One day when the MTA is not operated as a jobs program maybe things will change :(

Relevant to this article, the New York Times did a really great expose on the 2nd Ave Subway back in 2017, appropriately titled The Most Expensive Mile of Subway Track on Earth, well worth a read as everything in it is still relevant to this day: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/28/nyregion/new-york-subway-construction-costs.html

Get out of your own head friend, I see no hissy fit in my post but go off :)

I remember the multiple surveys the MTA launched the past 1 to 2 years felt like they were pushing you to rank safety issues and the entire focus was safety, but for me it has never changed being about service and reliability. I don't care if every station has a cop in it, what I care about is waiting 12 minutes for an N or R train, or god forbid I need to travel on the weekends and waiting up to 20 minutes.

Demolition is not an option, NYSDOT (state DOT) owns the highway itself meaning NYC can't unilaterally decide to tear it down, close it, or reduce lanes. This study is basically a band aid to look at mitigation measures (like capping) while not addressing the vehicles on the highway itself, so I doubt any measures which significantly change conditions on the highway will be proposed.

This seems like a who cares kind of deal lol. If this was a democrat led committee trying to peek into red state DA offices we know what the headlines would be like

I understand why this has to be done but the original timeline is insane, how does it take multiple years to basically pile up dirt? They built the Empire State Building in just over ONE year and it'll take 2 years to shovel fucking dirt and redo some lawns? This is why people get enraged, it's absolute insanity. This should be something they could finish in less than a year by starting in the autumn and do all the groundwork before freeze conditions. If you go in and tell people say goodbye to your park for literally 3 summers (we know it'll be delayed past 2025), of course they're gonna be upset

Maybeeeee relying on the private sector to work out subsidized housing is not such a good idea after all

So the building is 121 years old and it makes me wonder if it'd be better/cheaper to just raze it and build a replica/similar style in its place using modern materials with perhaps apartments or event space (better for the odd floor plates maybe?). This is a good thought experiment moment on the nature of landmark preservation. If the interiors and facades are gut renovated anyways, is it still really the same building? If you completely rebuilt it you could make a new building that'll last another 100 years instead of constantly repairing the current one.

Absolutely. The transit planning sweet spot is usually a max of about 1/2 mile away from a transit station. While Queens has a lot of subway deserts, if you took all the areas just 1/2 mile from the lines it does have, there's a fuck ton of space, plus Woodside LIRR, and even Astoria on the N has a lot of untapped space too. What I mean to say is, yeah there is a lot of neighborhoods, especially in eastern Queens, that upzoning won't be as desirable, but we're no where close to realizing the existing potential. IBX may add even more areas, and also the potential LIRR station re-activation in Elmhurst one day. Woodside itself is hugely untapped, if you look at other contemporary cities, the areas near major transfer hubs are usually very developed, and Woodside is desirable since you can take one of a number of LIRR lines into Manhattan.

The only people nowadays looking to fill weird office space is maybe WeWork, this is gonna be riskier than investing in a quality, newer building that is in a better state of repairs and can more reliably attract tenants. Idt potential tenants are gonna be super keen to be stuck in a building with scaffolding blocking windows and endless reno work on it lol

Given the crash in office retail leasing, personally if I was a business owner I'd look for quality Class A office space in a newer building than stuff in an ancient one with weird angles, $190m could take a long ass time to recoup lol

Along Roosevelt is definitely ripe for upzoning, there's detached SFHs a block away from several stations which, on an express train route, is a bit questionable from a land use perspective lol. A lot of Queens is like this though with a LOT of untapped potential.

You can't magically eliminate OT when you're short staffed and forcing officers to go on extra tours to police the subway instead of the MTA police doing it

Indeed for assailants with high risk tolerance and lower understanding of consequences, more unpredictability and more error prone or lack of good judgement, you've got no idea what could happen, I can't say I'd be rearing to intervene with my lanky ass lol.

The cost will only keep going up. It's a valid question do we just plunge ahead anyways? The 2nd Ave did get opened after all, should we cease any expansions to the subway ever, or expand (at great cost)? I don't know the right answer, the costs are absurd and ideally work would be done now to reduce these costs through corruption investigations and reworking how the MTA does bidding and contracts. It also raises an interesting equity question, we spent all this money to connect the UES with the Second Ave Subway, plus largely white suburbanites with ESA, where's the billions to connect more minority neighborhoods like Harlem, and the future expansion to the Bronx?

> someone explain how congestion pricing helps the MTA money problem

The legislation passed by the New York State Legislature mandates that the CBD tolling (congestion pricing) raise $1 billion per year that must go to the MTA's Capital Budget. The Capital Budget is what funds projects and construction, such as this proposed extension.

> Other than the net positive of reducing emissions, which could be achieved in a 1000 other ways

I think you are vastly underestimating the solutions available. Do you believe the city has unlimited money to convert private resident's vehicles into electric vehicles to address emissions? Also, one of the two primary goals of CBD Tolling is reduce congestion, which cannot be done easily either. You need an incentive to get people to not want to drive into the city. Either you make it physically impossible or harder to drive in (which will receive complaining and bitching, of course), or you enact a real cost to reduce trips into the CBD. The multi-year long Environmental Assessment analyzing CBD tolling was based on several goals, I cannot remember the exact numbers but I think it was around a 10% to 15% reduction in vehicles and vehicle-miles-traveled (VMT) inside the CBD cordon zone, which are arguably real, quantifiable, net positives for the CBD. Hope that helps a little.

> talking about legal ones

Idk if it's fully legal then but there is one openly operating with a storefront in Astoria right now called Amsterdam City Lounge lol, nothing secret about it!

I'm gonna fit the trope of how NYers always complain, but I can't help it, why does it feel like we're waiting unnecessarily fucking long for updated cars? Between both the LIRR and MTA it seems never ending. Look at the M9s, Kawasaki had the contract in 2013, and it took seven years before M9s were actually able to be ridden lol, is that really normal?

Another post cherry picking from that and the bike sub like the top reply to this comment does often. We can do the same with this sub and its asinine comments about car culture. Can't we be more civil? What does this hostility achieve? Is your goal to paint all cyclists as evil? You went out of your way to find that post, why?

Why not regulate the batteries (as the city council is in the process of doing)? Many average people safely use ebikes too, cargo ebikes are becoming more and more popular with families to transport children around. A blanket ban seems excessive and heavy handed and cutting off a good transportation method. I feel like quality ebikes are an underrated method of helping people in subway deserts

We can say the same about this sub lol

> NW is trash now

Yep I mean they don't call the N the 'never' for nothing! Even during RUSH hours, I'm consistently hitting gaps where I'm waiting 7, 8, even 10 minutes for a train. Why are we still constantly getting cancelled trains? Insult to injury they cut R service too, so even if you're lucky enough to live in the parts of Astoria where you're equidistant to both lines, the R is no saving grace. Plus no M service on weekends by us, so you are STILL waiting minimum of 12-15 minutes on the weekends whether you go to something on the N or say Steinway St.

> Also harder to complain when dead.

That reminds me how work on elevateds suddenly accelerated when falling wooden beams kept smashing through parked car windows underneath them lol

My original post was referring to the N/W which does not have CBTC upgrades yet AFAIK. I know the Queens Blvd line is in the process but I believe it is heavily delayed.