IT’S NOW OR NEVER
Most of the arguments and choices in the city are positioned between benefiting either the rich or the poor. It can be heard in the debate over luxury vs. “affordable” housing. The middle class is rarely considered beyond lip service inclusion. Significant middle class housing is rarely created. It Manhattan, it has been shrinking for decades, though there is no shortage of luxury buildings and low-income housing projects. Those programs that don’t pit rich against poor, “minority” against white, and corporate profit against social services “for the most needy,” are frequently not received with the same excitement as those programs that would benefit all.
If the mayoral campaign is a foregone conclusion, the outcome of the referendum for proposition number 2 enabling a 2.9 billion transportation bond is far from certain. This bond is unique in that it will undoubtedly help all New York City residents – rich, poor, and all classes in between. But the referendum is statewide, and upstate residents may not be sympathetic or willing to help foot the bill, and therefore the city must come out to vote this election in a relatively large turnout even as the mayoral race is considered no contest.
If this critical bond isn’t passed, we will lose billions in matching federal funds. $4 billion.
In addition to much needed maintenance and a new fleet of trains and buses, $900 million of this bond will be split to allow east side access to Long Island Railroad commuters at Grand Central Station, and the building of the Second Avenue Subway.
The Second Avenue line was originally conceived in the 1920’s, and a few small portions uptown were even built in the ’70s. In between, no new subway rail at all was laid while the evil automobile fanatic Robert Moses was in power. The daily hell of New York commuters is due in large part to his personal distaste for mass transit.
We have an opportunity to build what should have been completed decades ago. Everyone benefits from a subway line that will run between 96th and 62nd Sts, even if they don’t personally use it. There will be less traffic, and less pollution. The estimate for daily passengers on this line is at least 345,000, according to Gene Russianoff of Straphangers.
If we make this expansion, perhaps we will be able to make more like it. And we will send a message to other cities that they can take steps to rectify their mass transit needs. That it isn’t too late, that we can do things differently. For our city, for our nation, and for our world.