AsidesTaxis

Cuomo set to veto Bloomberg’s five-borough taxi plan

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on December 9, 2011

Just in case robbing the MTA wasn’t enough, Gov. Andrew “I am the government” Cuomo this week essentially torpedoed the city’s plan to expand cab service outside of Manhattan. Despite gaining approval in the State Senate and Assembly, the Mayor Bloomberg-backed plan to allow street hails of livery cabs north of 96th St. and outside of Manhattan has languished on Cuomo’s desk as medallion owners have spuriously claimed the measure would threatened their investments. Claiming that numerous issue are in the way, Cuomo threatened to veto the measure this week.

The backroom details are a bit hazy. The bill is to be presented today to Cuomo for the first time despite a summer approval in Albany, and a compromise plan to sell 2000 medallions that would generate $1 billion for the city has fallent apart. No news outlet, however, has explained the deal fell apart, and sources in Albany have been awfully quiet on the matter. Instead, the original bill be passed to Cuomo for action, and the governor is likely to say no.

If Cuomo does torpedo this effort, Bloomberg said he will try again next year, and supporters are on board with that plan. As Juan Gonzalez of The Daily News wrote this week, Cuomo’s inaction is inexplicable as this is essentially an issue that concerns securing better transportation options for underserved and less wealthy neighborhoods than those that are south of 96th St. in Manhattan. This time, Cuomo will cost the city $1 billion in revenue and more comprehensive cab service.

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MTA Politics

Cuomo strips MTA of $320 million, lockbox protections

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on December 9, 2011

A few weeks ago, Gov. Andrew Cuomo uttered a phrase that could go down in New York state history. “I am the government,” he said in a radio interview in early November. Since then, Cuomo has run roughshod over Albany, enforcing his whims over those of the state legislature and public, and New York City’s transit service will soon be paying a heavy, heavy price.

The fun started earlier this week when Gov. Cuomo announced an agreement forged with Dean Skelos and Sheldon Silver to reform New York’s tax code. As a favor to suburban legislators who enjoy transit access but want the city to subsidize their commuter rail service even more than we already do, Cuomo threw in a partial repeal of the payroll mobility tax. That tax, by the way, supports the MTA to the tune of $1.5 billion a year. Without it, the authority would be facing massive fare hikes or service cuts.

Originally, the new tax proposal was to cost the MTA $250 million in annual revenue, but that number has since increased to $320 million. No one is happy. The Times editorialized against MTA cuts, and a group of transit advocates spoke out against the decision. In a statement endorsed by the General Contractors Association, Straphangers, the RPA and the Tri-State Transportation Campaign, the group highlighted the issue with the state’s approach:

The problem with this approach is three-fold:

  • estimates of what’s needed can be incorrect, exposing the MTA to serious financial risk;
  • payrolls can grow over time, subsidies do not; and
  • subsidies can be lowered over time, as was the appropriation for student MetroCards;

A better way can be found in the way public schools are being treated right now. These schools now pay the PMT and then apply for reimbursement from the State.

Right now, Cuomo and state leaders claim their find $320 million through alternative funding sources, but as Streetsblog noted yesterday, the MTA’s payroll tax funding has now become discretionary. The state can remove the funding; they can fail to find it; they can do whatever they want because they are the government. While congestion pricing with dedicated transit revenues would likely generate the $320 million needed to cover this new funding gap, that option has been off the table since the fall, and leading congestion pricing advocates tell me it could be a few years before those efforts are revived.

To make matters worse, in a special session in Albany yesterday, Cuomo essentially striped the Transit Lockbox Bill of any bite. What was a strong bill with stringent requirements has now become a shell of its former self. Originally, the lockbox, which passed by the Assembly and Senate with nary a dissent, prevented the state from removing transit funding without the full support of the state legislature. It also required a public statement detailing the amount diverted from mass transit and the impact that diversion would have on the level of service, maintenance and security.

Those key provisions are now entirely gone. In the new bill, foisted on Albany by Cuomo, the governor as the power to divert funds if he “declares a fiscal emergency,” and the reporting requirements have been removed entirely. The public will not know the extent of the raids on service levels unless others report on them. This is a lockbox without a lock, and a group of union leaders and transit advocates are not happy. “We do not support the substitute legislation passed in this special session,” the coalition that saw the bill through originally said. “It does not constrain future raids on transit funds, and deletes the requirement that the of the diversion of transit dedicated funds be reported.”

The bill’s original sponsors have vowed to restore the language next year, but Gov. Cuomo never indicated that he would sign the more powerful piece of legislation. And so we are left with an MTA striped of $320 million, no clear sign from where replacement funds will originate, and a lockbox that isn’t. As Andrew Cuomo said, he is the government, and his is a government with no sense of the role transit funding plays in New York City. Sad times indeed.

