Ratner Looks To Pay MTA Less Upfront
One of the most controversial construction projects of any kind to come in the last decade is the Atlantic Yards. The $4B project is centered around building a new arena & atleast 16 high-rise buildings in downtown Brooklyn. The project has featured a multitude of supporters on both sides of the aisle. The average citizen has mostly been against the project as it features the status quo setup, benefit the rich while displacing & screwing over the less fortunate.
The project & its supporters have seen better days as lawsuits have held up groundbreaking & more so of late the global financial crisis. Now Bruce Ratner, CEO of Forest City Ratner Companies is looking to use the crisis as an excuse to shortchange the MTA money his company was due to pay the agency. Errol Louis of the New York Daily News has more in his editorial
More than five years after the first unveiling of Atlantic Yards, the ambitious project – a plan to build a basketball arena and thousands of units of housing – is being downsized and restructured so that maybe, just maybe, my corner of Brooklyn will secure badly needed jobs and housing.
It’s been slow going.
Developer Bruce Ratner has been hobbled by frivolous litigation by an anti-development faction of neighborhood groups and a global credit crunch that’s making it hard to line up financing for his multibillion-dollar project.
Cash-strapped state and city government officials, who have already applied hundreds of millions in direct and indirect assistance to Ratner, are balking at giving any more help.
Project insiders say Ratner’s most pressing short-term financial hump is the need to pay $100 million to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority for the Vanderbilt Yards, a crucial stretch of property and train tracks along Atlantic Ave. between Flatbush and Vandbilt Aves.
As early as tomorrow, the MTA board could vote in closed session on whether to allow Ratner to make a smaller-than-expected downpayment – $20 million or so – and allow him to pay the rest over time.
If that happens, Ratner hopes to break ground on the arena this fall, using part of the railyards as a construction staging area.
That’s the optimistic timetable. More delays are almost certain to crop up.
Click here for the complete report.
I sincerely hope the MTA does not agree to do anything that will help Bruce & his cronies out. This project is highly unnecessary & does nothing but continue the status quo. Lets benefit the rich while displacing hard working people who have carved out a living in their homes. This project is nothing but a grand abuse of eminent domain.
P.S. I highly suggest you check out the “Atlantic Yards Report” which offers the best coverage of the project from all sides.
xoxo Transit Blogger
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MTA Board Officially Appoints Helena Williams
Earlier today, the MTA officially appointed Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) President Helena Williams as the MTA’s interim CEO/Executive Director. This was a story I first blogged about 6 days ago when the MTA first made the announcement pending board approval. New York 1 filed this brief report:
Helena Williams was formally appointed as the MTA’s interim executive director Wednesday, three weeks after Lee Sander submitted his resignation.
Williams is the president of the Long Island Rail Road, and will continue to handle those duties as well. She would not speculate on whether she’s a candidate for the permanent post.
“The governor has a selection process in place, and it’s his prerogative. Wherever it takes us, it takes us,” said Williams.
Meanwhile, MTA Chairman Dale Hemmerdinger says he may stay on longer than expected. Under the recently passed state bailout, Hemmerdinger’s term expires next month, and says Governor David Paterson has asked him to stay on until a replacement has been named.
Click here for the complete report.
My feelings on Helena’s appointment can be found in the thread I linked to earlier. I still stand my those feelings & wish she would be legitimately considered as a replacement for the recently resigned Elliot Sander. She deserves better than the interim tag that the agency is forced to provide her.
xoxo Transit Blogger
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MTA Failed To Fix Hazardous Subway Platforms
For those of us who ride the subway often, certain characteristics are common place to us at the majority of stations. Some of those things include rats, dirty trackbed, dirty walls, etc…. However there is one more characteristic that is common place & that is hazardous subway platforms.
This is not the first time that a concern about these platforms has come to mind. Back in January 2008, a 14 year old named Avi Katz fell to the trackbed after stepping on a platform edge to see if a 
Train was on its way. The incident led to a co-sponsored report by State Assemblyman Dov Hikind & Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer which highlighted the horrific condition of a high percentage of subway platforms.
Fast forward to the present when a report from the MTA General Inspector’s Office says that the NYC Transit division failed to fix hazardous subway platforms. Pete Dononue of the New York Daily News has more in this report:
NYC Transit failed to fix hazards on subway platforms citywide – despite warnings and instances of riders falling to the tracks, a report released Tuesday reveals.
The MTA inspector general’s office found significant trip-and-fall hazards along platform edges in need of immediate repair at 23 of 27 stations surveyed last year, the report said.
The survey of so-called rubbing boards was launched after a Brooklyn teen fell to the tracks after a board broke under him in January 2008, and NYC Transit promised to improve inspection and maintenance efforts.
“Rubbing boards with safety defects resulting from damage and deterioration pose a serious, predictable and widespread safety hazard,” the report by Inspector General Barry Kluger’s office concluded.
