Wow

Who knew a picture of a tunnel was could be so enraging, in that where-the-fuck-is-all-this-money-coming-from kind of way:

Construction, it seems, is indeed under way for the extension of the No. 7 line, the cornerstone of the Bloomberg administration’s planned development of the far West Side.

The MTA’s capital construction page shows an update for November with pictures from below, where the agency is hollowing out the cavern for the station and making way for the eventual launch of a tunnel-boring machine, which will slowly dig its way along the 1.5-mile route.

The project, budgeted at $2.1 billion, would extend the line from Times Square to the base of the Javits Center on 34th Street, adjacent to the West Side rail yards. The Bloomberg administration has been the driving force behind the extension, which it says will help spawn tens of millions of square feet of West Side development.

The cash-strapped MTA had no desire to pay for the project, so the city is footing the entire bill, up to the $2.1 billion. Should costs exceed the budget (which many onlookers assume they will, given rising costs everywhere), the city and the MTA have yet to negotiate an agreement on who would cover them.

(Given the lack of real funding sources for the MTA’s next five-year capital plan and the $1.2 billion deficit in its operating budget, it’s safe to assume the agency isn’t eager to pony up any cash for a project the Bloomberg administration pledged would be paid for entirely by the city.)

Problem Solved

And no silly congestion pricing cameras to fuss with:

City controller and mayoral wanna-be William Thompson Sunday proposed closing the MTA’s budget gap by hiking taxes for motorists.

Thompson’s plan would stick all metro-area car owners with supersized-vehicle use taxes based on the weight of their car.

The sliding-scale tax would be in addition to the sliding-scale, weight-based state registration fee they already pay every two years. That means about $200 extra for cars and $400 or more for heavyweights like SUVs.

“We need to assure that all those who benefit from a healthy transit system will pay their fair share,” said Thompson, noting that transit ridership reduces congestion.

Thompson’s proposed tax would affect all 12 counties of the so-called Metropolitan Commuter Transportation District served by the MTA — and raise as much as $1.8 billion annually, he said Sunday.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority has proposed closing its $1.2 billion budget gap by hiking fares 23% and slashing service.

Aha, That’s What Borough Presidents Do!

Advocate for the destruction of bits and pieces of the city’s architectural history:

Queens Borough President Helen Marshall urged destruction of the New York State Pavilion during an interview this week with the Daily News, pre-empting a city study on whether the structure can be saved.

“It should be demolished,” Marshall said of the pavilion, designed by famed architect Philip Johnson. “We have great artists. He’s not the only artist in the world.”

Though the 1964 World’s Fair exhibit has decayed much over the decades, the unique rotunda with three towers remains integral to the city’s proposed transformation of Flushing Meadows-Corona Park.

Location Scout: New York State Pavilion.

Wait Around Long Enough And Everything Becomes A Landmark

Wow, the much maligned “Superblock” of the 1960s gets landmark designation in Greenwich Village:

Three towers that have dominated the Greenwich Village skyline for 40 years were given historic landmark status yesterday — a move that will make it harder for the property owner, New York University, to expand on the site.

On The One Hand, You Don’t Really Need Direct Service From Astoria, Queens To Wall Street If The Financial System Has Tanked

On the other hand, waiting a half-hour in the middle of the night sucks rat tail:

The MTA’s doomsday budget will wipe out the W line, zap the Z line and ax more than 1,500 NYC Transit jobs, the Daily News has learned.

The list of bus and subway cuts the Metropolitan Transportation Authority will unveil at its monthly board meeting Thursday is extensive and potentially bruising, sources said.

. . .

According to sources, the cuts include:

– Elimination of at least a handful of bus and subway routes, including the W and Z subway train lines.

– Fewer transit workers in the subways because 600 or so station agent positions will be axed and about 350 administrative posts.

– Longer gaps between scheduled trains at midday and between 2 a.m. and 5 a.m.

– Expanded subway loading guidelines to allow for more crowding of trains.

– Eliminating bus service during late nights and weekends on dozens of routes that have low ridership.

I’m still pissed about that asinine public relations stunt back in ’05 . . . give me my ten minutes back!