DGS49
Diamond Member
Set aside your hate for New York City and New Jersey (the parts that are near NYC), and ask yourself, As a U.S. taxpayer, should you have to contribute significantly to a tunnel that connects NYC and NJ? Bloomberg cities a lot of numbers, but I suspect those numbers were generated pre-pandemic (these projects take many years to conceptualize and come to fruition), and they no longer apply.
Adding a hundred thousand jobs? Bullshit. How many jobs have physically left Manhattan because people no longer want to work in their offices? He is saying that rapid transit into and out of the City will expand the employment base of NYC. In other words, New Jersey residents who now would not consider working in NYC because of the horrible traffic will be induced to work in the CIty, assuming this tunnel will get them in and out of the City with dispatch. That is nothing but hopeful speculation.
And one must never forget that ANY construction project in that part of the country is "wasteful" in that it costs at least twice as much as it would anyplace else in the world. This is a stat that they keep in the Mass Transit world, and in the NYC area it is more than twice as expensive to build a mile of track than anyplace else in the world. This is because of the unions, obstructive work rules, sky-high pay scales, and the effect of scores of municipal, state, and county regulators and inspectors haunting the project.
OMB has apparently not been clear on why it is withholding appropriated funds. Could it be a DEI thing or SB/Wimmin subcontracting mandates that are out of favor in this Administration? I believe they are withholding funds from the high-speed train to nowhere in California, as well.
I don't think this project is nationally important. I think that New York (City and State), and New Jersey should have to fund this one on their own. Just because Boston and Massachusetts robbed us for years on the Bid Dig doesn't mean New York should be allowed to do the same thing.
