{"id":314,"date":"2005-04-04T00:30:37","date_gmt":"2005-04-04T07:30:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/missrepresentation.com\/?p=314"},"modified":"2005-04-04T00:30:37","modified_gmt":"2005-04-04T07:30:37","slug":"lucky-number-seven","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/missrepresentation.com\/?p=314","title":{"rendered":"Lucky number seven."},"content":{"rendered":"

The Times<\/em> provides some background <\/a>on the inability of the MTA board to count. Turns out the unanimity regarding the Jets\u2019 bid was out of concern for expanding the system, which they see as part of their mandate. The Times <\/em>provides some talking heads who claim that no, the board\u2019s primary role is fiduciary responsibility. Curiously, they find no one who states the obvious: the board exists to pander to the political interests of those who nominate the members (the wonder twins, Curious George and Mike-Mike).<\/p>\n

So, anyhoo, the board announced their secret agenda — which would have been helpful to firms, you know, preparing bids — of selecting bids that only further their claimed agenda of improving mass transit. And it turns out this can only be accomplished by building a football stadium. The East Side is going to be pissed — now that the Avalon Bay Whole Foods is selling masses of \u2018conventional\u2019 produce, there aren\u2019t any good sites left. How does a football stadium further mass transit? Well, in the course of a football game, there are masses of cars that move in and out over a short period of time. Okay, it\u2019s not that simple: a stadium gets a subway built because if you give away your land and all your development rights, the city commits about 2% more to your capital campaign, and the state commits bupkes (well, a little less, since both have been defunding the MTA while packing the board with sycophants), and voila, a two-station extension to the 7 line is, um, on track (while consuming about 25% of your capital budget!). First stop is the Chinese Consulate (that\u2019s the Morris Lapidus building the Times<\/em> didn\u2019t want to name names about a couple weeks back), proving that we can dust off all our racist fear-mongering from the turn of the century, and the second is the stadium itself, a very helpful resource for all those people who will be driving from Jersey to Jackson Heights for cheap parking and easy access on game day.<\/p>\n

Now wait a minute!<\/em> you cry. The MTA is getting good money for their lot: some $280MM, and maybe even another $440MM. Sure, sure. The MTA gets nearly $640MM (provided the entire West Side development plan is upended) in exchange for a $3 billion<\/em> subway extension. So, yes, you are right: it isn\u2019t nothing, it\u2019s a net loss of over $2 billion. Now wait a minute!<\/em> you cry again, the city is kicking in the $2 billion. Um, yeah, that\u2019s what they said. I don\u2019t know if you noticed, but the MTA is more or less the town bike. Everyone promises they will love you in the morning, then laugh behind your back while you go begging for fare increases. When Mike-Mike actually issues some bonds for that scratch, then we\u2019ll believe him.<\/p>\n

Worst case scenario? Stadium work begins, with or without the Olympics, the MTA gets itchy about its capital campaign, the Hudson Yards development stalls, and a big plan to reinvigorate what appears to be an essential development site devolves into everyone\u2019s worst projections. If you want to know what this will look like in about 30 years, I suggest you hop on the part of the 7 line that does exist and ride out to Flushing Meadows.<\/p>\n

But say the city comes through, and the gleaming palace on a hill (don\u2019t forget, the platform they need to build will be just that, a good twenty feet above the surrounding neighborhood) gets built, we get the 7 line to nowhere, the development over there actually proceeds apace, and I\u2019m all wrong. Well, hooray for capitalism and all that (I for one, cannot wait for Battery Park City: The Sequel). But the Times <\/em>also points, briefly, to one of the most devastating issues with all this planning: the collapse of East Side transit<\/a>. Remember, just before, when the MTA was arguing they are charged with improving and increasing transit? Well, the two things they are willing to put money against — the aforementioned 7 line, and the Grand Central-Penn Station connector — will result in anywhere from 20-60% more commuters accessing Grand Central and the Lexington Avenue line daily — a line already so overburdened that the MTA has done everything it can, short of placing employees at the head and foot of every train to call out clear distance, to add capacity. I\u2019m not going to invite you to try navigating the connectors and platforms of what is currently the second-busiest transit hub in the United States during rush hour to get an idea of how bad it is.<\/p>\n

Now, the MTA says it is committed to the Second Avenue line. You know, the one that\u2019s been planned for, oh, 80 years<\/em>, and under construction for a little less (30-odd). The RPA<\/a>, which has done the most extensive analysis of the issue, agrees that this is a capital idea, but they are as skeptical as everyone else that it will happen, and worse, they\u2019ve done fancy scientific things, like calculations, to indicate that it needs to be done first, or it will be a 20-year kerfuffle on 42nd Street. And to be done in time, it needs to be underway now. Wait — it needed to be underway a couple of years ago. Oh, well. Good thing the MTA is so focused on improving and increasing transit.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Times provides some background on the inability of the MTA board to count. Turns out the unanimity regarding the Jets\u2019 bid was out of concern for expanding the system, which they see as part of their mandate. The Times provides some talking heads who claim that no, the board\u2019s primary role is fiduciary responsibility. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-314","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/missrepresentation.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/missrepresentation.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/missrepresentation.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/missrepresentation.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/missrepresentation.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=314"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/missrepresentation.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/missrepresentation.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=314"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/missrepresentation.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=314"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/missrepresentation.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=314"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}