Via Subchat comes the coolest subway audio file you’ll hear in a long time. It’s one of the pre-recorded messages for the new R160 Q trains that you should expect to hear in, oh, 2012 or so. Take a listen:
[audio:96.mp3]
Okay, okay. It’s not the first apartment the MTA has ever leased, but for the Second Ave. Subway, the lease the MTA recently signed on a rent-controlled apartment on 69th St. is good omen.
So here’s the story. As part of the construction of the Second Ave. Subway, the MTA has to demolish four apartment buildings on the Upper East Side. At the same time, the Authority must provide replacement housing for everyone they displace. The catch – of course, there’s a catch – is rent control. Most of these Upper East Side apartments are rent-controlled. Good luck finding adequate replacements in the area.
So as the neighbors have begun to worry, the MTA has, in the words of Metro reporter Michael Rundle, “just warehousing empty properties as they come on the market.” It’s a brilliant strategy: Snap up empty apartments in the soon-to-be-condemned as they come on the market because that’s one fewer family that needs to be relocated. Rundle has more:
In preparation for its Second Avenue Subway project, the transit agency successfully leased its first rent-controlled apartment on the Upper East Side..
Last month the authority had some luck. It leased a one-bedroom at 1313 Second Ave., near 69th Street, part of a building that will be demolished for the new 72nd Street station. The lease is one year, and the rent is around $1,200 a month.
I want a one-bedroom in a primo location for $1,200. I wonder which sketchy real estate agent the MTA is using and how much the finder’s fee ran them.
Anyway, that’s the story. Landlords are loathe to rent to the MTA because this is, after all, the fourth time they’ve tried to build the Second Ave. Subway. But, hey, one rent-controlled apartment is now in their portfolio. It’s a start.
The 8.5-mile Second Ave. Subway took one giant leap toward reality when the Federal Transit Administration announced its approval of a $1.3-billion grant for the construction of the new subway line. This money — promised to New York City by President Bush back in February — will be a huge boost to a project with finances that, up until now, could be described as shaky, at best.
Right now, information on the grant approval is sketchy. NY1 reports that the the $1.3 billion will be added to the $1.5 billion already assigned to this project. This money is simply for the first stage of construction which encompasses the three stops at 96th St., 86th St. and 72nd St., as well as a connection via 63rd St. to the existing BMT lines down Broadway.
amNew York’s Tracker blog has a statement from some of New York’s local politicos:
The Federal Transit Administration has informed Congress that it will approve a full-funding grant agreement for the Second Avenue Subway, Rep. Carolyn Maloney, Governor Eliot Spitzer, and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver announced today. The New Yorkers hailed this crucial investment in New York City’s transportation system, which is expected to provide about $1.3 billion in federal funds to build the first leg of the subway project.
The statement, as you can see, doesn’t shed any further light on what this grant means for the project. In April, I reported on a projected the $800-million gap in funding for the Second Ave. Subway. I believe that figure already included this grant which city officials all but considered theirs six months ago. This announcement today is really more symbolic than anything else.
With various organizations pledging bits and pieces of the puzzle, I think the $800 million has been cut. Whatever the difference is now, it should be covered by the money drawn in by the congestion fee. That money is, after all, set to go to the Second Ave. Subway instead of the JFK Railink. I’ll do my best to clarify this money puzzle shortly.
But no matter; this is great news for the city. The federal government is willing to toss some serious bucks our way to ensure the completion of a project that is vital for the future health of the city. If only we could always be so lucky.
A view into the Second Ave. Subway construction staging ground at 2nd Ave. between 92nd and 91st Sts. (Courtesy of the fantastic photoblog The Launch box)
It’s payback time for New York’s senior senator, and the Second Ave. Subway stands to benefit from Chuck Schumer’s handling of the DSCC in 2006.
Once upon a time, on the very first day of Second Ave. Sagas, I wrote about how Schumer’s success during the mid-term elections would lead to subway pork for New York City. Now, the money’s coming home.
On Friday, the United States Senate passed their appropriations bills for the upcoming fiscal year 2008. In that bill coming our way is $125 million earmarked for the Second Ave. Subway. Before we can start counting our money, the bill still has to go through the conference committee session. It’s really just a formality at this point.