“Yet, despite increased awareness, new procedures and good intentions … a highly significant number of platform-edge conditions sampled were not correctly identified and reported by NYCT as safety defects.”
NYC Transit’s haphazard and unsound inspections “created a false impression of system safety” and significantly delayed repairs, the report says.
“It’s an absolute disgrace,” fumed Assemblyman Dov Hikind (D-Brooklyn).
Click here for the complete report.
Click here for the complete MTA Inspector General’s Report which is available as a .pdf file.
I agree 100% with Assemblyman Dov Hikind. It is completely unacceptable for MTA NYC Transit to not have done a better job addressing an ever growing platform. I just finished blogging about how the MTA should not be forced to pay for the irresponsible actions of others. The same goes for riders who should not have to pay for the pure negligence that is on display in regards to addressing these hazardous subway platforms.
xoxo Transit Blogger
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Legal Quirks Cost MTA Major Money
Over the years, the finances of the MTA have taken a hit from many different directions. The usual suspects are lower than expected tax revenue, cost overruns, etc…. However one of the other issues that hurt the MTA’s financial picture is the money dished out to lawsuit winners. The New York Daily News takes a look at how legal quirks have been costing the MTA major money. Pete Donohue has more:
NYC Transit has been forced to shell out nearly $1 billion in personal injury suits over the past two decades – partly because of legal quirks that make it an easy mark, officials claim.
Transit officials have tried in vain to get the Legislature to ban suits from people who engage in dangerous activity, such as drunkenly walking on subway tracks.
Albany’s refusal to act means legal payouts swallow millions of dollars a year, leaving less for service improvements.
“We’re classic deep-pocket defendants,” said Martin Schnabel, NYC Transit vice president and general counsel.
There’s no shortage of logic-defying rulings, officials say.
The state’s highest court three years ago ruled NYC Transit must pay a $1.4 million award to a Queens teen who lost his legs after being struck by a train.
The drunken teen believed part of the No. 7 line was not in service and jumped to the tracks in Queens to walk the rails.
As a train bore down, the teen and his pals tried to outrun it to the next station platform instead of taking shelter between pillars on the track.
Another jury recently gave $2.3 million to a man who couldn’t recall how he wound up on the tracks at the Union Square station.
He had a blood-alcohol level of 0.18 when he was struck by a train entering the station and lost a leg.
The lawyers who sued NYC Transit claimed the motormen in both cases should have been able to stop in time.
Click here for the complete report.
Some of the verdicts awarded to these people is beyond inexcusable. I recall reading about some of them & being outraged. Why should the MTA pay for the irresponsible actions of others? The answer is they should not be bound to financial responsibility for the inability of some idiots whose irresponsible behavior lead to their accidents. The laws need to be changed so the MTA & other companies should not have to pay for the irresponsibility of others.
xoxo Transit Blogger
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Ad Company Owes MTA $7.5 Million
It is no secret that the MTA is going through its worst financial crisis ever. Even with Albany passing new funding measures, the agency’s financial future is still in question. So the latest report about finances does nothing to starve off those woes. A report in today’s edition of the New York Times takes a look at how an advertising company responsible for selling ad space in transit system in major cities including New York, is behind on mandatory payemnts to the MTA. William Neuman has more:
The worst advertising market in decades has had a devastating, and well-documented, effect on newspapers, magazines and television networks. But now another recipient of ad dollars is being hurt by the market slump at a time it can little afford it: mass transit.
In recent months, a company that sells many of the ads that appear on buses and trains and in stations in New York, Boston, Minneapolis and other cities has come up short in its payments to transit agencies, citing a sharp drop in ad rates and sales.
New York is among the hardest hit.
The company, Titan Worldwide, fell short a total of $7.5 million in mandatory payments to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority from February through April, citing lower than expected ad sales. That would be enough to buy 16 new buses for the authority, which recently received a state bailout in the face of multibillion-dollar budget deficits over the next few years.
“This is another example of the M.T.A.’s exposure to the global economic recession,” said Aaron Donovan, a spokesman for the authority, which plans to raise fares and tolls by about 10 percent in June.
Click here for the complete report.
Lets be honest, the amount of money owed to the MTA is a drop in the bucket when compared to the overall numbers. However psychologically, this is a big blow to an agency that just can’t seem to win on any financial front lately. William’s report alone should be able to smack sense into Albany & the general public about the reality the MTA is facing.
When a transit agency as big as the MTA is worrying about $7.5M in overdue payments, something is clearly wrong. This should tell everyone what is already common knowledge to those of us who follow things regularly. The MTA needs legitimate funding solutions in place that will be sustainable during all economic conditions. $7.5M should never be a big financial issue outside of the principal of collecting what is rightfully owed to you. Will we ever get to where we need to be?
xoxo Transit Blogger
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