Earlier today, the Federal Transit Administration released the list of local transit projects set to receive New and Small Start Grants, and New York’s big-ticket projects are set to benefit. Both the Second Ave. Subway and one of the City’s planned Select Bus Service routes will see federal funds flow its way. Elana Schor of Streetsblog was all over this story this morning, and she reports that SAS will get $197 million in federal funding and that the Nostrand Ave. BRT route will receive $28 million. FTA Administrator Peter Rogoff praised NYC DOT Commissioner Janette Sadik-Kahn for her “leadership on this and other related projects.”
The BRT grant is an interesting one because the Nostrand Ave. corridor has been subject to some car-based politicking. Local business owners who will lose their personal parking spots are not too happy about the project, and the vocal minority voices often tend to trump the silent majority who stand to benefit from faster surface transportation and a less congestion business area. While 19 elected officials have support the 1st and 2nd Ave. Select Bus Service plan without federal funding, politicians who represent the Nostrand Ave. neighborhoods have yet to speak out in favor of the Brooklyn-based plan despite the obvious need to speed up the painfully slow B44. Noah Kazis hopes that federal funds will change that anti-transit attitude. Either way, these grants are good news for some of the city’s cash-strapped projects.