I have a soft spot for the New York City condoms. One of my first posts back in January of 2007 tied together subway lines with themed condoms and helped propel me to Internet stardom. It is with a heavy heart that I post the news then that New York City has redesigned their themed condoms, and the wrapping is no longer evocative of the MTA’s subway bullets. Free condoms with the new packaging are available throughout the city today. [City Room]
That guy is waiting for a paint job — or a J train — that is destined never to arrive. (Photo by flickr user silsurf)
The MTA works in mysterious and oftentimes inexplicable ways. This paint fiasco simply symbolizes the whole bureaucratic mess that current CEO Lee Sander seems to want to dismantle. If I were a betting man, I’d say the 39-year paint job effort finishes up first.
Paint fiasco, you may ask? What paint fiasco? Well, think back to July when word leaked out that the MTA couldn’t use $50 million they had set aside in 2006 to paint stations because they couldn’t figure out how to pick which stations should go first.
Well, it took the MTA just seven more months to figure out which stations should go first, and nearly two years after receiving the funds, they plan to start painting in April. Feel free to insert some sarcastic applause here.
So then, how did the MTA pick the six stations that will kick off a mind-numbingly slow process in which 12 stations per year will get paint? Seemingly — as I suggested at the time — by drawing names out of a hat. According to the Daily News, the winning stations are “77th St. (R line), Brooklyn; Grand Army Plaza (2,3), Brooklyn; Canal St. (J,M,Z), Manhattan; Spring St. (C,E), Manhattan; 135th St. (A,C), Manhattan, and 163rd St. (A,C) Manhattan.”
Now, there’s a lot going on here. At the rate of 12 stations per year, it could take the MTA the better part of the next four decades to paint the whole system. What is wrong here? Matthew Lysiak and Pete Donohue explain:
Top transit officials in 2006 announced plans for a decade-long program, initially funded with $50 million in surplus money, to paint every station in the system. That would equal about 46 stations a year, including some being done as part of larger station rehabilitation projects.
Seaton said that schedule has gone “out the window” because the paint jobs are more involved and costly than planners of the program estimated. The early estimates didn’t fully calculate such problems as the extra requirements of removing and disposing of lead paint, Seaton said.
Oy.
Now, the problem here is that, as KidTwist noted in July, every station needs a paint job, and yet, only two percent of the city’s stations will get what it needs each year.
Meanwhile, their choice of stations is hardly stellar. One of my closest subway stops is the Grand Army Plaza stop, and it’s looking pretty good right now. It was renovated within the past 15 years, and the paint — compared to, say, the 7th Ave. stop on the B and Q — doesn’t look bad at all. But beyond that better choice two blocks away are a multitude of stations that could use a paint job.
Imagine painting your apartment just once every forty years. Now imagine millions of people trampling through that very same apartment every day, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. It wouldn’t look pretty, and you can bet that the subways won’t look too good either if the MTA can’t pick up the pace on these paint jobs.
Atlantic Yards Report has yet another tale of a photographer harassed by MTA cops for taking pictures in public spaces. Katherin McInnis was videotaping the Atlantic Yards footprints and railyard when a cop came up to her and began the inquisition. He demanded her camera, asked for ID and questioned her record.
While these questions seem aimed toward terrorist concerns, the exchange ended when the cop asked if she was a member of any group “opposing these Yards.” Valid anti-terrorism protocols are one thing, but blatant disregard of civil rights over purely political motivations is another. [Atlantic Yards Report via The Gowanus Lounge]
If London can do it, so can we.
The MTA’s mediocre technological track record is about to get worse.
As we know, the MTA has its issues with late 20th Century technology. Other subway systems in lesser cities have managed to figure out ways to display when the next train is coming, where the next bus is and how delayed the service is. But in New York, while we’ve long heard promises of seemingly futuristic technology and the L trains even offer us glimpses of that future, the MTA hasn’t figured out a way to implement basic transportation system technologies.
Now, though, we have news that these technologies — this one involving bus arrival times — aren’t coming as quickly as the MTA would like or as the riders expect. In fact, they may not even be implemented at all.
