Noah Kazis

The New York area's urban planning community issued a striking rebuke to the Cuomo administration over its plans for a new Tappan Zee Bridge last week. In a letter to the state Department of Transportation [PDF], the regional chapter of the American Planning Association, which represents 1,200 professional planners, challenged the Cuomo administration's claims about the project and urged the immediate restoration of transit infrastructure to plans for the bridge.

The MTA doesn't face an immediate crisis thanks to the budget deal struck by Albany's leadership yesterday. But with the deal continuing to rely on debt to pay for the next three years of repairs and expansions, it doesn't put the region's transit system on firm financial footing either.

Andrew Cuomo may have handed continued control of the State Senate to the Republican Party by allowing them to draw their own districts, but 2012 is still an election year. With the Senate leadership's latest attack on transit funding, they aren't making it any easier for their New York City candidates to win.

A discussion of the plans for the new Tappan Zee Bridge by the state cabinet today makes clear one thing -- that the Cuomo administration continues to race to construction as fast as possible -- while leaving other facets more confused and contradictory than ever.

Using a federal loan to finance $2 billion of the cost of the Tappan Zee Bridge could delay construction work significantly, warns trade journal Project Finance today. Trading time for a low interest rate might save money, but it puts the lie to the Cuomo administration's claim that adding transit would unacceptably slow the Tappan Zee project.

This morning's City Council hearing on traffic crash investigations is already having an impact. Public Safety Committee Chair Peter Vallone, Jr. and Transportation Committee Chair James Vacca announced today that they will introduce a resolution in support of Albany legislation to make it clear that the police can enforce the state's careless driving law.

Despite the fact that over one quarter of the state's population takes transit to work, Governor Andrew Cuomo's marquee infrastructure program won't invest in public transportation. With so much still unknown about the governor's "New York Works Fund" -- including very basic information about how it will be structured -- the reason why Cuomo is excluding transit remains elusive.

Many of Albany's biggest transportation issues this year -- the bloated and transit-free Tappan Zee, the unfunded MTA capital plan -- will be decided by Governor Cuomo. But transportation advocates also have a slate of bills they hope to see make it through the legislature. Last year, the complete streets bill passed after a few prior attempts. Here's what's on the table for 2012.

How does Andrew Cuomo plan to pay for the new Tappan Zee Bridge? The state isn't saying -- and it isn't letting the public weigh in, either.

The Cuomo administration's plan for an extra-wide, transit-free Tappan Zee Bridge is exactly the kind of project that New York state's smart growth law is supposed to prevent.