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AsidesView from Underground

To sleep, perchance to miss your stop

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on December 8, 2011

At one point or another, most straphangers end up dozing off in the subway. Perhaps it’s a beer-induced haze of sleep; perhaps it’s just shut-eye on the way home with a trusted companion or significant other to watch over your stuff; perhaps it’s a wave of sleep that you just can’t escape. Any way you slice, you wake up feeling a little groggy but perhaps a little more ready to tackle the next few hours of the day.

That sleep, however, is not a particularly restful one, The New York Times has discovered. Doctors who study sleep say that dozing on the subway is more akin to nodding off than to the sleep we need over it. In fact, during their 20-minute commutes, straphangers never fall into a particularly deep sleep, and even still, light and noise interrupt that rest. “I suspect all you get is Stage 1 sleep; it’s not going to be restorative,” Carl Brazil, a sleep specialist, said. “It’s kind of wasted sleep.”

It’s not, of course, wasted sleep for pickpockets who target the drunk, and in fact, it can be costly sleep when you awake three neighborhoods and eight subway stops away from your intended destination. But with the lull of the train and the peace after a long day, sometimes that sleep, like MTA service delays, is just unavoidable.

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MTA Absurdity

MTA IG: Privately-owned escalators not monitored properly

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on December 8, 2011

In Washington, DC, escalators that bring passengers up from the depths of the Metro caverns are seemingly a necessity. No one wants to hike up the 204 feet from the platform at Woodley Park to Connecticut Ave. at street level. Yet, these escalators are often plagued by outages as one or another break down frequently. In New York, it’s much the same story.

Over the years, the MTA has had a love-hate relationship with their escalators (and elevators too). They love to build them and tote their usefulness, but they hate to oversee the repair process. Creaky elevators get stuck; escalators — never broken because they just become stairs — wind up in the purgatory of the repair process; and even staircases are somehow out of service for longer than they should be.

Even worse, according to a report published today, are the escalators and elevators that lead into MTA areas but are controlled by private owners. Throughout the system, there are 23 privately-owned escalators and 10 elevators that serve 13 stations throughout Manhattan and Queens, and although the owners are contractually obligated to maintain these access points, according to the MTA Inspector General, the MTA often fails to notify owners of outages and does not enforce these obligations. In one case, in fact, the MTA waited nearly three years to notify a property owner of an escalator outage.

According to Barry Kluger’s report, the problem is one that often plagues large bureaucracies. “No one individual or department within the MTA or NYC Transit has overall responsibility for ensuring compliance with easement agreements,” he wrote. “Each seems to minimize its responsibility and role. This apparent void in leadership and oversight has led to inadequate agency practices and procedures.”

Essentially, the problem is one of oversight. The agreements between the MTA and the private owners require the owners to maintain their escalators and elevators upon notice from the MTA. Yet, no one person at the MTA is in charge of giving that notice, and numerous departments have tried to pass along these duties to others. As Kluger relates, the Transit Elevator & Escalator Department, the Transit Station Environment Department, the MTA Real Estate Department, the MTA General Counsel, the Transit Department of Law and the Transit Office of Government & Community Relations all have responsibilities in the field, but none have sole ownership of the issue. There is no shared list of out-of-system egress points, and there is no efficient system for sharing information related to outages.

Thus, when the escalator at the 53rd St. station on the East Side went out in September of 2008, it took until April of 2011, after countless articles and news stories, for the MTA to inform the property owners of the outage. This, says, Kluger is a process that needs to change. “MTA and NYC Transit must work cooperatively and creatively to resolve out of system property issues expeditiously, utilizing all appropriate tools at their disposal, including self-help, and leveraging New York City partnerships and resources, for the benefit of the riders.”

To solve this problem, Kluger issued a series of rather simple recommendations. The authority must report these private-property outages on its website, and it must pick one lead department which will be in charge of enforcing maintenance agreements. The agency should also report quarterly statistic to the MTA Board so that the board and public are informed of the state of repairs. For its part, the authority accepted these recommendations and appointed the Real Estate department to head up all enforcement and maintenance efforts with regards to these privately-owned escalators and elevators.

Still, Kluger had strong words for the MTA in his report, and the authority will have to show that these internal changes are leading to actual improvements. “The public has been seriously disserved by the inordinate amount of time that privately-owned and maintained escalators, which help move passengers at some of the busiest stations in New York City, have been out of service,” he said. “While this disservice is largely the result of private owners not meeting their obligations, a share of the fault belongs to the MTA and NYC Transit, which
have not effectively managed their own responsibilities regarding this ‘out of system’ equipment.”