Also in the Transportation Appropriations Bill is $200 million for the East Side Access Project. It sure is good to have politicians who can deliver the pork.
The two Senators — Schumer and one Hillary Clinton — issued their typical responses praising the projects. Schumer spoke about the necessity of the projects. Clinton extolled federal investment in these projects. “Now that the ground has been broken and the commitment is real for the Second Ave. subway, this kind of federal investment is critical to helping the city and state keep the project on track,” she said.
While this federal infusion still leaves the MTA a few hundred million dollars short, the federal funds should cover the gap should congestion pricing become a reality. Phase 1 of that Second Ave. Subway is getting closer and closer to reality. Who woulda thunk it?
The Times’ coverage of the opening of the IND subway lines on Sept. 10, 1932, included diagrams of the entrances to the Times Square station.
Today, we celebrate the birthday of the Independent Subway. Seventy-five years ago, at midnight on the morning of September 10, 1932, the turnstiles opened, and the first IND trains started the trip from Chambers St. to 207th St. along Eighth Ave. Ah, subway growth.
When the AA made its first trip uptown, it rode through New York of a different era. This was New York as a growing city. Running parallel to the west of the new subway line was the West Side Highway, Robert Moses’ pet project. Large swaths of the city were still undeveloped, and the new subway lines would bring about development.
At the same time, the things we love about New York — multiculturalism, diversity, ease of access — were hallmarks of the city in the 1930s. Today, The New York Times commemorates the subway line immortalized by Billy Strayhorn and Duke Ellington with an excellent article reflecting upon the opening of the new line. The MTA is following suite today, as the Authority has plans to run a special six-car train of original cars from 208th St. in Inwood to Chambers St. Catch it if you can. These folks say it’s set to leave between 10 and 11 a.m.
Nostalgia aside, The Times’ archives are chock full of interesting articles about the celebratory opening, political machinations and first successful rush hour run of the new subway. The one I found most interesting, however, is one piece from September 11, 1932, with the headline “Opening of Subway Called Realty Aid.”
In a sense, we in 2007, awaiting the arrival of the Second Ave. Subway, can glimpse the effect a new subway line had on real estate prices and development in Manhattan. The Times wrote:
The civic interests hailed [the Eighth Avenue subway] as likely to foster improvement in leasing and building on the west side…The subway will have the effect in the Forty-second Street area of relieving congestion on other lines and linking the midtown district more closely to uptown and downtown Manhattan, and should bring commercial gains in the whole section between Seventh and Ninth Avenues…
Improved transit facilities will help to accelerate the recovery of real estate values in the apartment districts of Chelsea, Central Park West, the Dyckman section and Washington Heights.
Now, while the Second Ave. subway won’t help bring New York out of a Great Depression-influenced housing recession, the lessons today are the same. And you can be sure real estate agents are finely attuned to them. The IND, operating a few avenue blocks away, from the IRT, led to development; the Second Ave. subway, operating a few avenue blocks away from the Lexington Ave. lines will bring service to an under-served areas of the city. This subway will spur on economic development and lead to price increases and demand in the area’s real estate.
This is not a groundbreaking argument, but for many living on the far East Side, this eventual reality may come as a shock. Rents will rise; apartment prices will skyrocket. Storefront space, particularly around entrances and exist, will be in high demand as well. In other words, the commercial and residential landscape along the East Side will change dramatically when the Q (and eventually the T) begins its trips up Second Ave.
A few months ago, we saw these lessons in action in Beijing. Seventy-five years ago, we saw them along the West Side when the new Eighth Avenue subway lines opened. And, in five years if everything goes according to plan, we’ll see it again along Manhattan’s Upper East Side.
If you squint, you can almost see a subway. (The hole in the ground at Second Ave. from Curbed).
78thAnd2nd, an online friend of Second Ave. Sagas, is guest blogging at Curbed this week. For his post, he hit upon an interesting question: Why is it going to take so damn long to get this Second Ave. subway built?
