Landmarks

In New York, who knows if you'll ever get usable greenways or reliable transit. The one thing that's certain is you'll get to use edifices named after your local political barons.

The governor has spent most of his time in office consumed with building a huge double-span highway bridge, while New York's transit system slides into catastrophic disarray.

While New Yorkers deal with slower buses and a subway system stretched to its limits, Andrew Cuomo is raring to spend $2 billion adding lanes to the Van Wyck. He says it will improve air quality, but that runs counter to everything we know about how highways work.

An eight-year Hudson River Greenway detour is set to conclude in less than two months, restoring a direct bike route along West Street near the World Trade Center site.

One of the looming questions as Governor Andrew Cuomo has unveiled his budget agenda over the past few days has been how he'll divvy up the $5.4 billion windfall the state has reaped from bank settlements. At the State of the State address this afternoon, Cuomo revealed that the biggest chunk of that money will go to the Thruway Authority so highway drivers don't have to pay higher tolls.

This morning, the Environmental Protection Agency rejected the $510.9 million federal loan New York state had requested from a clean water program to pay for the Tappan Zee Bridge replacement project. Only $29 million worth of TZB work is eligible for clean water money, the EPA's regional office ruled, averting a dangerous precedent that could have let governors across the country raid environmental funds to pay for highways.

This afternoon, the Public Authorities Control Board signed off on a loan from the state's clean water fund to help finance the new Tappan Zee Bridge. The board approved half of the $511 million loan that Governor Andrew Cuomo is seeking, but the administration called it "the first installment" of the loan, creating the expectation of more clean water money to finance the extra-wide highway bridge. The approval, likely to be further challenged by advocates, could set a dangerous precedent for other governors looking to raid clean water funds for highway construction.

Two men -- Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and State Senator John DeFrancisco -- stand between Governor Andrew Cuomo and his plan to use the state's clean water fund to finance construction of the Tappan Zee Bridge.

Earlier today, the state Environmental Facilities Corporation unanimously approved a $511 million loan from the state's federally-funded clean water program to the Tappan Zee Bridge construction project, using funds intended for clean water initiatives in New York City.