Recent Streetsblog NYC posts about Bestocracy

Good Gov Groups, Transit Advocates Call on Cuomo to Stop MTA Raids

By Ben Fried | Nov 23, 2010 | 3 Comments

Albany’s repeated plundering of the MTA’s dedicated funds has robbed transit riders of more than $140 million in the past year alone. With a $9 billion budget gap looming, straphangers could end up paying again very soon. An impossible fix, you ask? I know the subject is Albany and we’ve all been conditioned to think […]

If Texting-While-Driving Ban Fails, Blame Albany’s “Democracy of One”

By Ben Fried | Jun 1, 2009 | 10 Comments

Sheldon Silver. Photo: Daily News. Last week Streetsblog followed up on the stalled progress of a statewide texting-while-driving ban, a bill that appears to be going nowhere even though almost everyone on the Assembly transportation committee supports it, according to Brooklyn representative Felix Ortiz. When we contacted Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver’s office, a spokesperson told […]

Assembly Transpo Chair LOLZ @ Txting-While-Driving Ban

By Ben Fried | May 27, 2009 | 9 Comments

One in four American motorists text and drive, despite the fact that distracted driving is implicated in 80 percent of all crashes. Photo: Switched. When reports surfaced last week that Assembly Member David Gantt intends to block a statewide texting-while-driving ban (again), we were curious: What does the chairman of the transportation committee have against […]

We Can’t Go on Living Like This

By Ben Fried | May 6, 2009 | 12 Comments

We’ll have more on the details of the MTA funding deal as they emerge. For now I’d like to focus on its most salient feature: The failure to impose new fees on car commuters, whose daily trips would slow to a standstill without a functional transit system. Here’s a taste of what New Yorkers can […]

Malcolm Smith Spins Transit Band-aid as Victory for “Reform”

By Ben Fried | May 5, 2009 | 9 Comments

Now that Governor Paterson has backtracked on his pledge to secure a long-term solution to New York’s transit funding crisis, the push is on to spin the slapdash result as a responsible outcome, not a capitulation to Albany’s lowest common denominator. Courtesy of Liz Benjamin, here’s Senate Majority Leader Malcolm Smith emerging from last night’s […]

The Day After

By Aaron Naparstek | Mar 27, 2009 | 22 Comments

Well, here we are again. One year after State Assembly Democrats killed New York City’s attempt to fund mass transit and reduce traffic gridlock, sustainable transport advocates find themselves suffering yet another huge defeat in Albany. Fixing Albany requires volunteers dragging themselves out to the Kings Highway Q train platform in the middle of Carl […]

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