Today’s Headlines

  • In Historic Shift, U.S. Rail Network Is Expanding (WSJ via Planetizen)
  • Gerritsen Beach Greenstreet DOA (Gowanus Lounge)
  • West Side Heliport May Move From Park to River (NYT)
  • LMDC to MTA: Build Fulton Transit Center As Promised (AMNY)
  • MTA Could Get Windfall From Sale of GM Building (News)
  • ‘Intelligent’ Surveillance Software for Subways Doesn’t Work (NY1, Metro)
  • Quinn Gets Tips on Ferry Plan From Waterfront Alliance (Brooklyn Eagle)
  • Wisconsin College Gives Bikes to Students Who Don’t Have Cars (Grist)
  • Lance Armstrong Opens Shop, Wants to Promote Bike Commuting (Austin 360)
  • Larry Littlefield

    “They will benefit and it will be an unanticipated benefit…Such a transaction, a so-called “distress sale,” is a further sign of an economy in trouble.”

    That’s really the only hope for the budget — transfer taxes on foreclosures, bankruptcies and distress sales. It’s the only way the MTA’s real estate transfer tax revenue will fall from $1.6 billion to something close to $1.2 billion as planned, and not $400 million or less. I can tell you that fourth quarter investment sales were down more than 25 percent in NYC.

  • Move Heliport: I certainly hope they do. One generally must squint to the point of closing one’s eyes when passing by during a chopper take-off or landing, so copious are the ambient particles. It doesn’t belong in a “park.”

  • Jonathan

    Subsidize ferries to make them competitive with other forms of mass transit

    Sure, why not? Create hi-speed ferry lines from expensive waterfront neighborhoods like Bay Ridge, Midland Beach, and Whitestone to downtown, then pour in public money so the well-off people using them are only paying what they would on the subways and buses. I hear a dissonant note sounding amidst the orchestra of fiscal equity.

  • Yonkers has been trying to get customers for the new york water taxi service. their plan has been to build parking to make the waterfront area attractive to car owners/.commuters in westchester There is one development whose DGEIS comments are due feb 25 that call for 7000 parking spaces on the waterfront in 57 levels above ground at glenwood train station. water taxi would make sense at this development, since the current daily commuter base of 1200 for these three stations would probably got to over 5000. i cant see how metro north could accommodate that crush at rush hour plus an additional 30 percent overall with congestion pricing. it will be a couple years before the water taxi is economically viable in yonkers though