MTA

David Paterson has nominated Jay Walder to the top post at the MTA, a selection welcomed by transportation advocates who hailed his expertise and accomplishments today. Walder brings to the job several years of executive experience at large transit agencies, including 12 years at the MTA spanning the 80s and 90s, and a recent six-year stint at Transport for London. Walder still needs to be confirmed by the State Senate, which is slated to meet in an extraordinary session tomorrow.

We wondered a few months back why Upper Manhattan Assembly Member Adriano Espaillat, a supporter of congestion pricing, would side with the usual suspects in opposing Ravitch-backed East and Harlem River bridge tolls. At the time, Espaillat told Streetsblog readers that new tolls would place an unfair burden on his district, and blamed MTA financial woes on "contemptible bookkeeping and abject failure to control spending."

Ben Kabak at Second Avenue Sagas is on a roll critiquing media coverage of the MTA fare hike, which went into effect yesterday. Last week he questioned the coalition-building skills of transit advocates. Today he goes after the reporters:

Streetsblog San Francisco reports that speculation continues over the future of city transit head Nat Ford. Rumors have been swirling from some time that Ford might return to New York -- where he started his career as a train conductor some 30 years ago -- to succeed Lee Sander as MTA CEO. And talk of Ford's possible departure from San Francisco won't let up, writes Bryan Goebel:

Tonight and Thursday, DOT and New York City Transit will conduct the last of their spring and summer Bus Rapid Transit Phase II workshops. The workshops are intended to allow DOT and NYCT to educate the public on Select Bus Service, and gather feedback on neighborhood transit needs, as the agencies plan future routes and service improvements.

From the MTA press office:

Ready for some positive transit news? Flush with the success of the inaugural route on Fordham Road in the Bronx, DOT and New York City Transit are looking ahead to the expansion of Select Bus Service.

The mayor's office just released a statement insisting that the MTA financing plan address the transit system's long-term needs:

If there's one state legislator who gets it when it comes to the value of transit and car-free mobility, it's Senator Eric Schneiderman. Representing parts of the Upper West Side, Northern Manhattan and the Bronx since 1998, Schneiderman once served as counsel for NYPIRG. He heralded the release of PlaNYC, likening its sweeping vision for the city to that of "a twenty-first century, kinder and gentler Robert Moses." In late 2007 Schneiderman co-wrote, along with Gene Russianoff, an op-ed for the Daily News systematically tying MTA financial woes to the failures of Albany and, to a lesser degree, New York City lawmakers.