Yes, Pile On

If you find that you’re exhausted from another obsequious New York Observer editorial, you can always rely on Clyde Haberman to perk you up again:

Only a month ago, before the storm, representatives of Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg insisted somewhat superciliously that everything was fine in this regard. The issue then was whether the mayor’s desire to be a national figure on matters like gun control, immigration and economic policy might distract him from the less romantic, but essential, duties of running the city. His chief spokesman, Stu Loeser, was asked about this on Dec. 8 in an interview with NY1.

Mr. Loeser’s response was that Mr. Bloomberg and those around him can do it all. “If there’s one thing that the mayor has shown over the last eight years,” he said, “is that both he and we as a government really have the collective ability to walk and chew gum at the same time.”

A CityTime scandal and a disastrous snowstorm later — you may also throw in the earlier inelegant management of the appointment of a new schools chancellor — the walk-chew ratio turns out to need reconfiguration.

See also: December 2010 Blizzard.

Slow Ride, Take It Easy

There are 8,000 MTA employees making more than six figures, which makes you wonder why they’re trying to make their jobs easier:

Also, single-ride tickets will be valid for only one to two weeks after purchase, replacing the current policy of six months.

The changes will cut down on the number of tickets that conductors don’t get to mark as paid on crowded trains.

What Can $46 Million Get You These Days?

An interest payment on the forward-thinking 7 train extension, for one:

The city will spend $46 million next year on a subway to nowhere — the first time taxpayers have put cash toward Mayor Bloomberg’s dream of extending the 7 train to the far West Side.

Bloomberg budgeted $300 million for the subway project over the past five years but never spent any of it. Developer fees and investment income had paid the interest on bonds financing the $2.1 billion extension.

Next year, however, Hudson Yards Infrastructure Corp. President Alan Anders expects the city will cover half the $97.5 million interest cost.

. . .

Bloomberg committed the city to pay for the 7 train extension because he believes it will spur new growth. The MTA does not consider it a priority and is not funding the project.

Maybe Someone Can Help Us Understand . . .

As the Governor announces that a $700 million deficit is now $8.2 billion (how exactly did that just sneak up on everyone?) and the MTA announces that they’re actually $400 million short of what they need for this year, the mayor is donning a hardhat to build his big one stop on the 7 train. Totally fucking unbelievable:

Mayor Bloomberg said he hopes the $2.1 billion subway extension — funded by city taxpayer money — will lead to a spate of economic development on Manhattan’s West Side.

If the mayor cared a little less about shit he can put his name on and more about fixing potholes or, god forbid, keeping the city’s budget balanced (or doing his part to ensure the financial well being of the state) maybe he’d really be a leader. But until then he’s just like the rest of the glory-hogging politicians that have come and gone and done their part to make living in New York really fucking onerous.

For A While There People Did All Sorts Of Crazy Shit With Their Money

Wow, you can climb into a cool pimped out limo and smoke pot with the driver:

The owners of Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village, the iconic middle-class housing complexes overlooking the East River in Manhattan, have decided to turn over the properties to creditors, officials said Monday morning.

. . .

For tenant advocates and urban planners, the sale underscored the loss of affordable housing in the city and the highly speculative financial structures that, they warned, would only end in disaster.

Sorry, wrong link there . . . turns out you can actually pay $100 an hour to rent a pimped out limo and smoke pot with the driver:

For $100 an hour, late-night club crawlers can spread across its red leather seats, roll up its tinted windows and share a fat joint with the driver – Al, the affable cannabis chauffeur.