According to a weekend report in The Daily News, the MTA is shelving the bus arrival time project for now. Amanda Coleman and Pete Donohue have this tale of woe:
NYC Transit’s 12-year quest to display real-time bus arrival information at bus stops has hit another bump and veered off the road. Transit officials have stopped posting estimated arrival times to electronic message boards along six different Manhattan routes because of technical problems resulting in inaccurate arrival times being given, a transit official told the Daily News.
NYC Transit spokesman Charles Seaton couldn’t say when the communications system, which went online in October, might again be put into use.
This is just sad on so many levels, and Straphangers Campaign guru Gene Russianoff offers up just that assessment. “I’m saddened because I consider real-time information one of the best things a transit system can offer, and it’s frustrating it has been so hard for them to do it,” he said.
This project has its roots in the mid-1990s, but the MTA didn’t make real progress until they reached a $13-million deal with Siemens to begin a test pilot program along six bus lines. The contract had a full-scale implementation option for $109 million, but that reality is unlikely.
For some reason — a reason I can’t explain — the MTA can’t get their technological projects off the ground. Their underground cell service plan is fraught with difficulties, and the Citizens Adivsory Committee recently criticized the MTA for falling behind schedule with their plans to install train arrival information screens throughout the system.
Maybe it’s a matter of priority. If so, the MTA should being to prioritize these projects. New Yorkers need a 21st Century subway system, and right now, we don’t even have a late 20th Century system. We have fancy new train cars and a constant stream of renovated stations, but we don’t have the infrastructure of a forward-looking subway system.
Until the MTA can figure out how to get technological innovations in place in a timely and fiscally responsible way, we’ll be stuck peering into dark tunnels or down crowded avenues looking for any glimpse of an oncoming train or bus. That’s no way to run a transit system.
It doesn’t make sense to lay the floor first. (Photo by Benjamin Kabak)
As more details emerge about the MTA’s construction budget crisis, I keep coming back to Scott’s comment about the MTA and crown jewels. How do you balance form, function and visual appeal?
Right now, the MTA is in trouble. As the Daily News noted yesterday, steel and concrete prices have “jumped 91% and 25% respectively” since the MTA budgeted for their projects. Considering how big a role steel plays in the subways, that jump has led to skyrocketing costs. But steel and concrete aren’t about making stations luxuriously opulent.
Rather, granite and porcelain make stations overly expensive, and now, the MTA is saying that granite and porcelain have to go. Pete Donohue has more:
Transit officials looking to save money may swap plans for fancy granite subway and train station floor tiles for a more economical – and drab – concrete. The potential savings are significant and the issue is generating strong opinions. “For me, this is a no-brainer,” said Metropolitan Transportation Authority board member Barry Feinstein, calling granite a “very expensive amenity.”
According to NYC Transit, the MTA’s largest division, it costs $1.7 million to install granite flooring in the standard subway station, compared with $421,000 for regular concrete. After considerable expenditures, it is also scrapping a third type of tiling material: porcelain, which has been used exclusively in underground stations for the past eight years. Since then, 22 stations have received porcelain tile floors, at a typical cost of $1.4 million per station.
Those porcelain surfaces have not held up well and are cracking and chipping, said NYC Transit spokesman Paul Fleuranges.
Now, I’m with Feinstein. The only way to describe this option is as a no-brainer. But MTA board member Andrew Albert brought up another point. “A lot of people don’t believe a station renovation project is done unless the floor has tiles,” he said. “It doesn’t look finished.”
And here’s where I think the MTA is messing up their construction plans. Why does the porcelain and granite look so bad? Why does it chip so easily? Because construction crews are installing the decorative aspects of the new stations well before they should be.
Take a walk around the 59th St-Columbus Circle Station right now. It’s a mess. Construction walls are everywhere. Walls, ceilings, floors and staircases are all in various stages of completion. Dust floats through the station faster than pedestrian can maneuver. Yet, despite the mess, the new, fancy floors are already installed on the platforms, and they look terrible. They’re disgustingly dirty and slowly getting ruined. They’re also about six months old.
Now, I have to ask: Does this make any sense? Usually in a construction project, the fancy, delicate parts go last because heavy machinery and constant work will ruin them. That’s exactly how the work at Columbus Circle has turned out.
