Queens Tribune

Millions of New Yorkers rely on our City’s mass transit system every day and deserve no less than the safest and most efficient service. The keys to ensuring proper service are routine maintenance and repair of the City’s aging transportation infrastructure.

Sadly, this has not happened.

The City’s system continues to suffer from years of neglect as a result of inadequate funding whereas the region’s commuter railroads have benefited from a comparatively robust maintenance and repair effort. This inequity poses troubling consequences for both rider safety and our region’s economic prosperity.

Last week, my office released a study that reflects New York City Transit’s failure to receive a fair share of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s overall capital funding. Although the City’s transit system carries nearly 94 percent of MTA riders, it receives merely 75 percent of the MTA’s core capital funding.

It is time that we reverse this trend.

The election of Gov. Eliot Spitzer provides City residents with new hope and the potential for New York City to receive its fair share. The MTA’s recent decision to create a blue ribbon panel and MTA Executive Director Elliot Sander’s stated priority of investing in our basic infrastructure are encouraging and important first steps.

I am confident that my office’s findings will help guide this new dialogue about the necessary funding levels for New York City Transit.

Delays in restoring the City’s transportation infrastructure to a “state of good repair” – defined as a safe and functional condition – have been substantial. Our study found that insufficient funding resulted in the delayed repair of critical components for one, and in some instances, two decades.

A particularly troubling finding was that repairs to tunnel fans, which remove smoke in the event of fire, have been delayed 21 years to 2028.

We also found that:

* Repairs to major New York City Transit assets including bus depots, subway maintenance shops and subway signals have been delayed up to 15 years;

* The City’s lettered train routes (e.g. the A, B, C, D, E, F, G lines) operate with a signal system that dates back to the Great Depression; and,

* Essential equipment that was destroyed as a result of the fire at the Chambers Street Station was difficult to repair because components were so old that manufacturers no longer made replacement parts.

These conditions exist in sharp contrast to conditions at the Long Island Rail Road and Metro-North. The LIRR has been restored to a near 100 percent State of Good Repair and Metro-North will achieve this level in approximately seven years. Yet, in recent years, LIRR and Metro North’s share of funding has increased while the City’s has decreased.

This disparity is unacceptable and continues to shortchange City residents.

In the next MTA Five-Year Core Capital Plan, New York City Transit should receive an 80 percent share of funding. This translates into an additional $673 million dollars for repair and upgrade of critical system components. These funds should be used to address failing signal systems, fan plants, subways and bus maintenance shops and other critical infrastructure needs. As well, the MTA should seek funds from the United States Department of Homeland Security. Certain projects, including those related to tunnel lighting and communications systems, may be eligible for funding to prevent, detect and respond to the threat of improvised explosive devices.

After decades of deferred maintenance and delays, we are at an important juncture in our City’s development. Record-level ridership places enormous demands on the City’s system and with an additional 1 million New Yorkers expected by 2026, the pressures will increase substantially. We cannot expect to meet these increasing demands with a decreasing share of capital funds. The MTA must increase its commitment to New York City Transit.

Our City, our quality of life and our future depend on it.

William Thompson is the Comptroller of the City of New York.

The Battle of Albany Gov. Spitzer Trashes The State Legislature Says “Knockout Blow Is Coming Very Soon”
By HENRY STERN

The fat is in the fire. Sorry we don’t have larger type.

Gov. Eliot Spitzer launched a frontal assault on the Democrat-controlled Assembly by flying to Syracuse and denouncing Assemblyman Bill Magnarelli to the editors of the local newspaper, the Syracuse Post-Standard.

The Governor was quite harsh in his public statement after the Legislature’s selection of Assemblyman Tom DiNapoli as Comptroller. It is too early to say whether his display of indignation will injure his ability to secure the passage of substantive legislation, or his power to shape the budget in ways he feels best serve the public interest. It is difficult to imagine, however, that his remarks in Albany and Syracuse will enhance his influence with the Legislature, at least in the short term.

It is possible that the Legislature may be intimidated by fear of voter retaliation, and that a Spitzer ticket may emerge in the 2008 Democratic primaries to counter the pro-Silver incumbents. It is ironic that all these Legislators favored Spitzer over Tom Suozzi in the 2006 Democratic primary because they believed Suozzi was more likely to rock the boat, since he had already defeated incumbent Assemblyman David Sidikman, in a Nassau County primary in 2004. The winner of that primary, Chuck Levine of Glen Cove, voted with Speaker Silver for his Great Neck neighbor, Tom DiNapoli. Why do incumbents see the world differently from insurgents? They and their districts would be worse off if they broke with the Speaker.

Silver may be vulnerable in his own Lower Manhattan district, where the population has changed in recent years, more yuppies and Latinos and fewer Jews and Italians. Silver has worked hard for the district over the years, sometimes at the expense of other districts. Also, people intuitively dislike purges, especially if the purgee is someone whom they know.

Yet the mainstream media pressure against Silver is likely to be intense; those who condemned Hevesi will not hesitate to scourge another presumed violator of the public trust. Silver’s dual employment with a negligence law firm and his repeal of the commuter tax in 1999 may cause him problems with voters, or they may not. His opponent should take care to collect sufficient signatures for his nominating petitions because they are likely to be scrutinized closely.

Political observers on all sides feel that the governor was intemperate to get this incensed this early in the game. Anger suggests a lack of balance which ultimately does not enhance one’s ability to change people’s minds. Politics is the business of people. Unless you treat them decently, they are not likely to do what you want.

We know many New Yorkers are discontented with the Legislature, described picturesquely as the most dysfunctional legislature in the country. They believed that with the election of Gov. Spitzer, a new day was at hand for reform. Unless the Governor can pressure or persuade the Assembly majority into doing his bidding, his program and budget will not be approved. It is possible that threats are the most effective way to get elected officials to stand up to the lobbyists who have ruled in the past. If his plan works, he will be considered a political genius. But political history does not support the notion that repeated use of the stick is the best way to secure results, especially when the opposition is supplying carrots.

The irony of the situation is that the people who have railed against Bruno and Silver because of their low ethical standards, their subservience to lobbyists, particular their former employees who lobby, their suppression of dissent, and all the other vices that brought the New York State Legislature into disrepute, and who rejoiced in the election of a reform governor, are now puzzled and some are distressed at the manner in which the new leader has embarked on his crusade.

The argument is offered that the establishment and the lobbyists are so powerful that only by the most vociferous protests, constantly repeated, will their hold be broken and still be considered acquiesce. In this view, the governor is following a well defined strategy to shake up the system. Perhaps it will work, but what is plan B?

Governor Al Smith, a reformer out of Tammany, was called “The Happy Warrior.” Theodore Roosevelt used the “bully pulpit.” He meant “bully” as desirable, not as intimidating. TR said to “speak softly, and carry a big stick.” So far, the two words to describe Governor Spitzer have not been found. Let us hope the Spitzer nickname is positive, and reflects wisdom and maturity, not less attractive qualities.

The historic vices of incumbents include arrogance, as well as financial, intellectual and moral dishonesty. The historic vices of reformers are arrogance, as well as delusions of superiority and righteousness, and class prejudice. When elephants do battle, the only sure result is that the grass will be trampled. And not much other business is likely to be transacted.

StarQuest@NYCivic.org