R10 2952

To me, the clearest answer to replacing Cuomo with someone better is a primary challenge from the left. Zephyr Teachout 2014, Cynthia Nixon 2018... maybe Howie Hawkins 2022? Cuomo will have a harder time steamrolling primary challengers this time around I think, if at least part of NY voters wake up and smell the coffee.

Exactly. Compared to European or even Canadian public policy, the U.S. is a deranged patchwork of loopholes, half-measures, and knee-jerk reactions.

Regarding the benches and certain other aspects of the system, of course they're not going to be 100% clean. What did some of you expect, to eat caviar off of them? I grew up dealing with all kinds of things and places in a city of several million people, yet still managed to get through life without fear of or contraction of polio, cholera, typhus, malaria, the bubonic plague, coronavirus, etc. Sure, I wash my hands, but there's a fine line between basic hygiene and unrestrained germophobia. The world is dirty, but given the choice between being a child about it or being an adult, I choose to be an adult- I wash my hands and don't dwell on what some homeless skell was doing on the bench a day-and-a-half ago at Chambers Street .

Which is all they do really; the other day, a relative of mine made an excellent point: "Do you remember the time when government got things done and made everything better for people?" "No." "Exactly, because it never happened, and never will." I guess the moral of the story is the politicians are in it for themselves, and not to help the rest of us.

Doing my best to not single out individuals in particular, but who cares about the bus? It's an inanimate object. The more important question is whether the driver and passengers made it out okay.

I see your point, but then the question with PABT becomes; if a plan is decided to either renovate/expand/fully-rebuild the current terminal at 410 West 40th, why not simply divert a sizeable chunk of service up to GWB for the duration? It would allow the Port Authority a freer hand in renovating PABT, and if properly communicated (making it clear to passengers that the diversions are necessary to speed up PABT renovations) they could probably pull it off. Not to mention taking advantage of lower ridership resulting from the current crisis. On another note, I would say that one of the main reasons PABT became so overcrowded with intercity long-distance buses (pre-coronavirus of course) is because of the price gap between Greyhound and the like versus Amtrak. In the last 15-20 years the Northeast Regional train service has really become overpriced; a lot of people who would otherwise take the train to Boston or DC are now taking buses because Amtrak prices have become ridiculous. Most of us know why of course; Congressional Republicans refuse to increase funding for Amtrak, so Amtrak uses the NEC as a cash cow to subsidize and prop up the various loss-making routes all over Redneckistan that said Republicans won't let them abandon, despite refusing Amtrak's funding requests. But I digress... Perhaps the real issue, once all the layers of the onion have been peeled away, is a complete lack of coherent transportation policy and planning on the national level- because if there was, I'm damn sure people wouldn't be taking a damn bus all the way to Chicago or Atlanta if they could just take a train, or that government regulators would allow a plane flight to be priced lower than a train ride, for that matter.

I agree, but I would go on to say that the fare-zoning shenanigans are indicative of a larger problem with how LIRR is managed in general. The railroad bigwigs have blinders on not just when it come to fares, but basically anything that doesn't involve their "grand vision" of the third-track project, ESA, and trying to maximize Main Line service to Penn while simultaneously de-emphasizing any other line or destination within the so-called City Terminal Zone. Ideally, public transit is supposed to be maximizing people's access to numerous options, but instead you have a buch of honchos at 93-02 Sutphin Boulevard who refuse to see anything beyond the 10 feet directly in front of them... it's no way to run a railroad, in the literal sense of the old saying.

"ALBANY, N.Y. — New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s administration confirmed Thursday that thousands more nursing home residents died of COVID-19 than the state’s official tallies had previously acknowledged, dealing a potential blow to his image as a pandemic hero. The surprise development, after months of the state refusing to divulge its true numbers, showed that at least 12,743 long-term care residents died of the virus as of Jan. 19, far greater than the official tally of 8,505 on that day, cementing New York’s toll as one of the highest in the nation." https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/ny-data-show-nursing-home-deaths-undercounted-by-thousands/2021/01/28/6d4edbf8-61cb-11eb-a177-7765f29a9524_story.html Hope that lying, two-faced f**k finally gets the comeuppance he deserves.

