Then vote for candidates who want a small federal government (are there ever any of those?), and state/local candidates who support subsidization of mass transit.
why? How does a small federal goverment help in ensuring that all Americans are insured? And the subway system, and indeed, projects that link airports and trains to the subway system are projects that have benefits for the region and the entire country. It needs political support across state and municipal borders. States rights is not the answer to creating a great transportation infrastructure, a supportive federal government is. Unfortunately, our government (Republicans and Democrats alike) are too invested in the automobile model.
How do you plan on increasing the funding? So it's only the Republicans fault about the crappy subway system? Not Sheldon Silver?
One other thing. Were the subways better under Liberal mayors/congress/presidents or Conservative mayors/congress/presidents over the last 40 years
No, my QoL isn't great. But, there's bad and there's worse. Wachtell is worse. There are firms that I KNOW I can call at past midnight and still find the people I need to answer my questions on deals.
You don't need the federal government. Keep your money and spend it on yourselves without paying the extra overhead that you have when you send the feds money just so they can give it back to you. For regional projects, you have the Port Authority of NY and NJ, which is a collaboration between the two states. If other states need to be involved, do something similar. Why should someone in Texas, Florida, or Alaska care about the NYC subway system? Do you care about say a monorail in Seattle? Of course not. a) New Jersey's transportation infrastructure, especially our roads, sucks. b) New Jersey sends more to the federal government than it gets back. Do you think a) and b) are related? I do. Of course, there are other factors, but that's one. In any event, getting back to the main topic, I can't believe this thing isn't settled yet. How long did the last one go for?
Apropos of nothing, I have a student doing a fascinating senior project on the historical geography of garbage in New York City and she's found great stuff about how Moses used trash based fill to create most of his land development projects and "perfect" the city's shoreline.
Yahoo is reporting that a thousand or so TWU'ers crossed the picket lines and MTA is going for a TRO in court which will free them up to fine the strikers $25,000/day. As if the New York Daily News' hopefully not-serious suggestion that dares Toussiant to walk the Brooklyn Bridge along with the millions he and his union have fvcked over with this strike wasn't bad enough. This will be settled by the weekend, but it will still be too late, IMO. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051221...UwBXw6s0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTA2Z2szazkxBHNlYwN0bQ--
11 days. The one before that went 21. The ironic thing (for me) is that on Monday I bought a unlimited Metrocard because I'm not commuting out of the city for the next month. It would be great if this strike ate that whole month. (I know the days will be refunded back, but doesn't do me much good if I'm only in the city 3 days a week).
They are not idiots. Pataki and Kalikow wanted this strike. Pataki is fighting Bloomberg over Lower Manhattan development and he knows the public will blame Bloomberg for the strike since most people do not know that MTA is a state agency. Pataki in part wants to clip Bloomberg's wings a bit to make sure he and his cronies continue to feed at the trough.
Because Texas business people may come to NY to do business. Or they may rely on shipments that pass through NYC one way or another. Because it's better for everyone on the planet if the 7 million rides a day on the transit system stay on the transit system, rather than move into automobiles. It's an interconnected world, and some entity needs to be looking out for the greater good. NJ roads suck? What more do you want? Geez.
Let's clean up the rampant corruption at the MTA before taking it out on the workers. The MTA keeps two sets of books and lies to the public on a regular basis about its capital budget. The fact that the system is badly maintained is a disgrace. Remember the track fire that shut down a subway line last year. These guys should be in jail.
Many shipments ride on NJ roads. In fact the major port facilities for Philly and NYC are in NJ. Perhaps if NJ was able to keep their own money the roads wouldn't suck so bad
Also, because NYC taxpayers anually give $20 billion more to both the state and federal governments than we get back. You want to complain about funding our subway system? Fine. Give me my money back, you bitch. And don't forget my black t-shirt.
A stroke of brilliance in racism. I grew up in East Islip which is the town at the end of the Southern State Parkway. The idea of racial diversity there is the Italians and Irish getting along.
Yeah, and stop coming here with your damn political conventions to exploit a tragedy that occurred 2 miles from where I live.
I worked for a federal judge while I was in law school. I asked him one day what one book I should read to understand New York. Without blinking, he said The Power Broker by Robert Caro. A brilliant book.