Clearly, the MTA needs to find a balance between building a functional transit system under budget and constructing something that looks nice. But the first place to start — besides in cutting down porcelain and granite use — should come in the planning stages. Put in the fancy stuff once it won’t get destroyed by ongoing construction.
According to a story in the Daily News, if you’re driving a New York City Transit bus and you have to pee, you better hold it in. William Torres was driving an overtime shift along the shuttle bus route mirroring the G train this weekend when, at the end of one ride, he had to relieve himself. The supervisor warned him against it and then sent him home when Torres made the pit stop anyway. The MTA is now investigating why a supervisor would not let a driver use the facilities at some point during a nine-hour shift. [Daily News]
Despite the fact that the NOAA is now predicting just 1-2 inches of snow for New York City, the MTA is on the case. New York City Transit says they are prepared for 5-7 inches and have the de-icing machines ready to go. They don’t expect any A.M. rush hour problems, and neither do I because, well, it just won’t be snowing that much. [New York City Transit]
Everywhere, a group of New Yorkers gather on the subway in early January to drop their drawers. They board the train discretely, fully clothed. Once the train pulls away, all bets – and all pants – are off.
Sponsored by Improv Everywhere, it’s No Pants 2K8. At 3 p.m. on Saturday afternoon, the group is meeting at Foley Square near the Brooklyn Bridge stop on the East Side IRT. The organizers want everyone to bring a backpack for storage purposes and a MetroCard. (I recommend an Unlimited Ride card if you’re a frequent traveler.)
Here’s how it’s going to work:
Sit in the car as you normally would. Read a magazine or whatever you would normally do. Your team leader will have already divided you into smaller groups, assigning your group a specific stop where you will depants. Sit near your group.
As soon as the doors shut at the stop before yours, stand up and take your pants off and put them in your backpack…If anyone asks you why you’ve removed your pants, tell them that they were “getting uncomfortable…”
Exit the train at your assigned stop and stand on the platform, pantless…You will wait on the platform for the next 6 train to arrive. Stay in the exact same place on the platform so you enter the next train in the same car as you exited the last train.
When you enter , act as you normally would. You do not know any of the other pantless riders. If questioned, tell folks that you “forgot to wear pants” and yes you are “a little cold”. Insist that it is a coincidence that others also forgot their pants. Be nice and friendly and normal.
The group plans to travel to 125th St. and then back down to Union Square. Wash. Rinse. Repeat. They also discourage gawkers; if you want to watch, you have to participate unless you’re discrete about watching.
This is the seventh such mission, and it’s not illegal. Since the arrests in 2006, the cops have left well enough alone even if they show up in a public safety capacity. Just wear underwear.
If you’re out of town, worry not. You can participate in No Pants 2K8 in Toronto, Boston, Washington, D.C., Chicago, San Francisco, Portland, Salt Lake City, Baltimore and Adelaide, Austrlia. So you’re pretty much covered.
Meanwhile, what will all of those pants-less and pants-wearing riders have to deal with this weekend? Well, lots and lots of service advisories, of course. Click through for the details.
Stories such as this one make me believe that simply by jettisoning former chairman Peter Kalikow, the MTA started heading down a better path.
This story begins in 2006 when subway conductors started mentioned “Top of the Rock” as trains pulled into the Rockefeller Center station. Now, Top of the Rock is the rather expensive observatory level at the top of 30 Rockefeller Center, the tallest building in the complex. It opened, not coincidentally, in 2006. At the time, New Yorkers were rather critical of the move. We didn’t need to hear some tourist trap plugged on the subways. Little did we know the true extent of the corporate shilling going on.
Pete Donohue from The Daily News tells us more:
The plug – unpopular with train crews – came about because developer Peter Kalikow, then Metropolitan Transportation Authority chairman, wanted to extend a “courtesy” to one of the building’s owners, authority officials said after the announcements began in 2006. In late November, not long after Kalikow left the post, subway managers told conductors to stop shilling for the tourist site…
An MTA spokesman in 2006 said that one of the principals at the real estate firm Tishman Speyer initially asked if the entire station could be called Top of the Rock. Kalikow rejected that but offered a compromise, the spokesman said.
So one real estate mogul did a so-called favor for another. I wonder what Kalikow got back in return for this free advertising in the subway.
