My brother lived on Cape Cod years ago when they were debating bringing rail service from Boston to the Cape.

The locals opposed it, even though traffic on the Cape is absolutely brutal in summer, because “we don’t want the trash from Boston getting out here” aka keep the poor people out.

The MTA would have to build a new entrance for the station and the NIMBYs basically say that it would bring too much foot traffic and noise to this one street or something. Plus construction noise and the usual NIMBY spin-the-wheel of bullshit.

I take transit to the airports all the time and elevators make a huge difference even for those with no mobility issues. Luggage, bicycles, strollers, etc.

If I take transit to JFK there are elevators at every transfer.

But my quickest route to LGA involves multiple transfers with no elevators so it’s a real pain.

The UES has successfully stopped the MTA from adding an accessibility elevator at the Hunter College subway station for over a decade now.

"Neighborhood character" apparently means being a fucking nightmare for anyone with mobility issues.

There were only two MetroCard machines in my station for years (before OMNY) and one of them had a busted #1 button on the number pad… the local zip code had four 1’s in it so it was effectively unusable with credit cards. This went on for like 3 years. I asked the station agent next to the machine if they were ever going to fix it and she just shrugged. I’d seen other people complain about this to the station agent too. People missed trains all the time because of the lines.

Months later I finally got tired of the lines for the one working machine and emailed the MTA district manager for my station. It got fixed in like a week!

Just seems like some of the station agents truly do nothing. Why couldn’t she have communicated this shit up the chain? She sat there and watched these lines every morning and listened to people complain… but I guess did nothing.

No pasture for them to graze on though. 😔

The plan Hochul proposed would also impact the city and force it to build more housing as well.

This housing shortage is so severe that it really shouldn’t be an either/or thing.

According to the article, Scarsdale hasn’t increased its housing supply since 1990. Why is the state financially supporting Scarsdale’s infrastructure if it’s not doing anything to help with the statewide housing crisis?

I feel like NY legislators need to be required to discuss all of the unintended consequences of bills they’re debating.

It’s like they pass any feel-good sounding shit and just hope for the best.

I read an opinion piece arguing exactly what you’re saying. Basically that political deadlock has encouraged progressives and conservatives alike to retreat to winnable battles over language and culture.

Politically-active people want to feel like they’re accomplishing something but legislatures are mostly useless so they just bicker over language instead.

Reminds me of when the American Medical Association put out a guide to “more inclusive language” for doctors and nurses that included recommendations like not saying “combat disease” anymore because of “violent connotations” that could upset some people.

But the AMA made no mention of things like abortion rights or universal healthcare (they oppose it) which would make actual meaningful differences for people. What’s more upsetting? Hearing the term “combat” or being forced to carry your rapist’s baby? Or not being able to afford life-saving medical care? 🤔

Cribbing from this great NYTimes opinion piece: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/15/opinion/diversity-equity-inclusion.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

I remember several years ago when the 7 line was upgraded with CBTC signaling, Paris did the same thing to one of their lines and a few articles pointed out that it was the most apples-to-apples transit project comparison possible... the two lines were almost the exact same length and number of stations.

And yet Paris did it for like 1/3 the price... despite having very powerful unions.

It is depressing how inefficiently our money is spent.

As long as we’re rethinking transit to LaGuardia, why shouldn’t we get a bus from Brooklyn to LGA? When you’re dealing with luggage, a single-seat ride (meaning no transfers) should be the goal.

There’s a bus that goes all the way from Bed-Stuy to JFK and it already has the AirTrain. Manhattan has the M60.

The bus system in general is such a missed opportunity.

The fact that it mostly follows the same routes from before WWII and the buses mostly stay within one borough is just myopic.

Every area that doesn’t have direct train service to Manhattan should have a bus service that goes straight there instead of just taking people to the nearest train. Like why shouldn’t you be able to get on a bus in Red Hook and go straight to Manhattan without transferring to a train? Or a bus straight from the Navy Yard to Manhattan? And yeah use dedicated BRT lanes at every choke point (bridges tunnels).

Yep. Last time the city/state had a decent voucher system a few decades ago, the housing crisis wasn’t nearly this bad. Landlords were at least open to it because they didn’t have dozens of well-qualified applicants with decent jobs beating down their doors.

Now you can get 50 people lining up for a single apartment viewing and they all have good income and checkbooks ready.

NYC had a good housing voucher system for homeless people back when Bloomberg was mayor but he and Cuomo had a dispute over the funding and basically killed the program overnight leaving landlords with tenants who couldn’t pay.

So they haven’t trusted voucher systems ever since.

Yeah I used to work in homeless services and back when Bloomberg was mayor there was actually a pretty good housing voucher program that helped a lot of people get off the street. The state and city shared the expense and landlords generally trusted it and took on these tenants.

But then Bloomberg decided the city was paying too much and tried to play chicken with Cuomo by pulling the city’s portion of funding. Well, Cuomo called his bluff and also pulled the state’s portion of funding effectively killing the program.

So a lot of landlords were suddenly left with people who had no way to pay the full amount of rent. And they haven’t forgotten that experience.

So because of those two egotistical dickheads having a pissing match, landlords are very wary of any government vouchers for rent.

Apparently it needs $100M in renovations... the scaffolding isn't going anywhere.

Do you feel like the system around these is working appropriately?

I’m not an expert, I just like reading about the mechanics of these projects when I can.

It seems to me, and a lot of non-experts, that timelines for projects like this are just way too long and that perhaps some reform of these processes is needed. Do you think that’s a fair assessment? Genuinely curious.

The counterpoint is that making the process take this long is part of the reason projects cost so much and often don’t happen at all. When it takes longer than any politician’s term to even do the environmental review, it’s more likely projects will simply get canceled.

Also, in this case, it’s a toll. We’re not talking about demolishing entire neighborhoods to build a highway. If there’s a problem, they can turn it off.

Ezra Klein at the NYTimes has done some articles on how NY’s experience with congestion charging is a great example of how broken these systems are. Costs for all kinds of infrastructure projects skyrocketed when these kinds of reviews became mandatory in the 1970s.

And they’re all in Manhattan.

Staten Island also has the longest average commutes of any place nationwide, iirc.

Yeah I’m just saying let’s focus on the larger issue: the shortage of housing.

The aforementioned vacant units and Airbnb units aren’t nearly as big of a problem as NYC’s chronic under building of housing.

Unfortunately virtually every major city says the same thing and that’s why this is a problem nationwide. People can’t just all move to Utica where the lackluster economy is the reason for the cheap rent.

Every city/state that saw the slightest influx of people during the pandemic is now saying the same thing: Don’t come here.

It’s not a realistic response to increased demand. Just have to build more housing.

Telling people to just move elsewhere hasn’t worked so far. Good luck with that strategy.

500,000 people moved here in one decade while only 100,000 new units were built. Even if every Airbnb and every empty unit returned to long-term renters, we’d still have a housing shortage.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_City_housing_shortage