The MTA shut down parts of Second Ave. a few weeks ago, and since then, not much has happened on the street. Meanwhile, as we all know quite well, the Second Ave. subway project is due to last until 2020, and even the three stops that make up Phase I of this project won’t be completed until 2013.
So to answer our question, we turn to a recent piece by Alex Marshall, editor of the Regional Plan Association’s newsletter. He writes:
The first phase of the Second Avenue subway is a tenth the size of the original IRT in track length and has three stations as opposed to 28. Yet it will take six years to complete as opposed to four for the much larger IRT. Why is this?…
I think part of the answer is funding. If the funding stream for the Second Avenue subway were doubled, for example, could construction time be cut in half? If you add up all the time lost to individuals stuffed onto overcrowded subways on the Lexington Avenue line, if you contemplated the dollar value of the new development that will spring from the East Side once the Second Avenue is completed, it would make sense to spend a lot more money sooner to make the subway happen more quickly.
Marshall also notes that micromanagement and the recent attention to environmental studies, historical impact and and workplace safety measures contribute to the snail’s pace of construction.
The point however is one I made earlier today, and the one those commenting on my post this morning are making. New York City should be willing to spend money now to get its public transportation infrastructure ready for the next 100 years. The city, once a visionary in this field, has stagnated. Now we need someone to deliver the proverbial kick in the pants. But what politician will shepherd through a multi-billion-dollar subway expansion plan? Anyone?
An ad campaign dreaming of the future… (Photo courtesy of Yorkville Blog)
Via the Yorkville Blog comes a special sighting of the Second Ave. subway on ads for Absolut Vodka of all places. But, hey, I’ll take it.
The ad is part of Absolute’s new “In an Absolut World” ad campaign. Much like Virgin’s latest You Rule campaign, these ads seem targeted to specific neighborhoods. The photos snapped by Yorkville Blogger show up at 2nd Ave. and 86th St., the future spot of a stop on the Second Ave. subway.
They present a nice glimpse of the future (or the past as it should have been). But just how accurate are these ads? The answer at which this subway-obsessed blogger is “not very.”
For starters, look at the turquoise T, and then look at the one to the left of this paragraph. Notice something? That’s right; the Second Ave. subway bullet is turquoise with white lettering and not turquoise with black lettering as Absolut shows us. Only the N, Q, R and W trains have black lettering.
Next, take a gander up at this site’s header image. Notice the turquoise and yellow strips running along Second Ave. Well, that’s because the Q will make all the same stops as the T. In fact, as I noted in March, the Q train extension will constitute Phase 1 of the construction. The T won’t exist until the entire line is finished.
Finally, look at that old, tiny station entrance in the Absolut ad. The real Second Ave. subway entrances may look quite ostentatious according to the preliminary designs.
But for all the flaws, it’s a fun ad campaign. The Second Ave. subway has entered the collective consciousness of our city’s advertisers. Can the real line be all that far away?
For more pictures of the ads, check out Yorkville Blog’s post.
Good supermarkets are a rare find in New York City. Everyone knows where the gross Gristedes and crappy Key Foods are. But those quality supermarkets with low prices and varied selections are diamonds in the rough.
While Food Emporium hardly qualifies as a gourmet supermarket, two of these established were recently spared the wrecking ball on the Upper East Side. The MTA announced they were modifying some of the proposed plans for station entraces along Second Ave. to accommodate community requests to spare the supermarkets. The Sun has more:
Because of the high cost of acquiring the grocer’s retail space, as well as vocal community opposition to the plans, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority has unveiled a redesigned station entrance so that it does not have to acquire any space along Second Avenue between 85th and 86th Streets that has been occupied by Food Emporium for almost a decade…
The redesigned station entrance , unveiled to a crowd of relieved Upper East Side residents a few weeks ago, would stand in front of the store instead of replacing it. The new station entrance includes two glass-paneled doors that would open onto a widened sidewalk in front of the store to accommodate foot traffic, officials said.
Another Food Emporium at 63rd Street and Third Avenue, which was to be converted into an escalator and ventilation facility for the subway line, has also been repositioned, a move that saves the supermarket as well as significant dollars for the MTA, a spokesman, Jeremy Soffin, said.
