
      2. johndmuller

        Hillary is a major obstacle to Cuomo’s running for President (or even VP) in 2016; I figure his chances are better for 2020, assuming an unsuccessful Clinton run in 2016. If Clinton’s pre-convention campaign should falter somehow, it is not clear who would be in a position to step into the breach; whoever did step in might be headed for a sound defeat unless they could somehow latch onto Hillary’s support and campaign funding warchest.

        If Cuomo did end up running for President and lost, he conceivably could become a different kind of governor altogether. If he were no longer holding national ambitions and didn’t have to prove that he could be as hard-nosed a Tea Party penny-pincher as Christie, he might use some of his demonstrable skills at working the Albany scene in ways we would prefer.

        OTOH, if he ends up hanging around ’til ’20 or god forbid ’24 (are there any term limits?) still waiting for his chance to run for President, the only chances for any increased transit funding from Albany would be more or less happenstance – like some sort of windfall or a fortuitous grant program from Uncle Sam that only required Cuomo to say yes (and then take the credit).

        Meanwhile, he still has to figure out how to finish paying for the Tappan Zee before he will even start to think about how to finance any transit. If SOS funding is still undefined whenever Phase 1 opens, I would imagine that he comes up with at least some money to start Phase 2 as part of the ribbon cutting hoopla on Phase 1; a slight chance that he could do it earlier, as in the 7 line extension party. Probably some half measure, like ‘finding’ a portion of the money, and announcing the borrowing of the rest – or some rolled-back percentage of the rest.

        The Mayor is likely to have some of the same ambitions, and while he hasn’t shown any latent Tea Party tendencies, he has also seemingly studiously avoided any serious transit support (or support for serious transit projects anyway), especially not of the putting your (City’s) money where your mouth is variety.

        It is as if the Democratic sooth sayers believe that supporting transit is not a winning political tactic (unless one is able to do it with other people’s money).

        Reply
      3. Spuds

        The so called fracking ban was misguided so don’t kid yourself. Indian tribes are exempt from state regulations so they can simply buy land, put it into trust and drill for gas via HVHF if they wish.
        You downstaters voted for Andy and now we ALL are stuck with him unless, he runs for POTUS, overthrows the government and declares himself “Emperor”, or finds himself in the pokey along with Shelly and Deano.

        Reply
  2. Larry Littlefield

    Professional liars there to say that deferred maintenance is not taking place.

    When money was cut off and borrowed, I was told I was a Debbie Downer. Huge fare cuts! Transit win! Let’s be optimistic! Gene Russianoff is a hero!

    When the last capital fund expired I was told it was no big deal. It will be in the budget.

    When the budget passed I was told it was no big deal. They’ll pass it by the end of the session.

    When, exactly does this get to be a big deal?

    When do people drop the petty politics and face up to the reality? Generation Greed has destroyed our future, and are just trying to ban an discussion of this so they can keep taking and get out of dodge before the consequences hit? When will anyone be forced to face up to what they have done, not over the past 20 weeks but over the past 20 years!

    Reply
  3. Herb Lehman

    I don’t know enough about the others to really comment. But as a Staten Islander who has seen Allen Cappelli speak out for transit interests again and again and again, and often serve as a voice of reason on the MTA board, I can say with confidence that the loss of Cappelli is really, really unfortunate.

    Reply
  4. Matthew Robare

    Gov. Cuomo is making Charlie Baker look enormously better on transit than he is.

    Reply
  5. BruceNY

    Sounds like the MTA board is going to be a bunch of do-nothing/say-nothings who have probably rarely ever step foot on a subway train, if ever. How much do they get paid?

    Reply
    1. Spuds

      Check Andy’s “Friends and Family” Plan.

      Reply

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