When Kalikow gone, the current MTA leadership instructed train conductors to drop the Top of the Rock reference from their announcements in November. The Transport Workers Union, for one, was thrilled with the change.
“We applaud the new administration for rectifying this,” Curtis Tate, a vp at TWU, said. “We didn’t think it was appropriate. We pass a lot of landmarks and popular places, and we don’t advertise them or call them out. We don’t announce ‘Joe’s Pizzeria,’ this place or that place.”
NY1’s Bobby Cuza had more feedback from subway conductors. “We don’t advertise for other businesses. So why advertise for Top of the Rock? I don’t even know where it is,” one of them said to Cuza. “I never been there.”
I could have done without the announcement from the start. I think it’s pretty inexplicable that a public official was using the New York City subways to advertise for another real estate buddy of his, and these announcements probably should been halted soon after they started. But such is the state of MTA oversight in the city.
As I wrote in July, I’m in favor of the right approach to corporate sponsors for train stations. But clearly, a free plug for some real estate buddies and the Top of the Rock tourist attraction wouldn’t be a part of my plan.
Welcome to the day of fare hike reckoning. Some time after 9:30 a.m., the MTA Board will vote to approve the fare hike. By all accounts, the rate increase is a foregone conclusion.
While straphangers may enjoy some service upgrades with the fare hike, two city councilmen and a whole slew of rider advocates want the City Council to adopt a Subway Rider Bill of Rights. Modeled after the Taxicab Rider Bill of Rights, the subway equivalent calls for better and more reliable service, among other benefits. Take a look at the ten rights — or “yeah, rights,” as I like to call them — the council members Bill de Blasio and John Liu want the MTA to endorse. (Click the photo for a larger view as well.)
It’s hard to argue with these rights really. We all want fair fares and reliable service as well as a certain level of customer service, but with the MTA’s history, do you understand now why I call them “Yeah, rights”? The public address systems both on trains and in stations are nightmares; the cell phone idea is hundreds of dollars away from a reality; and don’t get me started on those helpful station personnel.
The council members speaking out for the plan were vague about what they expect from the MTA, but they do want a more concrete devotion to customer satisfaction. “It is unacceptable to the New Yorkers who ride our subways every day that these basic levels of service are not already provided,” de Blasio said. “If the MTA sees fit to stuff riders’ stockings with higher fares this holiday season, they should also agree to give those riders the gift that is actually on everyone’s wish list: decent mass transit service.”
Liu chimed in with an apt appraisal of the current leadership situation at the MTA. “With the new MTA leadership, much of the spirit and letter of this Bill of Rights is already embodied in many ways,” he said. “Recognizing this document would serve to formalize the already existing intent and commitment on the part of the new MTA leadership to truly provide customers with utmost service.”
While I’m all in support of a better commitment to customer service, I have to wonder if a largely symbolic Bill of Rights is the best way to achieve those ends. The MTA, to lay it on the line, needs money to accomplish those goals, and ironically, one of the supporters of the Bill of Rights wasn’t too keen on the MTA’s getting more money. If we want to see better PA systems, the MTA needs the funds to install one. If we went the MTA to wire stations to ensure a means of delivery for real-time service updates, show them the money. A Bill of Rights can only go so far.
For its part, the MTA was quick to note recent customer service initiatives. In a press release issued yesterday, the MTA discussed its recent $70-million improvement efforts. “Responding to the needs of subway and bus riders throughout the city, MTA New York City Transit has budgeted nearly $70 million for enhancements in the areas of quality, safety and security,” the release said. “Additionally, NYC Transit has received approval to begin working towards implementation next year of 32 separate proposals for new and increased services, with an annual value of $46 million. We hope that city and state legislators will help secure additional funding so that we can make further improvements to the system.”
Clearly, the answer lies not in a Bill of Rights but in more funds for the MTA. Gary Reilly, Brooklyn transit advocate and fellow supporter of the F Express Plan, beat this drum yesterday during the announcement in support of the Bill. “If we’re to preserve our status as one of the greenest cities in America, we need Governor Spitzer to commit to state funding for mass transit that will reverse the tragic legacy of neglect left us by the Pataki administration,” he said. Hear. Hear.