The MTA’s project Website notes the change. It also highlights how the Authority has recently purchased a building with both a Chase bank and a Duane Reade. This building may soon house a subway-related structure, saving the neighborhood from at least one Chase and one Duane Reade.
Meanwhile, David Liston, chair of Community Board 8, was thankful that the MTA opted to go the sensible route in sparing the supermarkets. “It was the source of tremendous relief for our neighborhood,” he said. “There’s no shortage here of high-end stores, but in terms of your basic supermarket with relatively affordable prices, we have very few.”
The green 5 will soon open in Beijing, sending real estate values along its path skyward.
As the 2008 Olympics approach, the Chinese government is hard at work preparing Beijing for its international unveiling. Part of this cosmetic overhaul of a city on the brink of globalization a brand new subway line.
I’m fascinated by this new subway lines and the parallels we can draw between it and soon-to-be addition to New York City’s subway system. First, this new line covers about 7 more miles than the Second Ave. subway will cover. It will take China all of five years to complete it. While they are building a line through land that isn’t nearly as developed as Manhattan’s East Side, I think this says more about China’s labor practices than bureaucratic efficiency.
But the more interesting aspect to this project is the effect the new line is having on Beijing real estate. According to the article linked above in the English-language China Daily, real estate values are skyrocketing along the path of the subway:
Since Beijing subway’s Number 5 line project started in 2003, the prices of the houses along the route rose by 17.8 percent per year on average.
When Jia Yun Yuan, a property project in Changping District, at the north end of the No 5 subway line, opened in July 2003, its average housing price was only 3,700 yuan (US$485) per square meter. But now even the prices of second-hand houses have hit 7,300 yuan (US$957) per square meter. Also, at Song Jia Zhuang, at the south end of the yet-to-be-opened subway line, the prices of three buildings on sale are between 12,000 yuan (US$1,573) and 13,800 yuan (US$1,809) per square meter.
I got to thinking: Will this happen in New York? Over the last few months, I’ve talked to some of my friends in real estate. As speculation mounted that the Second Ave. subway would actually become a reality this time around, they all agreed that now would be the best time to invest in East Side apartments.
As it stands right now, people who live on York or East End Avenues have to trek a long way to reach the Lexington Ave. IRT stops. Even residents of 1st Ave. are hardly around the corner from the 4, 5 or 6 trains. With a new line snaking up 2nd Ave., all of those people living on the far East Side will suddenly find themselves blocks away from the subway instead of miles. These apartments will soon become even more desirable places to live.
So invest now, I say. If you’re thinking of buying an apartment on the Upper East Side where the first part of the Second Ave. subway is set to open in 2013, now is the time to seal the deal. Already, the typical market forces are pushing up the value of East Side apartments; as China, potentially our next big global competitor, has shown us, these numbers will only rise higher and higer as the Second Ave. subway nears completion.
I love stories like this one in today’s Times.
William Neuman, transit beat writer for The Times, discovered that the groundbreaking for the Second Ave. subway cost a cool $89,000. He decided to share that price tag and ask straphangers how they felt about footing the bill. The responses are, of course, classic.
Whether $89,000, a minuscule amount of the $4 billion budget for the subway project, seems like a lot or a little may depend on your perspective. In simple terms, it is the equivalent of about 1,171 30-day MetroCards.
“I object,” said Randi Kornreich, who was waiting yesterday for a No. 6 train at 96th Street and Lexington Avenue. “I’m a penny pincher, and I think any time they can save money they should and pass it along to the citizen who pays enough in taxes already.”
The MTA of course defended their “historic event,” and, really, who can blame them? While Jeffrey Soffin’s rationale behind the event — “it is important to expose the public to our infrastructure to better understand the transit system that drives the regional economy” — sounds fairly unimpressive, it is important to put one’s best foot forward for something that truly could be an historic event.
But what did the Authority get for $89,000? Well, an outside contractor earned $61,000 to clean and renovate the existing tunnel and to build a stage for the event. The authority spent $1,5000 on 300 copies of a promotional DVD and $1,500 on minature miner’s picks inscribed with the date of the groundbreaking. The cost to wire the tunnel for lighting and electrical hookups cost $16,000. Sounds like money well spent.