I wonder if the funding delays, especially those brought on by the whole coronavirus situation, will cause the MTA to rethink their approach to Phase 2. The 125th spur to Lexington for the MNRR connection is an unnecessary sideshow in my opinion. Priority number one for them should be 96th-116th and the tunnel under the Harlem River to the Bronx. That and looking at ways to bring the costs down for the stations along the existing cut-and-cover sections. Logic would dictate the easiest solution would be to build those with pocket entrances/exits instead of Horodniceanu's cavernous full-length mezzanines, but I'm sure Capital Construction will find a way to make it more complicated and expensive than it needs to be. The realist in me also says that the suburban members of the Board will fight tooth-and-nail for the MNRR thing, unless a truly successful argument could be made against them that limited resources necessitate dropping the 125th tunnel in favor of the Bronx tunnel.

And just where exactly would they be getting the money for this? Ridership is still way down (will be years before it recovers), and the Senate Republicans still have the filibuster, so trust and believe those jerks will use all opportunities at their disposal to limit the Democrats' ability to provide federal financial support towards public transit. As for the R68/As, they're doing fine; go tell MTA management to get rid of them a decade early when the agency's strapped for cash- they'll laugh in your face. Some of you seem to have no concept of how the real world works whatsoever.

I've been using PABT for over 20 years; I know it's shitty. Replacement isn't the only option, though- they reconfigured things when expanding the terminal in '79-81, they could do the same this time around if need be. Starting from scratch costs a lot of money, especially in the context of construction.

Pretty much; from its inception (1953) onward simply looked for the path of least resistance when it came to dealing with the vast majority of the older remaining els and standalone shuttles- abandonment. The Jamaica Avenue Line was a notable exception in that the Archer Avenue replacement was a complete boondoggle, as it probably would have been cheaper to keep the line to 168th-Jamaica and forgo the Southeast Queens stubway to nowhere. From what I remember of the archives, the TA actually wanted to keep the Jamaica el, but Lindsay and some local councilmembers were adamant in pushing for it's demolition, so down it went.

People keep talking about building a new terminal, but I honestly think there are ways they can make the existing facility work if they just rebuilt some things and exapnded by adding an extra wing or level. Granted, PABT isn't perfect, but then, nothing in New York really is; GWB terminal sucks, and the South Jersey routes to Lower Manhattan don't even have a dedicated facility of their own. Would like to see them at least seriously consider the 10th-41st station for the , though- real missed opportunity there.

My biggest problem with her and deBlasio's DOT were the stark refusal to consider any alternatives, even moderate ones, to their Vision Zero dogma. In a certain sense, it's not much different from Moses' attitude when he was trying to shove his vison- of endless, unwanted highways- down everybody's throats. We'd be a much better democracy if we had less people with this kind of attitude in government.

Welcome back, man- it's been a minute.

There's a few examples here and there; the professionals in Detroit who managed to turn things around at DDOT a few years ago are case in point. I didn't say Byford; I said someone like Byford. Somebody who has/had the drive to get the right shit done regardless of political considerations. In other words, not a stooge like Trottenberg or Feinberg, who will parrot whatever the powers that be say in order to grease their way up the career ladder.

I'd rather have seen someone like Byford be the nominee; instead, they nominate one of deBlasio's dullest tools.. Shaking my damn head right now.

Exactly. Sad, but definitely true.

For what it's worth, it's an interesting photo though- had no idea the cutoff was so close to street level.

Bruh, it's not that deep.

I'd chalk it up to the usual combination of MTA stubbornness and incompetence. The agency's got more silos than an Iowa grain farm.

I work in the public sector, worked in the non-profit sector as well. It doesn't have to be a private-sector entity to have a shitty Human Resources department, believe me. The message I was trying to convey earlier is that 99 percent of HR departments suck, are corrupt, and are staffed by people who are liars, unpleasant, stupid, or any combination of the three. Honesty, integrity, fairness are not their trademark, and there's jack shit we as employees can do about it because labor laws in this country are written to favor the employer, not the worker. Like healthcare, it's just another area where America is light-years behind Europe.

In general, most Human Resources (formerly personnel) departments today exist primarily to protect the organization and its managers, never the employees. Granted, there's levels to it- some places it's not as bad as others. The worst I've ever seen is a situation where HR called all the shots, to the point that they de facto had more authority than the executive director of the damn organization... I got out of there like Han Solo on the Millenium Falcon.

At the state level, governors like Cuomo Jr., Pataki, and Cuomo Sr. are all examples of why there should be term limits. That said, the voters who re-elected these pricks aren't entirely blameless, either.

@Mrweepa I know of other people who have been in your situation and they just ended up getting jobs with different agencies; there are other options besides the MTA. Dealing with their jerkoffs from Human Resources is a road that leads nowhere. Have you considered, Bee-Line, NICE, NJT, or one of the public transit agencies in CT?