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AsidesMTA

A glimpse inside the GCT Apple Store

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on December 7, 2011

I took a walk through Grand Central this afternoon as word got around that the wrapping around the new Apple Store had come down. From the floor of the building’s main hall, the Apple Store looks tastefully integrated into Grand Central. There is no ostentatious glass cube, a winding staircase or any garish signage. A bright, glowing Apple logo is visible from all throughout the terminal, but the computers, iPads and iPods aren’t visible from below.

Meanwhile, members of the ol’ print media got a tour of the Apple Store courtesy of the Cupertino-based company. (Thanks for inviting me, Apple. Harumph.) Andrew Grossman of The Wall Street Journal calls the store “understated.” The main entrance simply features tables with computers, and Apple’s typical markings are reserved for the parts of the mezzanine not visible from the concourse. amNew York has some photos of the store. It all opes on Friday.

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New York City Transit

New Transit snow response calls for ‘preemptive curtailment of service’

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on December 7, 2011

Even as temperatures in New York stay unseasonably warm, the MTA is gearing up for snow and ice. After all, the agency doesn’t want a repeat of last winter when the authority somehow managed to forget about a stranded train. So yesterday, the authority unveiled its winter preparedness plan. It’s nothing too outlandish, but as the city wanted to be prepared in the face of Hurricane Irene, so too will it be ready for the first major snowstorm of the season.

“Last winter’s weather was tough for New York and the MTA, but we’ve made improvements to our service protocols, equipment and communications to provide the best possible service this year,” MTA Executive Director Joseph Lhota said. “We’re prepared to clear more snow and ice than ever before and we’ll be working hard to keep service running, but we won’t hesitate to suspend service on parts of our system when it’s necessary to protect the safety of our riders, employees and equipment.”

For the subways, Transit says it is “preparing an impressive fleet of snow and ice-fighting equipment” that will be dispatched in the event of a winter weather plan. The authority has also adopted “procedures for preemptive curtailment of service” in the event of a massive storm. It has also changed its storm response protocols to allow for a Level V response which would be implemented in the face of a massive storm. According to Transit officials, Level V would involve “an orderly and temporary suspension in service on select line segments to allow for snow and ice removal.”

“Our goal has always been to keep our services up and running so that our customers can get to where they need to be no matter what the weather,” Carmen Bianco, senior vice president of subways, said. “We have a tremendous investment in machinery, manpower and experience. But when we performed our review of how we performed during the Christmas weekend blizzard, we determined that there was a point where we should no longer send trains onto the nearly 220 miles of outdoor track of certain lines.”

With respect to buses, Transit and the Department of Sanitation will better align their services to prioritize bus route plowing. Last year, numerous buses were stranded in Brooklyn and Queens for days as plows failed to remove the snow drifts and often trapped buses behind accumulating mounds of snow. The MTA will also be prepared to curtail bus service and remove most articulated buses from the roads as well.

In a way, the MTA had the opportunity to dry-run their winter shutdown plans when Hurricane Irene threatened New York. Although the direst of storm surges did not flood out the subways and the city itself was spared the brunt of the storm, Transit learned what it had to do to get both employees and passengers off the roads and rails safely. Avoiding another winter debacle has now taken center stage.

“The most important shift in agency thinking was moving away from the philosophy that we will deliver service until we can’t,” Transit head Tom Prendergast said. “We learned from last year’s storm that at some point, it was safer and more prudent to temporarily suspend service.”

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7 Line Extension

A Hoboken-based idea for the 7 extension

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on December 7, 2011

Should the 7 line head to Hoboken instead of Secaucus? (Map via The Wall Street Journal)

It’s been a few months since we’ve heard much about the city’s nascent plans to send the 7 line to Secaucus. In October, we heard reports that Mayor Bloomberg will push to get the $10 billion extension off the ground before he leaves office in 2013. It would be his shining transit moment and could transform cross-Hudson commuting.

But what if sending the train to Secaucus is only half of a good idea? Maybe the 7 should cross the Hudson, but maybe it should have a different destination. Last November, we heard rumblings of this thought as the region’s planners offered their opinions on the Secaucus extension. At the time, former Transit planner Bob Previdi suggested sending the subway to Newark Airport or even Hoboken, a major hub for New Jersey Transit service that is even closer than Secaucus.

This week, for Crain’s New York, Previdi trumpets a refined idea: The 7 should go to Hoboken instead of Secaucus. He writes:

There are three important reasons to consider Hoboken over Secaucus. First, extending the No. 7 to Secaucus would take 21,000 feet of construction, while Hoboken Terminal sits only 9,000 feet away, which would incur billions less in construction costs.

