People

Transit riders in the 33rd State Senate district may finally have a champion in Albany.

Regrettably, this was an April Fool's Day post. It should be noted that Streetsblog's prior April Fool's Day stories have a way of coming true, at least in part.

In its headlong rush to build a new Tappan Zee Bridge, the Cuomo administration still hasn't answered basic questions about why the project won't include transit or how it will be financed.

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.

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.

In a letter to MTA Chair Joe Lhota, State Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos writes that he's withholding approval for $770 million in MTA capital funding and a hike in the agency's borrowing limit because "a staggering $42 billion bonding debt level is of great concern." (Hat tip to Dana Rubinstein at Capital New York.)

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.

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.