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Jewish World Review Oct. 24, 2005 / 21 Tishrei, 5766 Still not on track By Michael Goodwin
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
It's been called everything from the lifeblood of the city to the electric sewer. However you describe the subway system, modern New York could not exist without it.
Imagine getting to work in midtown from Queens without the E train, or to lower Manhattan from the Bronx without the No. 6. You can't, which is why the subway is vital to New York's economy. Office skyscrapers wouldn't have enough workers without mass transit.
So why don't we take better care of our people-moving marvel? Why do we accept an inadequate plan to prevent and respond to terrorism? Why do we tolerate a political structure that allows governors and mayors to duck the system's problems while basking in its triumphs?
Such questions are timely because of the MTA's headline-grabbing plan to discount rides from Thanksgiving through New Year's Day. This is one gift horse whose mouth we should look into.
Start with the timing. With the agency under fire for everything from fare hikes to service cutbacks to security lapses, the discounts smack of trying to buy goodwill. And as the New York Daily News Editorial Page noted, the estimated cost of $50 million is a wild guess. John D. Rockefeller's attempt to soften his image during the Depression by giving dimes to children was at least something he could afford.
This is the agency's second out-of-nowhere idea for how to spend a surplus that's approaching $1 billion. Despite looming budget problems, the money is burning a hole in its pockets.
The first idea was to spend $350 million for a platform over its West Side railyards, then sell the site. Never mind that the MTA can't do routine station repairs on time or on budget, or that it lost $300 million on renovations at 2 Broadway.
Bad as the West Side idea looked, the truth was even worse. The goal was to get a new headquarters out of the deal. That would make three. The agency has one on Madison Ave. and leased 2 Broadway with the intent of moving there before deciding the building wasn't big enough. Now it wants another one.
The scheme was one reason state Attorney General Eliot Spitzer railed at the agency. "Of all the authorities, the MTA is the most mismanaged, least competent one out there, and everybody knows it," he told me in August.
Yet still we trust it to keep us safe from terrorism. Transit is the obvious target, as Madrid and London proved, but the MTA shows no evidence it's up to the task. While the NYPD does subway patrols, it has little input in decisions on surveillance or equipment made by the MTA board. The result is two command structures that communicate only when one picks up the phone.
The simple fact that many subway car doors are locked at both ends is stupid in a time of terror, yet the agency is more worried about accidents involving passengers riding between cars. It should be more afraid of passengers getting trapped in cars with terror bombs.
And so should Mayor Bloomberg and Gov. Pataki. Both men hailed the plan to discount rides. Neither takes an active role in making sure riders are safe. They're leaving the important things to others.
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Michael Goodwin is a Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist for the New York Daily News. Comment by clicking here. © 2005, NY Daily News Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services |
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