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 Mar. 24, 2008 | Vol 7, No. 06 |
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In This Issue: – Why ARC? – Calendar The simple fact is that for the last generation the suburban sector feeding the Manhattan Central Business District that has grown the fastest is by far from the west – northern New Jersey and Rockland and Orange counties in New York. Between 1980 and 2000 eighty-nine of every one hundred new commuting trips from the suburbs have come from these areas. And the beat continues. More recent data shows the same trend and more viscerally it can be seen every day. The road arteries have long been clogged and no amount of transportation angioplasty will change that. The two auto tunnels have long been congealed and backed up into the Hackensack every weekday morning. The Lincoln Tunnel bus approach – the exclusive bus lane – has hovered near breakdown for years. And now the Northeast Corridor rail tunnel into Penn Station regularly brings subway crush standee loads into the West Side. To the rescue is ARC – the Access to the Region’s Core rail tunnel planned by NJ TRANSIT and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey – to almost double passenger rail capacity from the west. With its arrival, ARC will be just a thin wall from Macy’s basement under 34th Street, have easy connections to all a nexus of subway lines, and be close to growing West Side developments coming in the next twenty years. ARC would add more than 60,000 additional seats for commuters, enough for the foreseeable future. The new capacity would immediately attract more commuters with more frequent service on lines already connected to the Corridor, would make possible one-seat rides into Manhattan from four lines without them now – three running through Bergen, Passaic, Rockland and Orange, which now contribute disproportionately to clogged roads, and the Raritan Valley line in Union and Somerset counties – and even open up options for new lines, if they proved cost-effective. ARC also paves the way (or, rather, lays the track) for a future extension to the east side, as advocated by RPA in its report, ARC & NYC: the New Trans-Hudson Tunnel, Making It Work Best, to be released this week. Look for it at a website near you (www.rpa.org). ARC should be supported and you have as chance to do that on March 31 in New Jersey and April 1 in New York when hearings will be held for the latest step in its approval process, the Supplemental Draft Environmental Impact Statement. See http://www.accesstotheregionscore.com/ for details. Spring is also budget season in Albany, and, despite some chilly revenue projections, some important investments in the state’s parkland are moving forward. These proposals - $100 million for urgently needed capital repairs to existing state parks and $45 million for new parks on Governors Island and Hudson River Park - deserve the support of our new governor. New York State’s park system has historically been one of the leaders in the nation – a legacy that built on progressive era ideals of ensuring that all citizens had access to the State’s mountains, rivers, and seashores. Jones Beach, Bear Mountain, and, more recently, Riverbank and Roberto Clemente State Parks, offer close to home destinations for New Yorkers. It’s an easy and affordable outing- ever more important for families in a struggling economy. But years of underinvestment and deferred maintenance have seriously compromised the ability of State Parks to meet its mission. Adjusted for inflation, the State Park’s capital budget has decreased by an alarming 50% in the past 12 years, despite the system having added 26 new parks in the same time period. The result: closed restrooms and beach showers, leaky roofs in historic landmarks and badly eroded playing fields. Recognizing this, State Parks Commissioner Carol Ash and former Governor Spitzer proposed a landmark $100 million in capital funding to tackle the problem. It’s a huge commitment- the single largest capital investment in the history of the New York State Park System. It’s not a glamorous punch list. But it is a critical investment if this vital infrastructure is going to continue to serve New Yorkers and their families. Much of the funding is part of the proposed upstate economic development package, an effort to stimulate tourism. But over half of the funding is slated for state parks in the City, Long Island, and the Hudson Valley. The Assembly and Senate have signaled their support. Now it’s up to Governor Paterson to join them. The support of the new governor is also needed to move forward on two important new parks: Hudson River Park and Governors Island. Funding is needed to complete some of the final sections of Hudson River Park and to launch site preparation and infrastructure repairs on Governors Island. Investments