Budget Crisis Overshadows Transit
Centennial
Mayor Bloomberg was peppered with questions about impending
transit fare increases at the official press event for
the NYC subway’s 100th birthday last week. What
should have been a signal celebration of mass transit’s
role in forging New York City into a global metropolis
became a week filled with press conferences, protests,
reports and columns focused on the sorry state of Metropolitan
Transportation Authority finances and the missing-in-action
status of Governor George Pataki and Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
NJ Bill Outlines Policies to Guide Transportation Fund
A bill introduced in Trenton by Assembly members John
Wisniewski and Peter Biondi is the first initiative to
grapple with the state’s dwindling transportation
dollars. Wisniewski is Assembly transportation committee
chair.
"Stop the Train" Protests
Agains Erie and Staten Island Rail Lines
Last week, 150 members of the "Coalition to Stop
the Train," a Union County group, rallied in Springfield
to express anger at county Freeholders for agreeing to
allow rail freight lines to be reactivated along the
Rahway Valley and Staten Island Lines, according to the
Star-Ledger.
How to Pay for Mass Transit
New York’s mass transit system obviously needs
more money. While Mayor Bloomberg and Governor Pataki
are still in public denial of that fact, not everyone
is.
Car-Free Green Spaces...
Transportation Alternatives’ Car-Free Central Park
campaign saw an overflowing house last Tuesday at its
rally at a Unitarian-Universalist church on Manhattan’s
Upper West Side.
...for the Greenest Citizens?
Perhaps car-free parks would be a partial reward for
the green living New Yorkers already practice. A recent
New Yorker article entitled "Green Manhattan" spurred
cheers from transit advocates and urban environmentalists.
It details how city dwelling is more environment-friendly
than suburban or rural living, since urbanites take up
less space, use public transit, consume less energy,
and buy fewer consumer goods.
Tax Cuts: Transportation Policy on the Sly?
The $136 billion corporate tax-cut President Bush signed
into law October 22nd contains a tax repeal long-sought
by freight railroads.
