12 JANUARY 10, 2019 RIDGEWOOD TIMES WWW.QNS.COM
Time to take transit back
The Metropolitan Transportation
Authority (MTA) was formed on
March 1, 1968 — a point in which
New York City lacked the fi nances to
update its own transportation system.
From the start, there were vows to
modernize and improve the subways
and commuter rail lines under the
MTA’s control. Speaking specifi cally
about the city’s transit system, the
fi rst MTA Chairman, William J. Ronan,
said, “We’re making up for 30 years of
do-nothingism.”
Fast forward to today, and one
could suggest that this 51-year forced
marriage between the MTA and New
York City Transit — the city’s subway
and bus lines — is now mired in the
same do-nothingism which Ronan
had vowed to end. All of the delays
and problems commuters have to
endure every day serves as evidence
of the MTA’s many shortcomings and
outright failures.
But the shoe’s on the other foot now.
The city fi nds itself in much better fi -
nancial shape than it was back in the
late 1960s — and better than the MTA is presently. Commuters are already
seething over the prospect of paying
hire fares this year for shoddy service
on a dilapidated transit system operated
with antiquated mechanisms, held
together by makeshift bandages.
Now there’s talk that control of the
city’s subways and buses should be
returned to City Hall rather than the
MTA board room or the legislative
halls in Albany. City Council Speaker
Corey Johnson fl oated the idea during
a visit with Queens straphangers on
Jan. 7.
Then on Jan. 8, the Daily News reported
that Governor Andrew Cuomo
himself said that the MTA should be
disbanded. “Blow it up” were his actual
words to the editorial board. It would
seem, however, that the governor
would want a new authority to take
over the MTA’s operations.
But we side with Speaker Johnson
here; the city should have the control
once again to control its transit system.
It shouldn’t be beholden to a board of
bureaucratic appointees or attached
to commuter rail lines, bridges and
tunnels.
The city could create an executive
agency under the mayor’s purview to
oversee the operation of all subways
and buses. It can better coordinate and
expedite major improvements to the
transit system and fi nance them with
fares, tax revenue and bond sales (the
city’s bond ratings are higher than that
of the MTA, so theoretically, the city
has greater borrowing power).
As a result, the city’s transit system
could best serve its own needs
without worrying about getting
revenue from the rest of the state,
or jumping through extra bureaucratic
hurdles to get what it wants.
The legislation needed could be
modeled after the law which granted
New York City control over its public
school system.
We hope that our Queens representatives
in the Assembly and state
Senate take notice of this and support
a bill this session which would fi nally
give the city its transit system back.
EDITORIAL
ESTABLISHED 1908
Co-Publishers
VICTORIA SCHNEPS-YUNIS
JOSHUA SCHNEPS
Editor-in-Chief
ROBERT POZARYCKI
Classifi ed Manager
DEBORAH CUSICK
Assistant Classifi ed Manager
MARLENE RUIZ
Reporters
EMILY DAVENPORT
MARK HALLUM
CARLOTTA MOHAMED
ALEJANDRA O'CONNELL-DOMENECH
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THE HOT TOPIC
STORY:
Suspect sought for stealing 3,500
cases of beer off freight train car on
Ridgewood/Glendale border
SUMMARY:
Detectives from the 104th Precinct
are looking for the whereabouts
of a man who they believe brewed
up quite a caper on the Ridgewood/
Glendale border: stealing approximately
3,500 cases of beer from an
idle train car on a freight rail line.
REACH:
16,324 people reached (as of 1/7/19)
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