Second, Hoboken Terminal is a huge facility with plenty of spare capacity. It sits on 50 acres, has 17 platform tracks and is used by only 32,000 passengers a day. By comparison, New York’s Penn Station sits on two blocks, has 21 tracks and is used by over 500,000 passengers a day. It has no spare capacity. Third, the original ARC project was designed to double NJ Transit’s rail ridership—Secaucus is not capable of accomplishing this without major track changes. Only two tracks lead into Secaucus from Newark, which is why it is a major choke point on the Northeast Corridor.

Mr. Bloomberg’s initial response to the canceled ARC project would work brilliantly in Manhattan because it uses spare capacity on the No. 7 to avoid building a station under Macy’s. By the same token, Hoboken has spare terminal and track capacity and is much closer to the 7 than Secaucus. Marrying Hoboken Terminal and the 7 would cost half as much as the other projects, or less.

As the finer points of the engineering study for the plan to send the subway to Secaucus have yet to be released, it’s tough for me to pass judgment on Previdi’s idea. It’s worth noting too that Hoboken already has a subway system in PATH that connects to Manhattan. I can say however that Previdi presents an intriguing competing plan. He is very much in support of the mayor’s pet project, but he wants to see something realized that will help with New Jersey Transit’s capacity problems. Ultimately, that might be too tall an order for a subway extension, but if someone is going to sink $10 billion into a trans-Hudson tunnel, it must deliver returns.

It’s been 15 months since Gov. Chris Christie torpedoed the ARC Tunnel. At the time, as Previdi notes, he promised to “consider more reasonable solutions to meet NJ Transit’s goals.” Maybe throwing New Jersey’s support behind a subway extension will be considered a more reasonable solution, but maybe the 7 can’t do as much as the region wants and needs. Still, if this project is to move forward, we must consider all possibilities, and Hoboken is indeed out there, awaiting its attention and perhaps a subway stop too.

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MTA Politics

Cuomo deal cuts MTA payroll tax revenues, but…

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on December 6, 2011

As New York state leaders in Albany look to reform the tax code, the payroll tax that, in part, funds the MTA will be cut, Gov. Cuomo announced this afternoon. The new plan, which enjoys the support of a bipartisan coalition of lawmakers will see the state directly reimburse the MTA for last payroll tax revenues, but I’m wary of any plan that weakens the MTA’s dedicated revenues.

The payroll tax cuts are part of a larger plan that relieves the tax burden on middle class New Yorkers while targeting the upper classes instead. It’s also designed to spur job creation through infrastructure investment, although the transit part of that picture appears to be missing. For more on the overall package, feel free to browse through the Governor’s press release. The following bit buried at the end of the release though is important:

The Governor and the legislative leaders have agreed to reduce the MTA payroll tax on small businesses while maintaining the necessary funding for the MTA from other sources. The payroll tax would be eliminated or reduced for 294,900 taxpayers overall. The tax would also be eliminated from an additional 415,000 taxpayers by raising the self-employment income exemption. In addition, private elementary and secondary schools, as well as parochial schools, would be exempt from the tax. The State would compensate the MTA for the $250 million in lost revenue.

When the original plans for a payroll tax overhaul were leaked earlier this week, the reimbursements were backwards. The state was going to reimburse tax payers for the monies they had to pay out under the payroll tax, and the MTA would see no loss in revenue from the state. Now, the state will use “other sources” to ensure that the MTA gets its $250 million while the taxpayers won’t need to pony up the dough any longer.

Of course, we know how that story ends. Without a steady stream of money from the payroll tax, the state will suddenly be unable to find the $250 million it owes to the MTA, and legislators will blame the MTA when the authority comes forward with a budget deficit. It’s unclear right now if that $250 million payment would cover just 2012 or would be implemented on an ongoing basis. As it stands now, the MTA’s budget projects long-term deficits with over $1.5 billion in payroll tax revenue. Reducing that figure by $250 million a year would increase the MTA’s deficits as well as the pressure on the public to carry that debt through fare increases, service cuts or both.

Furthermore, this move by the state highlights the need for the lockbox legislation. Not only would it make it more difficult for the state to rearrange MTA finances, but it would require the state to explain what $250 million in loss subsidies would mean for the MTA. Instead that legislation has languished on Cuomo’s desk.