this year will enable these wonderful waterfront sites to ready themselves for 2009, the 400th anniversary of Hudson’s arrival in New York Harbor. Governor Spitzer had pledged $20 million for Hudson River Park and $25 million for Governors Island in capital funds for these two parks. But he tied funding to the sale of state property adjacent to the Javits Center. The uncertain timing of that transaction, and the fact that these pledges are not line items in the State budget, will make it difficult for the City to appropriate the required needed match in its budget later this year. Speaker Silver and the Assembly have recognized this complication, and included the funding as specific line items within the Empire State Development Corporation’s budget. Now it’s up to the Governor Paterson and the State Senate to do their part. It’s clearly an extraordinary budget season in Albany, with a shifting economy and a governor thrust unexpectedly into the driver’s seat. As Governor Paterson makes his presence felt, he should make these great initiatives his own. Tulips and daffodils will soon be breaking ground, let’s hope repairs and construction in our parks will as well Follow Thy Neighbor: Why I Cycle, Or Don’t Back when I was living in Spain some 25 years ago, I made them all the time and my American friends and I marveled at how easy it was to make a tasty, nutritious and cheap dish. We vowed, when we returned to the states, to make them often. But when I did, I made a Spanish tortilla probably once, maybe twice, and then never again. Why? I still love Spanish tortillas. The ingredients are readily abundant. And I love to cook. But something about the context I’m in, the culture, to use the C word, does not induce or encourage me to do so. I think about Spanish tortillas, and my lack of making them, when I have repeatedly chosen not to do something else these last few grey, cold winter months, which is ride my bicycle. As readers of Spotlight will know, last summer and fall, I got into bicycling to work and around my home borough of Brooklyn. I was surprised by how easily I adapted to commuting from Prospect Heights, over the Brooklyn Bridge, to Union Square by bicycle. And how much I liked it. I foresaw a regular status as a bicycling commuter in my future. Then, as the air turned chilly and then cold, and as rain and sometimes snow became a more frequent companion, I stopped. Without planning, my bicycle sat forlornly outside, tied to its rack, ready to go at a moment’s notice but no longer called on. I hadn’t planned it that way. People could point to my own laziness, my own lack of fortitude, my inner wimp, and they would be correct. But there’s more at work here. In December 2004 I spent the holidays in Amsterdam during an unusually cold spell. I marveled at how Amsterdamites of all ages and gender cycled through the streets in the bitter cold. Hands on the handlebars, heads held high, they seemed not only willing to cycle in such weather but enjoy it as well. Eventually I joined them, and I have a photo of my wife and I on bikes, our faces bright red. Culture and context matters. If my friends and family members were riding off to work, to church, or to school in the cold, I likely would too, without complaint. Regular winter-weather cyclists tell me it’s not such a big deal. With just a hat and some gloves, you can ride pretty easily in the cold. New York City, in particular the Department of Transportation, is putting a lot of energy into making cycling more of an option. Officials are not only putting in things like bike lanes, they are paying some attention to the laws governing the interactions between cyclists and motorists and have campaigned for motorists to pay more attention to cyclists. These are the usual tools of an urban planner or designer. Physically laying down a rail line, a road or a bike path. Writing laws that affect how motorists and cyclists and pedestrians interact in the public right of way. Publicity campaigns that argue for seat belt wearing or watching out for cyclists more. With these tools, planners not only change the physical and legal environment, but the cultural one. Eventually, and it’s already happening, I will see more and more cyclists out there in less than fair weather. And eventually, I will be one of them. – Alex Marshall, Editor, Spotlight on the Region
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March 25 March 26 - 28 March 29 March 30 April 1 April 3, 4 and 5 April 4 April 10 April 11 April 15 April 18 April 29 May 5 and 6 May 6 May 7 May 17 September 27 November 15 |
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Spotlight on The Region A publication of Regional Plan Association, Robert Yaro, President / Alex Marshall, Senior Editor 212-253-2727, x360 alex@rpa.org www.rpa.org |
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