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.)

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!

Is New York City The Most Corrupt, Least Democratic Place In The Country?

How many times have you heard this recently? More than you think you wouuld, given the city’s modern, you know, world-class image:

Names of registered voters mysteriously vanished from the books.

And even given the circumstances, apparently the other day wasn’t any busier than normal . . .

Note to Elections Board: I’m still pissed about that cheesy provisional ballot I had to use back in ’06!

$16 Million Represents 3.5 Percent Of The Infrastructure Improvements The City Implemented In Connection With The Two New Baseball Stadiums*

Will the Department of Sanitation start picking up my trash if I put it in brown paper bags? Because those plastic ones come in handy, you know:

Call it a mixed bag.

Mayor Bloomberg has proposed slapping shoppers with a 5-cent surcharge for each plastic bag they get at stores — a move that left consumers sharply divided yesterday.

“Ugh, they’re going to start taxing everything now,” moaned Dora Capers, 47, of Brooklyn.

In a move intended to help the environment and the Big Apple as it faces a $4 billion deficit over the next two years, Bloomberg has recommended that the city impose a nickel surcharge for plastic bags.

Although the details of the plan are still being worked out, the surcharge could rake in upwards of $16 million — money that the Sanitation Department could use to offset the cost of collecting and disposing of plastic bags currently not recycled.

The plan — which may need approval from the state Legislature if it’s determined to be a tax — may include charging shoppers 6 cents, with a penny going to stores as incentive for collecting the new tax.

*Which is to say, you can push through a lot of unpopular ideas under the guise of finanical hardship.

Damn, Damn Yankees . . .

So not only did the Yankees use their planning money to lobby the city but they went ahead and deducted more than allowed from that $5 million credit so that now the city has to go after the team for what is, in effect, “back rent”:

The Yankees have agreed to fork over $11 million to the city in back rent — money the team probably would have preferred to spend on an ace starting pitcher for next season.

The team underpaid the city the equivalent of Mike Mussina’s salary between 2003 and 2006, according to an audit by City Comptroller William Thompson.

Under the team’s rental agreement, the Yankees pay the city a percentage of all revenue from tickets, parking and cable television, officials said.

During that three-year period, the team took in more than $1 billion and paid the city $17 million.

But according to the audit, the Yankees improperly deducted costs above and beyond the $5 million permitted for planning for the new stadium.

More than $9 million was improperly deducted for stadium planning in 2006.

The team also low-balled its gross revenue during the three years, costing the city another $2 million, the audit states.