America’s great cities continue to be diminished by corrupt politics. The New York Analysis has reviewed one aspect of municipal wrongdoing, transportation policy, in the United States’ largest city.
New York City is descending into the chaos that once threatened the Big Apple’s prominence. A deadly combination of corruption and tawdry politics threatens to bring about a set of circumstances that may render the metropolis, once again, into an undesirable place to live. The city’s deeply flawed transportation policies and practices provide a prime example.
NYC has been at this precipice before. During the 1990—1993 tenure of Mayor David Dinkins, conditions become so intolerable that urban experts questioned whether it had become an “ungovernable city.” Crime levels were high, vagrants were a major factor on the streets and in the parks, and municipal services were inadequate. In one incident, streets in the Bronx were so dirty that the Borough’s chief executive had to threaten to sue the mayor just to get them cleaned. Race relations were dismal, marked by what has been called an Eastern-European style “pogrom” against Jewish merchants in Brooklyn by a small but radicalized portion of extremists who were attempting to pit blacks against Jews.
But the city fought its way back. The President of the City Council at the time, Peter Vallone, initiated demands for greater numbers of police officers. A new mayor, Rudy Giuliani, was elected, bringing a tough new approach to crime, along with tax cuts. City officials were forced to produce results. Organized crime’s influence was attacked. Instead of the “ungovernable city,” the Big Apple became known as the “Capital City of the World.”
Despite the ravages of the 9/11 attacks, the downturn in the national economy, and Giuliani’s eccentric immediate successor at City Hall, New York fared reasonably well. But the clock may be turning back due to statewide corruption and the ascendancy of union politics.
The speaker of the Assembly, the majority leader of the Senate, and a number of other NY local, state and federal officials are under investigation, indictment, or have been convicted of criminal offenses. Their fast and loose attitude towards propriety is clearly seen in state and city transportation funding and practices.
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“New York State created the Dedicated Highway and Bridge Trust Fund in 1991 as a pay-as-you-go fund for capital projects, but…officials stealthily converted it into a debt-based system by leveraging Thruway bonding capacity. Since 1992, $1.3 billion of Thruway toll revenue has been diverted…the Port Authority [which is responsible for bridges and tunnels between NY and NJ] is…shockingly wasteful.”
Mass transit hasn’t fared any better. According to the New York Post ,the Mass Transit Authority, (MTA) charged with keeping buses, subways, and commuter rail lines rolling, is a key culprit, a factor in the reality that even as fares go up, service gets worse. The Post’s investigation blames union contracts.
“Some 21,352 out of 76,445 MTA employees made more than $100,000 last year, a $10,000 plus spike. Average pay was $80,780, up 10 percent from the year before. A major culprit? Labor contracts. The report points in particular to the deals for the Transport Workers Union and the LIRR union, both retroactive—the LIRR [Long Island Railroad] union one to 2010. As a result, the average LIRR salary last year was $106,103—up 27 percent from 2013. On top of that, the report notes, the MTA paid out $849 million in overtime on top pf $4.78 billion in regular earnings.”
The problems extend to the city’s taxi industry. Continuously increasing fares have given rise to alternative services, all of which have been attacked by the powerful taxi industry, a heavy contributor to political campaigns. The Post also reported that in what may have been an effort to prevent competition from Uber, taxi industry interests contributed over $27,000 to the current City Council Speaker.
The lack of adequate transportation policies and practices has led to local citizens’ groups to form their own organizations to pressure City Hall into making more reasonable and non-corrupted decisions.