Today’s Headlines

  • London Might Sell Its Fare Payment System to the MTA (AMNY)
  • Ruben Diaz Jr. and John Samuelsen Have Some Ideas for MTA Capital Spending (News)
  • The Subway Was a Mess Yesterday… (Gothamist, NY Mag, DNA, NY1, Post)
  • …But It’s Still a Better Deal for Riders and NYC Than Uber (Brokelyn)
  • We’re at the Point Where Citi Bike Ridership Records Don’t Make Lede Headline Anymore
  • Reforms Coming to Bronx DA’s Office (NYT); NY Judges Are Appointed, Not Elected (WNYC, Post)
  • City Vehicles to Be Equipped With Safe-Driving Tech, Pedestrian Detection Not Included (DNA)
  • NYPD, Daily News: Man Killed by Bronx Hit-and-Run Driver “Assisted in His Own Death”
  • Van Bramer Says Sunnyside Affordable Housing Project Too Big, Would Take Parking (Politico)
  • Justin Davidson Frets for Governors Island (NY Mag); Squibb Park Bridge Fix at Hand (NYT)
  • NYPD Worried Pokémon Go Will “Draw Strangers Together” (@danarubinstein); Meanwhile: News
  • The Perpetual Tribulations of Storing a Car on a New York City Street (DNA, NY1)

More headlines at Streetsblog USA

  • com63

    RE: Ruben Diaz Jr. and John Samuelsen – Doesn’t the MTA already have a bunch of procurement rules that favor local manufacturing and hiring?

  • bolwerk

    Certainly hiring and contracting, not sure about manufacturing.

    But I’d bet there’s no way that’s going to work. Manufacturing stuff that is only useful in NYS, not even Washington or Chicago much less Berlin or Tokyo, isn’t exactly the road to a robust manufacturing sector.

  • bolwerk

    Speaking of Diaz, apparently rumors are swirling that Cuomo is going to support him in a challenge to de Blasio.

  • Guest

    Is he secretly trying to get a Republic elected mayor?

  • Guest

    Republican (damn typos!)

  • bolwerk

    It’s unlikely to work. Bloomberg was the last high-profile Republican to retain anything resembling popularity, and Cuomo doesn’t like him. The sheer vileness of everyone in Albany sort of drove me to stop paying attention the way I used to, so I don’t know a lot about Diaz Jr.. He seems to be a Democratic party man, but probably not one with any great stake in helping the filthy poors.

    Ruben Diaz Senior was famously one of the Gang of Four boneheads who set out to restore power to the GOP after the Dems first won the state senate. IIRC, he’s the only one still at largein power. The others have all been indicted or defeated.

  • HamTech87

    I’d understand if the City’s vehicles didn’t have pedestrian-detection systems because the technology didn’t exist. But Toyota already sells cars with the technology, in regular-priced vehicles like the RAV-4. NYC should be putting ped-protection tech first before anything else; car occupants already have crumple zones, seat belts and airbags.
    http://www.toyota.com/safety-sense/

  • kevd

    “This affordable housing is too tall!”
    “This affordable housing is too small!”
    “This affordable housing replaces a small number of parking spaces which I value over apartments in which people can actually afford to live, all while pretending to care about the affordable housing crisis in this city”

  • JudenChino

    This Uber Pool thing is really stupid. I can hardly think of any circumstances where it’d be beneficial aside from the Taxi Share that already exists at 79th/york to go to FiDi (which replaced an Express bus that was nixed in transit cuts around 2011).

    Otherwise, who the f wants to carpool w/ a random who may or may not have a final destination near you. Could you imagine being 8 blocks away, but then turning to drop someone the other direction. And everything moves soo slowly during the rush hours too. A small detour to drop someone else can easily add 45 minutes in the morning rush. When I walk through FiDi and its narrow streets in the morning, it’s easy to see that walking is much quicker than driving (except on Water perhaps but that’s a shit show).

    An “uber pool” to the nearest express train. That makes a lot more sense if you’re more than a 10-12 min walk away.

  • Matthew
  • AnoNYC

    Off-peak? Might work with late night workers.

  • JudenChino

    Yah but Uber’s unlimited card only works during the rush hours of 7-10 am and 5 to 8 pm.

  • kevd

    the point is they pool people with similar origins and destinations.

  • knisa

    The article about the Sunnyside affordable housing exemplifies, in a nutshell, all the forces that conspire to make housing prices in NYC a nightmare: the suburban obsession with housing for cars over housing for humans; the suburban mentality that NYC is not the place for tall buildings; the pull-the-ladder-up-behind-you exclusionary tribalism of the NIMBY; the union extortion that temporarily benefits a lucky few who are able to get hooked up with union jobs at the expense of a permanent benefit to the larger number of people who could reside in the affordable housing. Van Bramer is scum.

  • knisa

    It’s disgusting how the union shills always do all they can to drive up costs for the MTA and make transit less efficient; they are among the biggest enemies of good transit. How about we have two separate line items—one line item in our budget to help procure good jobs for NYC residents, and another line item in our budget for getting working-class NYC residents to work in an efficient manner—we could even call this second line item the “NYC Transit Authority” or something to that effect.

  • AMH

    NYS requires contractors to use US-made materials. Not necessarily local.

    http://www.bcnys.org/inside/construct/2014/New-York-State-Buy-American-Act.pdf

  • ohnonononono

    I mean yesterday the subway was a total horror show… I grinned and bared it, and sweated through it, and it took forever. But an UberPOOL wouldn’t have sounded so bad…

  • AnoNYC

    I don’t understand the logic of some of the NIMBYs. For instance, in Washington Heights, there was some outcry over a 20 something story building (not the first time). People against such a development apparently fear gentrification.

    Why would you want to restrict the number of units in a community where the cost of housing is increasing?

    These people either do not understand what is happening, or want to restrict supply and see costs increase further. Potentially a mix of both scenarios. Even if you can’t afford the newer units, you’re better off when those that do choose to reside in a place that didn’t exist before.

  • You bared it? Like this guy?

    (Or maybe you mean that you grinned and bore it.)

  • Jonathan R

    I’ve spoken to several people opposed to larger projects in Washington Heights; nobody has told me they fear gentrification.

    The most common issue is piecemeal destruction of the neighborhood’s historic character, including encroachment on views of Fort Tryon Park and other neighborhood landmarks, followed by increases in density that will overcrowd neighborhood transit options.

  • qrt145

    “historic character” is code for “not in my backyard but I need to make up some serious-sounding excuse”.

  • qrt145

    Not all housing units are alike, and location matters, so one can make a plausible argument that adding new units can increase the prices of nearby units. It goes more or less like this: the new units tend to be more expensive, maybe because they have better amenities, or simply because they are newer. They attract people with more money. This in turns attracts businesses which sell more expensive stuff, which makes the neighborhood more attractive to people with more money, many of which start moving into the older units, driving the prices up.

  • AnoNYC

    Gentrification in Washington Height is driven by location first, due to its mass transportation proximity and options to Midtown. Second is urban fabric and existing local amenities.

    If you didn’t build a single new residential unit in Washington Heights, it would still gentrify.

  • AnoNYC

    Most people in Washington Heights don’t even care. They live in a city because of proximity to jobs, goods, and services. Most people would be in favor of increased options provided by new ground floor commercial units.

    The built character is Washington Heights is not set to change with this development, and most of the older 5 and 6 story apartment buildings are not at risk of redevelopment. That location is great for a bit more density. 20 something floors is a drop in the bucket for the Heights.