Mayor Bloomberg helped to destroy the future of the New York City schools by agreeing to allow teachers to retire seven years earlier, a decision that will suck money out of the classroom year after year for decades. But now he wants to make it up to us, by having New York City taxpayers foot the bill for a project to make it easier for middle and upper middle class New Yorkers to leave the city and its local income tax behind and move to New Jersey, where the kids could get an education. According to the New York Post “Mayor Bloomberg is pushing forward with a proposal to extend the No. 7 train to New Jersey and get the project locked in before he leaves City Hall in two years.” Even as the rest of the NYC subway collapses due to soaring debts, and other retroaction pension enhancements passes some years earlier.
“Officials in the Christie administration and the Port Authority are working with City Hall on the No. 7 concept, but insist that the mayor take the lead.” And pay a large share of the price. “Early estimates say a No. 7 tunnel could be built for less than $10 billion, a sum that would be split among the city, the PA and New Jersey.” No mention of the shares of the $10 billion capital price tax. Presumably, however, the MTA would be paying for the entire operating deficit the service incurs, raising fares and cutting service to do so.
Aside from those moving out to places where the children can get an education, including most likely many NYC public employees (since a large share of them prefer to live in places without a local income tax and with better public services), who would benefit from this proposal? “Bloomberg has envisioned that the 7 train extension would spark a new building boom of high-rise office towers in the Hudson Yards area.”
Actually, it was the extension that is already being built that was supposed to generate the boom. But there has been a structural change in office space usage, with less space per worker and more working at home, that has slashed office demand and construction all over the country. Believe me I know; I write about this stuff every day. By claiming that yet another $10 billion will pay off the money the city has borrowed, it would be doubling down on its bet. I expect the area will develop, but more slowly than expected, with or without an extension to New Jersey.
Moreover, improved connections to New Jersey will simply make that more appealing as a residence for Manhattan workers relative to Long Island, which is in decline and needs the boost that East Side Access might bring – someday. Those on Long Island can already get near the Hudson Yards area on the LIRR, and with a Grand Central option as well that region could benefit. Moreover, the Mayor seems not to be aware that the MTA has an unfunded “Metro North to Penn” initiative, which would bring Hudson and New Haven Line riders direct to the vicinity of Hudson Yards. (When the current Flushing extension opens, it would also be a quick ride from GCT that way).
Bottom line, I’m fine with extending the Flushing Line to New Jersey, if New Jersey wants it and NJ pays. In fact, NJ could drastically increase its cross-Hudson capacity by running its trains to Penn Station like a subway, without seats and back and fourth with all riders transferring from Secaucus, where some of the commuter lines would terminate. Build a new tunnel direct into Penn and that capacity would increase further. And perhaps New Jersey could decide to extend its own subway up Madison Avenue someday, if it had the money.
New York City has plenty of unmet transit needs of its own. How about the portion of the Second Avenue Subway from 96th Street to 125th, which would be needed to provide an alternative for riders from the Upper East Side and the Bronx if (when) deferred maintenance causes service on the Lexington Avenue line to collapse? Future New Yorkers face a future of having public services diminished year after year, despite the nation’s highest state and local tax burden, to pay for the benefit of self serving people who have died or moved to Florida. This is a future of loss, loss, loss to offset what Generation Greed has taken. (We used to have high taxes and bad public services to pay for our own poor, but we don’t do much for them anymore).
We can’t pay to make the better off (on average) people of New Jersey better off than we are as well. That state has decided that those who commute to NYC are not a priority. They don’t need a bailout. They need to be marketed to live in NYC or on Long Island instead.
Meanwhile, the construction and consulting industries, which are marketing to the Mayor, have been charging us too damn much. We can’t afford that gravy train, or we will be unable to even keep the infrastructure we have now. Instead of $10 billion to extend the Flushing line to NJ with NYC paying a share, how about $4 billion for the project with NYC not paying a dime?
Here is what is driving this. From Crain's: "All told, the publicly funded construction of everything from schools and transportation facilities to environmental projects has grown to more than 60% of the total. University and school projects accounted for about a quarter of all the key projects on the list. In addition, four of the top five companies on the list were working on World Trade Center-related projects. But nothing lasts forever. Although the New York Building Congress is forecasting a stable level of work over the next two years, after that it is predicting a steep decline in public projects. “In 2013 numbers will fall off the cliff,” Mr. Anderson said. “Public work will decline more, and private work is not picking up slack.”
Well, then how about a discount?