4 ms·

>"I imagine infrastructure-based incentives will be popular in New York. Large tenants make big infrastructure possible. That enables further density, which mea

>"I imagine infrastructure-based incentives will be popular in New York. Large tenants make big infrastructure possible. That enables further density, which means more jobs, more municipal budget and more demand for local commerce. Turning Amazon's HQ2 into the catalyst for building out Western Brooklyn and LIC infrastructure isn't a bad trade for the city" What infrastructure is that exactly? Long Island City and Greenpoint/Williamsburg have already been absurdly built up by developers over the last two decades. It's hard to believe an influx of new tens of thousands of individuals to fill vacancies at Amazon is going to produce new train tunnels under the East River or new bridges over it. NYC already has large tenants - Google, JP Morgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, Verizon etc, and the city's infrastructure woes have worsened despite their presence. I would also imagine that much of the gain in the local tax coffers by the additional work force will be offset by whatever tax deals the city and states extends to Amazon.

CoolGuySteve 8y ago
This is such a glib response. - The G train can be elongated and run more often. Signal work can allow it to run more frequently with the F. - The East Side LIRR extension can be expedited. - The circumferential freight line can be restored to create a new transit line between Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx. - The L train restoration can be expedited. All these project are cheap and would increase the livibility of NYC outside of Manhattan, while also shortening commute time to LIC.
- ilteris 8y ago
  Ferry transportation is also becoming mainstream
  - Cthulhu_ 8y ago
    Ferry transportation doesn't scale to tens of thousands of commuters though. I think.
    - prepend 8y ago
      The system island ferry carries 70k per day [0]. The San Francisco ferries do almost 10k per day [1]. [0] https://www1.nyc.gov/office-of-the-mayor/news/225-17/mayor-de-blasio-borough-president-oddo-council-member-rose-expanded-passenger-boarding#/0 https://www1.nyc.gov/office-of-the-mayor/news/225-17/mayor-d... [1] https://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/news/2017/08/07/video-bay-area-ferry-ridership-hits-new-high.html https://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/news/2017/08/07/vid...
- bogomipz 8y ago
  >"This is such a glib response." It's ironic that you have chosen to call my comment glib when you offer nothing but "___ can be expedited." You can't get any more hand-wavey than that. Your comment is the very epitome of glib. No they can not be "expedited." The highest priority for the MTA right now is upgrading the depression-era signaling, which even under the aggressive rollout that Andrew Byford is advocating will take 10 years. The L train shutdown is already being "expedited" the line will be completely shutdown for almost a year a half starting in a couple of months. You can't really "expedite" much more than that now can you? And even after the repairs its still the same single track tunnel it was before. My comment was actually thought out and based on decades of observing growth and change in the city. Maybe you don't understand the meaning of the word "glib"?
  - CoolGuySteve 8y ago
    Thanks for the shoddy dismissal and personal insult, I guess?
- umanwizard 8y ago
  It took NYC one hundred years to finish the Second Avenue subway. The MTA is crumbling and can barely maintain the already existing service. The L train shutting down will be a huge blow to the functioning of NYC and if they could bring it back any faster, they would. I wouldn't count on a G extension anytime soon, or on the L repairs magically being expedited. It's almost impossible to overstate how important the L train is. It is the main artery into the city for absolutely enormous swaths of Brooklyn.
cdoxsey 8y ago
Do the people downvoting this live in NYC? It has massive infrastructure problems. I took njtransit every day for the last 3 years. It has massive delays, cancellations, derailments, manpower shortages, etc, all the time. Probably at least twice a week you should expect a major delay. (an extra hour kind of delay) The Subway also has major problems. It's falling apart, chronically late and costs a fortune. But there's no money for fixing it. They're shutting down the L-Train next year, the main train you take from the most popular places in Brooklyn. Commuting in NYC sucks and you shoud expect it to get worse.
- BonesJustice 8y ago
  > Commuting in NYC sucks and you should expect it to get worse. The secret is to move to Jersey and take the NY Waterway ferry. $272/month, including bus transit on both sides if you need it. While your boat may occasionally be 5 minutes late (like every other mass transit option), they almost never shut down. I can't speak to the East River Ferry.
  - evanelias 8y ago
    I agree with the "move to Jersey" part, but NY Waterway is a truly terrible company. They fraudulently overbilled the government for ferry services they provided after the 9/11 attacks. Really profoundly sick behavior. [1] [2] More recently, they've sold their Weehawken depot to a developer -- and then used their lack of a depot as an excuse to shadily land-grab space in Hoboken. They're threatening to put an industrial refueling depot in a spot surrounded entirely by parks, housing, and a university. [3] [4] [1] https://www.nytimes.com/2003/04/18/nyregion/ferry-operator-is-the-target-of-us-inquiry.html https://www.nytimes.com/2003/04/18/nyregion/ferry-operator-i... [2] https://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/18/nyregion/18ferry.html https://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/18/nyregion/18ferry.html [3] https://www.nj.com/hudson/index.ssf/2018/01/hoboken_mayor_blasts_nj_transits_11th_hour_ferry_d.html https://www.nj.com/hudson/index.ssf/2018/01/hoboken_mayor_bl... [4] https://betterwaterfront.org/?p=7820 https://betterwaterfront.org/?p=7820
    - BonesJustice 8y ago
BonesJustice 8y ago
Don't forget the best effect of all: even more insane housing prices! Seriously, Amazon, kindly fuck off somewhere.

