(All photos: Brian Hedden)

It’s probably about two hours after the snow turned to rain in this scene. I am standing on a patch of packed snow/ice/wintery mix, and I see that the property to my right has cleared off their sidewalk quite well. These people are my dry cleaners, and I’m sure they have shoveled the sidewalk because they are all-around nice guys. And maybe a little because $1.50 for a shirt isn’t going to pay for anyone’s accident claim or ambulance chaser trial lawyer fees.

Ditto to the Orthodox establishment to my left. Like I said, it’s only two hours after the snow stopped. Property owners have six hours, I believe, to get their sidewalks cleared. But these good folks are already on it. They met their “perception due-date,” so to speak (a corporate buzzword I could really have done without this week).

So who is this douchenozzle that wants the Bensonhurst and Borough Park masses to slip and fall on their tuchuses?

Yeah, I know. The “MTA” tag kinda gave it away. But you weren’t really surprised by this anyway, were you?

Oh, and watch that first step. It’s a doozy.

This N-train station at 18th Avenue is going to need a little more than a fresh coat of paint to cure what ails it.

Attention, D-train riders: the first of the R160s (fancy term for ‘brand new train’) have been spotted on your line.

(The train in the photo says ‘D’ – just trust me on this one.)

On Friday morning, I published a story detailing the transit service cuts, based on the plan the MTA adopted last month. On Friday afternoon, the MTA released a revised plan. Oops. If I knew that was going to happen, I would have waited a day or two before publishing.

Go back to the original story – I have made all of the appropriate updates. The biggest changes are the number of shortened routes (i.e. no more B4 in Sheepshead Bay). I was a little shocked – the last month’s tweaking and fine tuning was supposed to make things slightly better. But with all of the shortened and shifted routes, I actually think South Brooklyn got hosed.

(Starting in July, the B4 disappears on weekends. Photo credit: Brian Hedden)

[UPDATE Jan-23-2010] The MTA released a much more detailed – and slightly revised – service reduction plan a few hours after I posted this. The story has been updated to reflect this revised plan. New cuts are in italics, saved routes are struck out.

Nobody likes the MTA’s proposed service cuts – not even an MTA apologist like me. But Dyker Heights residents probably have more reason to be upset than most. The service cuts that are currently on the table would eliminate weekend service on two of the bus routes that serve the transit-poor neighborhood (the B4 and X28), and cut weekday hours on a third (B16). So unsurprisingly, members of the Dyker Heights Civic Association signed not one, but two petitions aimed at staving off service cuts. (YourNabe.com)

I went through the MTA’s comprehensive list of proposed cuts and listed the ones that affect South Brooklyn below. These changes are scheduled to go into effect in July.

Read more »

(Photo credit: Brian Hedden)

1. The Fundamental Problem With The MTA Is Us

We’re always blaming the MTA for everything that goes wrong. Here’s the problem with that – we’re almost always wrong.

Case-in-point: This newest mess was directly caused by two clearly-attributable actions by the State Government:

(1) The State “realized” it had made a $200 million mistake on the bailout tax – can we still call it a bailout if it doesn’t deliver the cash that the State said it would deliver?

(2) On top of that, the State cut previously approved funding in December by another $143 million

It doesn’t get any more clear-cut than this: there’s a disingenuous and financially inept party here, and it isn’t the MTA. But no one seems to see that – everyone is still hammering on the MTA like they’re the ones who made the mistakes, that it was somehow MTA mismanagement that cause the state to deliver $343 million less than it had promised. I find this attitude particulalry poisonous when politicians like Borough Presidents Scott Stringer and Marty Markowitz bring political pressure to bear against the MTA instead of the Senate – nothing is gong to get fixed that way.

Disclosure: I get really upset when I see the public lashing out at the MTA with so much anger, without getting the facts straight first.

If you are blaming ANYONE outside of the Albany Capitol building for this, you simply are Not. Paying. Attention.

I’m sorry for the scolding, but someone had to say it. I hope we can still be Facebook Friends.

2. The State Senate Is Projecting Its Flaws On The MTA

Senator Carl Kruger (D-Mill Basin) recently blamed the MTA for miscalculating tax revenue. Gee, that’s rich – because it’s Albany that collects taxes, not the MTA. And as Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, that really makes it Kruger’s job, more than anyone else’s, to make sure the numbers are right.

