Donald Cohen of “In the Public Interest” lives in California but has been following the debate about repairing the NYC subways.
http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/us_598c9d3fe4b0caa1687a5e6f
A couple weeks ago, Governor Andrew Cuomo announced that New York City subway stations could soon be renamed after corporate sponsors under a new “adopt-a-station” program. Sponsors, which already include MasterCard, BlackRock, and the private equity firm Blackstone (whose CEO, Stephen Schwarzman, happens to be a key advisor to President Donald Trump), would also help Cuomo “develop private-sector solutions to problems facing the system.”
“We’ve done this in the parks system, and it worked,” Cuomo said.
Actually, it hasn’t, and that’s exactly why the “adopt-a-station” idea is dangerous. New York City’s public parks are suffering from what ails many of the country’s public goods: chronic underfunding. Yet some, like Bryant Park and the High Line, appear to be thriving. What’s going on?
While parks in the poorer outer boroughs fall into disrepair, those in the wealthiest areas rake in massive private donations for improvements and maintenance. Hedge fund billionaire John Paulson—also a Trump backer—gave $100 million to Central Park a few years ago on the condition that none of it be spent on other parks.
When funded by the whims of corporations and Wall Street, public goods meant to serve everyone become separate and unequal systems that further divide communities and perpetuate inequality. One can imagine sponsors lining up for the busiest subway stations, while those in poorer areas continue to suffer the brunt of budget cuts.
Now, New York City’s subway system, like much of America’s infrastructure, needs substantial investment—but funding must be sustainable and with no private strings attached.
Luckily, such funding is on the table. On Monday, Mayor Bill de Blasio proposed a “millionaire’s tax” to help fund repairs. A portion of the ongoing revenue, collected from an estimated 32,000 wealthy New Yorkers, would even go to subsidizing fares for the 800,000 city residents living in poverty.
Whether the tax will pass will depend on the people of New York that want a fair and prosperous city and state. But the choice between a handful of New Yorkers paying their fair share for a world-class transit system and selling sponsorships to multi-national corporations is clear.
One supports a thriving city in which everyone, no matter which neighborhood they live in or how much money they have, can get to and from work, the doctor’s office, and the grocery store. The other is, well, just another ‘America for Sale’ sign.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
“Hedge fund billionaire John Paulson—also a Trump backer—gave $100 million to Central Park a few years ago on the condition that none of it be spent on other parks.”
The parks department should have had the dignity to tell him where he can stuff that $100 million unless he wants to change his terms. I can’t believe the city doesn’t have more than enough to keep Central Park looking good – it’s not like they need donors for that one. Tell him to do the right thing and donate to parks that need it. Turning down $100 million would be brazen, but extremely refreshing.
Incidentally, are New York’s subway stations, like Chicago’s, named for the streets they intersect with? So that they actually help you get around? Are they now going to be re-named for their donors? So instead of the “Broadway” stop (forgive me if that’s not actually a stop – I know almost nothing about New York), you’ll now have the “Mastercard” stop? So the station names will now be geographically useless?
LikeLike
Yeah, they’re named after locations. Union Square, 23rd St, Wall Street, etc.
LikeLike
In the other hand, I could be wrong about NYC subway stop names, because as demonstrated below, I am affluent and out of touch.
LikeLike
I will never understand why there is no big movement to institute financial transaction taxes in cites like New York, on Wall Street, and in Chicago, on LaSalle Street (for the Board of Trade and the Mercantile Exchange). How is it that the 99% have been so easily bowled over by the 1%? During the 2011 Occupy initiative, in Chicago, traders at the Board of Trade even mocked the 99% with signs in their windows saying “We Are The 1%.”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/05/chicago-board-of-trade-to_n_996635.html
Since moronic voters went with a billionaire to represent them in the WH, with the upcoming Trump/GOP tax reforms, I think we’ll see even more cuts for the rich instead of increased taxes on them. And now, instead of Democrats getting a clue that their base is onto them and know very well that they have not been representing working class people, “Centrist Democrats begin pushing back against Bernie Sanders, liberal wing”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/powerpost/centrist-democrats-begin-pushing-back-against-bernie-sanders-liberal-wing/2017/08/10/6e1ea684-7d19-11e7-83c7-5bd5460f0d7e_story.html
Where is the voice of the 99%?
LikeLike
The voice has been muffled and crushed by the Democrats as well. In Illinois, it was Democratic State Senator and private school alumni Toi Hutchinson who introduced (successfully passed) legislation granting the CME a $300 million tax break. It was she who also increased the Estate Tax Exemption from $3 to $4.5 million.
Meanwhile, the Dems (who hold near veto-proof majorities) did absolutely nothing to pass a millionaire surtax, which was approved by a majority of Illinois voters in a (sigh) non-binding referendum.
And now, Rahm has announced he is laying off another 1,000 employees from CPS.
No money for schools, no money for the commons, but there is always cash on hand for the rich, whether it be tax cuts or another shiny stadium/hotel for their entertainment.
Our next governor likely will be a billionaire or multi-millionaire, regardless of the party. The Pritzker family (whose members heartily approve of charter schools) has one of their own running for gov. He has already swamped the airwaves with ads since spring, and will likely get the endorsement. Our other option, it the cruel and public-education hating Bruce Rauner.
Our country is running the same parallel track that other fallen empires have. Growing up during the great compression, watching the expansion of civil rights and the moon walk, I thought progress was the natural order of things … How wrong I was …
LikeLike
homelesseducator,
Here is the problem that progressives need to work with centrists to address:
The “working class” that supposedly loves Bernie also hates what the Republicans love to call “identity politics”. Black Lives Matter. Not rushing to the defense of police when an unarmed African-American is killed. Gay marriage. That white working class that progressives think are just waiting to embrace Bernie also have so-called “Christian values”.
Do Democrats abandon all those idea that the right wing loves to call “cultural elitism”?
The right gets a lot of mileage from claiming Democrats “look down” on the working class. And from what I can tell reading the Washington Post article you linked to, it is THOSE ideas that this “centrist group” is against.
We have rural Iowans who hate the EPA and think the Estate Tax means they lose their family farm. They think that Democrats just want to “give free things” to minorities. How do we address that?
LikeLike
You could talk to Rev. William Barber about that. Somehow in North Carolina he has build a very powerful coalition of conservative Republicans and liberal Democrats who fight together for the poor and the Commons. Barber has made it clear that he unconditionally favors radical inclusivity (LGBTQ rights, Black Lives Matter, etc.), yet he has conservative religious people coming out and supporting him by the thousands on Moral Mondays. If we keep the focus on economics, people are capable of understanding that the 99% all have interests in common, regardless of religious/social views.
LikeLike
Yes, I love that! And I love what Rev. William Barber is doing.
I just don’t understand why Bernie — unlike William Barber — is MIA when it comes to Black Lives Matters and the fight for public schools.
I know he will kind of sort of mention that he cares, as when he just spoke to the NAACP but his focus was blasting the Republican’s health care bill. Really? Given how few Americans of any race think that Republicans health care bill is particularly good, it’s frustrating to see Bernie not talking about what he could talk about. He has the bully pulpit. When he makes speeches, it is news.
So I want him to DEFEND the NAACP’s position on charter schools. I don’t need to hear him talking about how bad the Republicans’ health care plan is since every Democrat in office is already saying that.
LikeLike
The big rallying cry for the upper 1% is:
“Keep us happy or we’ll move!”
Bloomberg said it all the time. Giuliani before him, as well.
Wall Street has threatened to move across the river to good ol’ New Jersey more than a couple of times. .
LikeLike
Without commenting on the best way to fix the NYC subway system, I feel compelled to say that there are a lot of New Yorkers who would take serious issue with the assertion that the private funding and efforts of groups like the Central Park Conservancy “haven’t worked.” Things could have gone another way for landmark parks like Central Park and Bryant Park, and I for one am thankful for the reasons things have worked out like they have.
LikeLike
I got the impression that it wasn’t so much that private funding like the Central Park Conservancy didn’t work but that parks in poorer areas of the city did not receive similar attention. It seems like the only time private money is interested in depressed areas is when it is planning on gentrifying it. There is nothing wrong with private capital wanting bang for their buck, but that is also why public goods/resources should be funded publicly.
LikeLike
Right, that’s more like it. Consider also that private funding sometimes allows public funding to be redirected to otherwise neglected areas.
LikeLike
“Consider also that private funding sometimes allows public funding to be redirected to otherwise neglected areas.”
You couldn’t prove it by Chicago.
LikeLike
speduktr,
You also couldn’t prove it by charter schools.
LikeLike
Flerp!
I think the point is that donors will always fund Central Park, Bryant Park, and other high-profile glamorous parks. But donors will ignore parks in the Bronx, Harlem,East New York. Not glamorous.
LikeLike
” there are a lot of New Yorkers who would take serious issue with the assertion that the private funding and efforts of groups like the Central Park Conservancy “haven’t worked.”