The MTA in a statement was diplomatic: “”We are grateful to the Governor, Majority Leader and Speaker for reaching an agreement that ensures the MTA will continue to receive the level of funding needed to keep New York and its economy moving.” I can’t help but feel pangs of fear that the $250 million will disappear, and the MTA will slip further into the red as time goes by. A healthy MTA can spur the economy just as much as a reorganized tax code. Just ask these guys.

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Second Avenue Subway

After two weeks, Second Ave. blasting resumes

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on December 6, 2011

The Upper East Side’s two-week reprieve is over. The MTA had halted blasting underneath Second Ave. shortly before Thanksgiving in order to alleviate residents’ concerns over dust and debris, and yesterday, after implementing a series of remediation measures, the blasting resumed.

As DNA Info wrote yesterday, residents are cautiously optimistic that the fixes will solve the problem. The MTA says it has expanded the blasting window by an hour in order to allow for more time in between charges. That way, the dust can settle before any blast triggers more debris.

The authority and its contractors have also tried to improve the muck houses — the giant structures along the avenue at 72nd St. — to better minimize the spread of blasting dust. New “Dust Bosses” will spray water on the dust in order to contain it within the muck house, and a burlap curtain will help seal some overhangs and vents.

Initially, residents offered some guarded praise for the new measures. “It’s a dramatic difference,” one said to The Post. “I see a big improvement, and I hope . . . it continues.”

Postscript: I made an appearance on Fox 5’s “Good Day New York” yesterday to discuss the Second Ave. Subway blasting issues. Check out the corresponding story right here and watch the video below.

Transit Blogger Benajmin Kabak: MyFoxNY.com

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View from Underground

On the importance of transit to New York City

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on December 6, 2011

Over the past five years, as I’ve written about various attitudes toward the New York City subway system, I’ve often said that the city could not thrive without its transit network. We are more prone toward dwelling on the negatives and griping about delayed trains or crowded commutes than we are to sit back and appreciate what we have. Every now and then, though, a story somewhere drives home that point, and this week, Crain’s New York hosts such a tale.

The story from Crain’s isn’t exactly one of praise for the MTA. In fact, it focuses on just the opposite: After a fall of shuttle buses and service diversions, Williamsburg business owners are fed up with MTA weekends because the lack of trains is having a serious impact on their respective bottom lines. Adrianne Pasquarelli has the story:

William Norton spent the days leading up to the crucial Black Friday shopping weekend taping up flyers and composing an email blast to the 7,000 patrons of Peachfrog, his Williamsburg, Brooklyn-based store. But after ringing up 120 transactions that Friday, sales plummeted on Small Business Saturday and again on Sunday—the same days the neighborhood’s primary link with Manhattan, the L train, was shut down for maintenance. “Nobody was here,” said Mr. Norton, who sells an eclectic mix of apparel, shoes and antiques. “I lost 80% of my business, compared with last year.”

Weekend ridership on the L has jumped 141% since 1998, largely because it is the only line serving the heart of increasingly trendy Williamsburg. The problem nowadays is that all too frequently, that lifeline has been cut, inconveniencing residents and battering local businesses. What’s more, even when the L is up and running, the waiting time between trains is long and the cars overcrowded.

Since July, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority has completely or partially shut down service on the L on a dozen weekends. The weekend after Black Friday was the worst, though. Merchants reported that business slumped 20% to 80% from last year’s levels. In response, they’ve begun meeting with community leaders and reaching out to local politicians and the MTA to figure out alternatives. “We’re not crazy people,” said Felice Kirby, co-owner of Teddy’s Bar and Grill on North Eighth Street and Berry Avenue. “We know they have work to do, and we want people to get to work on weekdays, but we count, too—there’s an imbalance.”

Slow sales are only half the problem. Without an easy lifeline to Manhattan, employees have found it onerous to commute to work from far-away locales, and residents can’t stray too far afield from the neighborhoods for fear of being left without a ride home.

Pasquarelli, meanwhile, hits upon only half of the problem. While she focuses on the L train’s woes, service changes have sidelined the G as well. The IND Crosstown line has either been running in sections or not at all, and those in Park Slope and Boerum Hill who want to reach Williamsburg on the weekends cannot. On more than one occasion this fall, I’ve had to change weekend plans when subway service changes made a trip to Williamsburg from Park Slope impractical. At times, without the Q, L, G or Manhattan-bound IRT local service, I had no easy transit route north.

So here we see how the subway rules our lives, our city and our economy. Without subway service, business slumps by 60 percent points. Although Williamsburg enjoys a ferry stop, Pasquarelli notes it carried just 5500 passengers last weekend as compared with 38,000 at Bedford Ave. alone on a typical weekend. So as suburban representatives take aim at MTA funding mechanisms, remember that the city cannot survive without its subway, let alone thrive.

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