State legislators fantasy MTA fix

 

Queens Post 

New York City lawmakers and public transport advocates held a rally in Albany on Tuesday, Feb. 14, calling on the state to pass a finance bill worth nearly $11 billion that they say would fully fund the MTA through 2026 and make it more efficient.

The legislation, known as Fix the MTA, would also keep current subway fares at $2.75 and prevent a proposed 25 cents hike to $3.

It would also make bus rides throughout the city free by 2027 and aims to make services more frequent and reliable — by ensuring subways and most buses arrive at least every six minutes, every day of the week.

The largest portion of the package, around $4.6 billion, would essentially bail out the agency by plugging its forecasted budget deficit for the next four years, while nearly $2 billion would go towards increasing bus services across the system by 20 percent.

Around $1.4 billion would be allocated to the agency to account for a 27% dip in ridership numbers compared to 2019 levels.

Fun fact: nothing is mentioned about congestion pricing. And it's mostly hedging on

State Senators Michael Gianaris, Jessica Ramos, John Liu and Kristen Gonzalez were among the Queens lawmakers who attended the rally, while Assembly members Zohran Mamdani, Alicia Hyndman Juan Ardila, and Jessica González-Rojas were also present. Assembly member Robert Carroll from Brooklyn and Assembly member Tony Simone from Manhattan also attended.

They were joined by transportation advocate groups such as Riders Alliance, the Permanent Citizens Advisory Committee to the MTA and Transportation Alternatives.

 Jesus Christ these cults are just never going to go away, as a public duty I present the counterpoint plan from Passengers United who actually ride the buses and the trains everyday with their proposal to "fix the MTA" which also includes public safety measures for transit workers, something the Albany fauxgressives and the moneyed transportation actorvates never bother to acknowledge.

 

 

 

 

Amazon considering abandoning Long Island City location for their second headquarters due to pressure from officials, unions and the citizens objections to the deal

NY Daily News

The billion-dollar deal to bring Amazon to Queens has New York Democrats and union leaders at each others’ throats as rumors swirl that the plan could crumble at any minute.

“The question is whether it’s worth it if the politicians in New York don’t want the project, especially with how people in Virginia and Nashville have been so welcoming,” an anonymous source familiar with internal discussions told the newspaper, which is owned by Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos.

But the venture has faced a barrage of criticism from local and national politicians, including state Sen. Michael Gianaris, who has argued that one of the nation’s richest corporations should not be getting handouts at the expense of New York taxpayers.

The Queens Democrat, whose district includes the proposed campus, had previously signed a letter asking the company to build its headquarters in New York. He has since soured on the offered incentives.

“Amazon’s pattern of extortion leaves me to believe that they should pack their bags,” he said.

Gianaris, appointed earlier in the week to a panel that could veto a $500 million grant that was part of the construction deal, said he wasn’t sure what Amazon’s next move would be, nor did he seem to care.

“I don’t know whether to believe them or not,” he said. “What I can tell you is that no amount political machinations from Andrew Cuomo are going to mask the fact that this deal stinks"

While some speculated that the rumblings of a reneging Friday might be a power play by Amazon — or even the governor — Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer (D-Queens), who opposes the plan, thought the deal was earnestly “in trouble.”

“I think there's a possibility that this is gamesmanship and they're trying to call a bluff — but we're not bluffing,” Van Bramer said. “If in fact it is an attempt to call a bluff, it’s yet another strategic blunder in a series of blunders that the governor, the mayor and Amazon have committed since they announced the deal in November.”

 While it's refreshing to see Jimmy vociferously reject this deal due to the efforts of the people organizing against the corporate welfare deal in his district, he sure was all gung ho a year ago in an letter Crappy sent to me:

Last year he was calling LIC a "mixed-use" neighborhood. So it's kind of good to see he's seen the light and the error of his tone-deaf description of a neighborhood he represents right?

Governor Andrew Amazon on the other hand:

NY Daily News

Gov. Cuomo took aim at Senate Democrats on Friday, accusing his fellow party members of “governmental malpractice” and “political pandering” in their opposition to Amazon’s planned Queens campus and eyeing an unpopular income tax hike.

Addressing business leaders on Long Island, Cuomo warned that his colleagues in the legislature are taking their fate in their own hands by continuing to speak out against the deal to bring the eCommerce titan, and tens of thousands of jobs, to Long Island City.

“For the state Senate to oppose Amazon was governmental malpractice,” Cuomo said. “If they stop Amazon from coming to New York, they’re going to have the people of New York to explain it to.”

Cuomo’s comments came on the heels of a Washington Post report that the online retailer is “reconsidering” its options in light of mounting criticism of the project.

Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins (D-Yonkers) and her counterpart in the Assembly, Carl Heastie (D-Bronx), have both raised concerns about Amazon’s opposition to unionization of its workers and the nearly $3 billion in tax incentives used to entice the company to the Empire State.

Mike Murphy, a spokesman for the Democratic majority in the Senate, lamented the divisions.

"It is unfortunate that the Governor is trying to divide the Democratic Party at this crucial and historic time,” Murphy said. “The Senate Democratic Majority Conference and our partners in the Assembly finally returned New York as the progressive beacon to the rest of the country.”

Andy doth project too much, for it was he who committed malpractice against his constituency and pandered to Bezos to circumvent laws to fast track this rancid deal.

 

Update: