New details are starting to slowly emerge about the the Andrew Cuomo-endorsed plan to repair the L train without shutting down its East River tunnel for 15 months. The Daily News reported that MTA engineers had considered — and rejected — a version of the Cuomo plan once before. Meanwhile, the Post played up NYC Transit President Andy Byford admitting that he's on the hook for the success or failure of the Cuomo plan.
And, of course, the Times went with its latest annoying question headlines, "Is the Fix for the L-Train Apocalypse Too Good to Be True?" — and then never revealed the answer (which is "Yes!"). But the paper did quote an engineer who said, “A repair cannot last as long as a total rebuild." The MTA engineer gave the Cuomo patch job a life expectancy of 10-20 years, while Byford promised 40.
Vin Barone at amNY added a detail that 90 percent of the tunnel work that was originally planned will still happen, according to Byford — but the key time-saver is the new plan to merely seal water-damaged walls in the tunnel and hang new cables on the walls rather than embed them. And amNY also focused on the benefit to the Williamsburg rental market (oddly, though, with a photo of DUMBO and the Lower East Side).
And Curbed mostly focused on the real-estate impact, but also advanced Streetsblog's agenda-setting coverage to show that business owners in Williamsburg are already starting to demand their parking back. Emma Whitford and Amy Plitt get a shoutout here for a comprehensive impact story.
And in other news:
- The Daily News Editorial Board came out strongly for congestion pricing on Monday, calling it "not a tax on drivers but a map to a fairer and more rational transportation system." (NYDN)
- Queens Council Member Jimmy Van Bramer is ramping up his anti-Amazon rhetoric. (Via Twitter)
- In case you missed it (our editor did!), Gov. Cuomo finally appointed a commissioner of the Department of Motor Vehicles — which is kind of a big deal, given that this is the agency that can help keep bad drivers off the road. (NY Post)
- A subway panhandler allegedly stabbed a straphanger who declined to give him 10 cents. (NY Post)
- Corey Johnson will be at the 77th Street station in Bay Ridge at 5 p.m. tonight to listen to subway riders' concerns. We wonder if he'll hear any!