And most of them are probably the affluent New Yorkers who are unaware of the underfunding of parks in much poorer neighborhoods because they would never step foot in any of those parks.
LikeLike
^^and to be fair, I would be one of those New Yorkers. I’m ashamed to admit that their deterioration hasn’t registered. Unfortunately, that is how democracies fall apart — privatize public services so that the middle class citizens get what they need, the poor are abandoned, and the rich make their profit. That is certainly what the charter school privatization movement is all about.
LikeLike
Yes, people who appreciate what the Central Park Conservancy has done are rich and out of touch and therefore wrong. The Central Park Conservancy has been a terrible failure, and you have once again unmasked me as an affluent buffoon.
LikeLike
FLERP!
Do you even understand the point?
It isn’t whether private funding works in Central Park – everyone agrees it works for Central Park. It is whether it works overall. If pet projects of billionaires replace public projects, what you get is well-funded charter schools for some and crappy underfunded schools for the people who are very easy to abandon. Nice parks in the places that rich people care about and the rest fall apart.
When we are all in this together and everyone has a stake, we have better policies for all. That is why Medicare works. And it is why the Republicans hate Medicare with all their heart. Everyone Is in it together.
In an oligarchy, the rich decide what is worthy of funding and what is not. That’s why they spend so much effort trying to tell Americans that any program that benefits them all should be privatized.
LikeLike
“everyone agrees it works for Central Park”
Ok, then, now all the out-of-touch affluent idiots agree.
LikeLike
FLERP!
I think you are smarter than you are trying to appear in order to make some point. I think you are intentionally faking obliviousness to make a point. But I apologize if I am wrong.
What exactly is your point? That having billionaires prop up a single park makes that single park better? Um, yes it does!
Is your point that means the city can “save” money and spend it on other parks so this is a wonderful public policy? You really think it works that way? Because it has never been the case.
And nothing proves it more than charter schools which are propped up with millions to be superb examples of how great this private-public partnership works. Meanwhile, no one notices that the very same people propping up these charters for the selective few are lobbying to cut budgets from public schools that now have far more expensive students whose families are struggling thanks to the budget cuts those very same billionaires demand politicians enact.
But when you divide and conquer, it’s all about whether you got yours and whether “you” happen to be one of the people that the billionaires approve of helping because your approval allows them to do whatever they want.
LikeLike
Test.
LikeLike
Sadly, much of America is up for sale. In order to avoid higher taxes, many of the free market zealots see the commodification of our common goods as a solution. We should be careful what we wish for because money always comes with strings attached. As we have seen with public schools, it may lead to winners and losers. Some stations in midtown may get the champagne treatment while the Bronx may get some watered down stale beer.
LikeLike
retired teacher,
Gosh I love your comments. RIGHT ON. Much of America is indeed UP FOR SALE. It’s totally SICK. I do think there has to be a GREED GENE.
LikeLike
Public spaces and services are being hollowed out by the new breed of social entrepreneurs who say they want to “do well by doing good.” The investors in projects and programs develop a portfolio of “opportunities” for investment then cultivate these flegling operations by scaling up. In this link you can see the history of New Profit, how it taps legal and financial expertise to propagate policies and programs. One of the investments, in TFA, scaled up to become Teach for ALL, the international version. New Profit’s political arm (called non-partisan) was instrumental in getting the Obama administration to fund pay for success/social impact incubator. The takeover approach is “soft,” you end up outsourcing the responsibilities of people to each other, and governance of public assests to investors seeking a profit.
http://www.newprofit.org/about-us/our-story/
LikeLike
“January 2014: New Profit is a founding investor in the Massachusetts Juvenile Justice Pay for Success Initiative, a cross-sector Pay for Success program to help at-risk young men escape the incarceration cycle.”
Skillful marketing and message until someone asks the ‘Successful Gathering of Leaders’ the question WHO gets paid for success? These people are full of BS, but that’s what sales is about.
LikeLike
Diane, did you see the NY Times article about big Cuomo donor Daniel Loeb insulting an African-American NY State Senator.
Loeb wrote that she did “more damage to people of color than anyone who has ever donned a hood.”
Loeb also donates many hundreds of thousands of dollars to Republican PACs. He is also the Chairman of Success Academy Charter Schools. He was mad that the Senator didn’t care about “poor black kids” like the ones who supported charters did. And of course, like he does, which is why he gives so much to the Republican Party.
LikeLike
So what is wrong with the NYC subway system , For over 35 years the MTA has been up dating Track , Signal , Power systems , Rolling stock as well as numerous stations . The upgrades started , when Federal Highway funds were allowed to help pay for mass transit systems .