CoolGuySteve 8y ago

This is such a glib response. - The G train can be elongated and run more often. Signal work can allow it to run more frequently with the F. - The East Side LIRR extension can be expedited. - The circumferential freight line can be restored to create a new transit line between Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx. - The L train restoration can be expedited. All these project are cheap and would increase the livibility of NYC outside of Manhattan, while also shortening commute time to LIC.

ilteris 8y ago
Ferry transportation is also becoming mainstream
- Cthulhu_ 8y ago
  Ferry transportation doesn't scale to tens of thousands of commuters though. I think.
  - prepend 8y ago
    The system island ferry carries 70k per day [0]. The San Francisco ferries do almost 10k per day [1]. [0] https://www1.nyc.gov/office-of-the-mayor/news/225-17/mayor-de-blasio-borough-president-oddo-council-member-rose-expanded-passenger-boarding#/0 https://www1.nyc.gov/office-of-the-mayor/news/225-17/mayor-d... [1] https://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/news/2017/08/07/video-bay-area-ferry-ridership-hits-new-high.html https://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/news/2017/08/07/vid...
bogomipz 8y ago
>"This is such a glib response." It's ironic that you have chosen to call my comment glib when you offer nothing but "___ can be expedited." You can't get any more hand-wavey than that. Your comment is the very epitome of glib. No they can not be "expedited." The highest priority for the MTA right now is upgrading the depression-era signaling, which even under the aggressive rollout that Andrew Byford is advocating will take 10 years. The L train shutdown is already being "expedited" the line will be completely shutdown for almost a year a half starting in a couple of months. You can't really "expedite" much more than that now can you? And even after the repairs its still the same single track tunnel it was before. My comment was actually thought out and based on decades of observing growth and change in the city. Maybe you don't understand the meaning of the word "glib"?
- CoolGuySteve 8y ago
  Thanks for the shoddy dismissal and personal insult, I guess?
umanwizard 8y ago
It took NYC one hundred years to finish the Second Avenue subway. The MTA is crumbling and can barely maintain the already existing service. The L train shutting down will be a huge blow to the functioning of NYC and if they could bring it back any faster, they would. I wouldn't count on a G extension anytime soon, or on the L repairs magically being expedited. It's almost impossible to overstate how important the L train is. It is the main artery into the city for absolutely enormous swaths of Brooklyn.

cdoxsey 8y ago

Do the people downvoting this live in NYC? It has massive infrastructure problems. I took njtransit every day for the last 3 years. It has massive delays, cancellations, derailments, manpower shortages, etc, all the time. Probably at least twice a week you should expect a major delay. (an extra hour kind of delay) The Subway also has major problems. It's falling apart, chronically late and costs a fortune. But there's no money for fixing it. They're shutting down the L-Train next year, the main train you take from the most popular places in Brooklyn. Commuting in NYC sucks and you shoud expect it to get worse.

BonesJustice 8y ago
> Commuting in NYC sucks and you should expect it to get worse. The secret is to move to Jersey and take the NY Waterway ferry. $272/month, including bus transit on both sides if you need it. While your boat may occasionally be 5 minutes late (like every other mass transit option), they almost never shut down. I can't speak to the East River Ferry.
- evanelias 8y ago
  I agree with the "move to Jersey" part, but NY Waterway is a truly terrible company. They fraudulently overbilled the government for ferry services they provided after the 9/11 attacks. Really profoundly sick behavior. [1] [2] More recently, they've sold their Weehawken depot to a developer -- and then used their lack of a depot as an excuse to shadily land-grab space in Hoboken. They're threatening to put an industrial refueling depot in a spot surrounded entirely by parks, housing, and a university. [3] [4] [1] https://www.nytimes.com/2003/04/18/nyregion/ferry-operator-is-the-target-of-us-inquiry.html https://www.nytimes.com/2003/04/18/nyregion/ferry-operator-i... [2] https://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/18/nyregion/18ferry.html https://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/18/nyregion/18ferry.html [3] https://www.nj.com/hudson/index.ssf/2018/01/hoboken_mayor_blasts_nj_transits_11th_hour_ferry_d.html https://www.nj.com/hudson/index.ssf/2018/01/hoboken_mayor_bl... [4] https://betterwaterfront.org/?p=7820 https://betterwaterfront.org/?p=7820
  - BonesJustice 8y ago

BonesJustice 8y ago

Don't forget the best effect of all: even more insane housing prices! Seriously, Amazon, kindly fuck off somewhere.