Considering all that Gov. Cuomo has been doing to update, upgrade, modernize New York’s infrastructure — including the Long Island Rail Road, a $32 billion rebuilding project for LaGuardia Airport, JF Kennedy airport, the Gateway Tunnel and the Tappan Zee Bridge — it is shocking, really, to hear Cuomo’s approval ratings have slumped in recent weeks, largely because of the very problems he is working to fix: the MTA and LIRR.
There is massive work going on this summer and people are inconvenienced; Cuomo even declared a state of emergency for New York City subways.
But at least he is doing something.
Part of the reason you get the uptick in disapproval is the way pollsters ask questions.
I can certainly understand commuters’ distress at the disruptions this summer — some caused precisely because the system is so old and failing and needs to be replaced and some because they are working to replace the system — but quite another to blame Cuomo, rather than appreciate that at least, after decades of governors kicking cans down a road, is doing something about it — in fact, New York State is undertaking the most ambitious infrastructure project in the nation.
And it goes along with a transition — as much as possible — to climate sustainability and clean, renewable energy.
But, in contrast to New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who nixed the Hudson tunnel when he came to office as a slap-in-the-face to President Obama (and now the Trump Administration is likely to defund the Gateway project) and shut down the George Washington Bridge for four days to spite a Democratic mayor (and still was overwhelmingly re-elected), Cuomo has implemented an ambitious infrastructure plan, on par with the bold visionary transformation of Gov. DeWitt Clinton (Erie Canal), Gov. Theodore Roosevelt (Barge Canal), and Gov. Franklin Roosevelt (St. Lawrence Seaway).
Indeed, New York is undergoing a $100 billion building program, the largest infrastructure revitalization programs in the nation.
This week, after 70 years of stagnation, Cuomo announced “historic” $5.6 billion transformation of the Long Island Rail Road — 100 transformative LIRR capital projects including the Main Line Third Track, Double Track, Jamaica Station Reconstruction, 39 renovated Long Island Rail Road stations, including Great Neck and Port Washington, plus the new Penn-Farley Complex and $1.6 billion Moynihan Train Hall. Additionally, East Side Access project will create the first direct LIRR service to the east side and increase capacity.
The state is also fortifying an additional 12 bridges (including $16.5 million to rehabilitate Long Island bridges) and replacing and upgrading 13 electric power substations.
The Port Authority is in the midst of a $32 billion, 10-year capital plan to redevelop LaGuardia and JF Kennedy airports and construct a LaGuardia AirTran.
It’s not just the transportation infrastructure, but the power system incentives to transition to clean, renewable energy systems to replace fossil fuel, including electric car power stations along the Thruway, offshore wind farm off Long Island, and solar power — in order to meet the Clean Energy Standard mandating 50% of the state’s electricity come from renewable energy sources by 2030.
Meanwhile, the New York State Environmental Facilities Corporation Board of Directors approved nearly $60 million in grants and interest-free and low-cost loans to support vital drinking water and wastewater infrastructure projects across the state.
Yet, despite all that is going on, Cuomo’s approval ratings have slumped.
#SummerofHell is more than about discomfort or discontentment about commuting this summer. It goes to the heart of why politicians are unwilling to be bold, how easily it is to rabble-rouse a crowd.
It is why those “forgotten” white working class were so easily incited in hatred and anger against Obama, to fail to appreciate that their situations were in fact improving (people weren’t losing jobs or homes or retirement savings, they had access to health care) and connived into following Trump, easily the most corrupt, inept, self-serving ignoramus to hold such power (“Leader of the Free World”) in the history of the world, including Nero.
In answer the question, How did we get here? Michael Hadjiargyrou of Centerport wrote to the New York Times, “The answer is simple: a politically apathetic and historically uninformed citizenry, blindly led by a populist salesman, who pulled the lever in his favor. Until a majority of Americans pay closer attention to politics, we are doomed to these kind of outcomes.”