Where I work – probably where you work, too – people get fired for making $200 million mistakes. Since Kruger’s performance review doesn’t come up again until November 2010, I suggest he does everyone a favor and resigns, effective immediately.

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May 2009: Carl Kruger, State Senator from the gerrymandered district that includes parts of Brighton Beach, Midwood, and Bergen Beach, and poster child for all that is good and wholesome in the New York State Legislature, releases a statement immediately following the passage of the MTA bailout:

Sen. Kruger and his colleagues, Sen. Pedro Espada, Jr. and Sen. Ruben Diaz, Sr., were early and vocal opponents of the original MTA rescue plan introduced by Richard Ravitch that sought to impose tolls on the East and Harlem River crossings. Their opposition effectively scuttled the toll idea. Sen. Kruger also advocated from the beginning that the public authority should be mandated to undergo an independent forensic audit “rather than continuing to operate in a fiscally irresponsible manner and under the cloak of mystery.” (Carl Kruger / NYS Senate press release, emphasis mine)

December 2009: Carl Kruger – did I mention that he’s the Chairman of the Finance Committee? – regarding the revelation that an accounting error by the fiscally irresponsible and cloaked state government will provide the MTA with $200,000,000 less than promised – potentially triggering MTA Doomsday II as it is combined with a $143,000,000 slash in funding under the emergency budget passed last week:

“Our ability to budget is only as good as our ability to forecast. We were dependent upon data supplied by the Office of Management and Budget with the understanding that it was verified by the MTA’s own fiscal staff.” (NY Observer, via Second Avenue Sagas, empasis mine)

Translation: I am a douchetastic hypocrite whose primary political skill is the ability to project my flaws onto political opponents.

As part of it’s long-running series, F*ck You Bay Ridge, the MTA will be suspending R-Train service in Brooklyn all day on Sunday.

(Out-of-service R-train passing by 21st Avenue)

When I use the Photoshop of my imagination, I see Trolley leaving the neighborhood of Make-Believe…

Yeah, OK, that’s a stretch. Mainly I’m just not used to seeing this much green in one place around the subway line. At my station, the houses are built right up to the subway line, and station houses are on the overpasses at both ends.

(Photo credit: wallyg via Flickr. Creative Commons license.)

Today, the MTA board will offically vote on the post-Doomsday fares and tolls. While the $2.25 single-ride fare and $89 monthly MetroCard have been widely publicized, the tolls for the bridges and tunnels have pretty much flown under the radar. Last week, the Staten Island Advance reported that the Verrazano toll will jump from $10 to $11 (instead of $13 under the Doomsday scenario).

The Staten Islanders of the NYS Assembly are not happy with any increase at all. I’m not certain what put it in the S’islanders heads that they should be treated more special than everyone else, but in this instance, I happen to agree with them:

• The Verrazano toll is roughly the same amount as the central London congestion charge (about $12 after the currency conversion), but it is 10 miles away from downtown Manhattan (and is actually charged on your way to Staten Island, traveling away from Manhattan)
• Even though the toll is meant to subsidize mass transit, the MTA’s Brooklyn-to-Staten Island service is limited to the S53/93 and S79 buses, neither of which go any further into Brooklyn than Bay Ridge.
• Staten Island residents traveling to Brooklyn are eligible for a 50% discount, while Brooklyn residents traveling to Staten Island must pay the full toll.

Un-disclaimer: I don’t own a car, so the Verrazano toll doesn’t directly affect me. In fact, as a rare breed of transit customer known as an M-train rider, I should be the last person in the world taking the side of car commuters over transit riders.

On the other hand, I have to go to St. George every Sunday – a one-and-a-half hour trip by subway and ferry (my three-bus option over the Verrazano doesn’t get me there any faster). I sure would love to hop into a ZipCar and cut that that hour-n-change down to twenty minutes. But $50 a month in tolls for less than an hour of drive time each week? Uhhh, I’m not so sure about that.

My solution: extend the 50% discount to Brooklyn residents as well. Either that, or get some more limited-stop bus routes between the transit hubs in Brooklyn (like Stillwell Avenue or Atlantic Avenue) and the transit hubs in Staten Island.

Related: This Daily News opinion is spot on. Former MTA Boss Lee Sander got scapegoated.