There had been a few years when derailments became a routine occurrence after the system had not been touched in 70 years .
Much of the 600+ mile system has been updated in the last 35 years. At a cost of over 100 billion. A big part of the upgrade involved equipment and design to reduce the personnel required to run the system. Some of it is on its second upgrade with Communications Based Train Control being installed on Lines that had already had an upgrade . The ultimate goal computer operated trains with a baby sister in the cab rather than a motorman and less headway between trains.
Cuomo is show boating while Trump is cutting the budget. Making real improvement less likely . This another shot in the war between DeBlasio and Cuomo and coming this close to the election it is obvious . He is putting DeBlasio in the position of having to propose a tax increase to fund the city’s share . He probably thought Deblasio would be forced into a general tax hike. Some thing his phony plan avoids doing , Bill just called CHECK .
LikeLike
Joel, what are your sources for the historical figures on subway infrastructure spending?
LikeLike
“Today, as the daily experience of riders on New York City’s subways becomes increasingly dire, attention has turned to these five-year capital budgets, which together have poured more than $100 billion into infrastructure since the early 1980s. ”
I did not see the disaster . I think much of the complaints have to do with the capital construction process itself. Much of the time tasks are done on active tracks . As soon as a set of warning lamps go out . Things slow to a crawl . Passengers are waiting in a train or for a train. .
We could go through the lines . I do not think you will find many that have equipment in them dating past the 70’s , . But don’t ask me to document that.
My daughter used to take the F/E train to Queens, I would hear her complain it was a nightmare . I would say what do you mean It takes 20 minutes to go from Lex / 5th to forest hills . She would say 45-60 .
A 4year construction project is a lot of disgruntled commuters. Who may have had no clue why.
LikeLike
I’m in the lucky position of being able to walk to work, so I’m a bit out of touch with the daily experience. My sense is that the infrastructure is a patchwork that reflects several decades of ad hoc, bandaid-type replacements of failing parts, rather than a systematic overhaul. The signal system in particular seems ancient, and apparently very expensive to replace.
LikeLike
I’ve spent many hundreds of hours on that E/F line. It is a grind.
LikeLike
FLERP!
There is little patch work at all. Some projects are put on the books due to emergency like the retrofit of all the river tubes after Sandi .These projects take several years to plan bid and approve funding for. .
The E / F line just had a major 4 year overhaul (a new signal system ) to prepare the signal system and Switch interlocks for a completely new type of signal system based on radio system communications with trains. The interlocks will stay with the (new) old system because this is NYCTA not the Disney’s tram. They do not trust the new system yet .So there is just one 9 year project,
CBTC has been installed on the L line on the 7 line and now it will be installed on the Queens blvd line. The other end of the F line from Coney Island to the City is also being worked on. Same scenario. Ditmas to the city completed in 2014 . Ditmass , South beginning now. And that is the first phase before CBTC . “This isn’t Kansas Dorothy” this a system that moves 1.8 billion people a year on over 600 miles of track . In the heart of the financial world.
WTF is tiny little Andrew going to do to solve anything overnight.
He does put on a good show. Which keeps me having to tell some people to look behind the curtain . Where you will his assault on Teachers and Public workers in conjunction with some of the most anti union oligarch in the country . No friend of Union construction nor is Trump and the model of Public Private partnership being pushed by both is a dagger aimed at the heart of union labor .
LikeLike
See, you say stuff like this, then I have to ask what your sources are again!
LikeLike
Since 1984 I was an Electrical foreman for the Largest Subway and railroad construction company in the country . Doing capital construction for the NYCTA / MTA . Including Signal /Power / Communications and a small amount of Station Rehab Retired near the end of the Second avenue project. . That help a little.
LikeLike
More than a little. Thanks.
LikeLike
I worked for the MTA for a long time. Amtrak and Conrail, before that. The media makes them all out to be incompetent, lazy, etc (sound familiar?). While there were some bad eggs in the basket, I can asssure you that everything was planned out and implemented to the nth degree by very very competent people. They serve too many to do otherwise.
The NYC subway system is the largest in the world and the second oldest. There will be delays and frustration but the work has to get done. B and D lines are tough, lately.
LikeLike
Must say, though, that even when we use tax dollars, the poorer areas are very often forced to the back of the line.
I don’t want to live at the whim of the billionaire private donors, but people with limited means have always had limited voices in the areas of politics and funding.
LikeLike
gitapik,
BACK of the LINE … you got this one right.
LikeLike