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Tour Buses Silenced


Photo (cc) 2010 Stephen Rees

The brightly colored tour buses rumbling down Broadway are about to get muffled.

The City Council approved legislation Thursday, which turns down the volume on the tour bus industry by requiring all open-air tour buses give passengers headphones instead of blasting corny commentary over loudspeakers. The bill comes after years of complaints from local residents, who say wailing from a passing double-decker constantly interrupts their peace and quiet.

"The buses in the high season come every five minutes," said Barbara Becker, a resident of Bleecker Street for the last 40 years. "It permeates your living room, your kitchen."

The tour bus industry opposes the bill.

Headphones On!

Under the legislation, (Intro 182) which was approved by a vote of 44 to 2, all open-air tour buses will have to be equipped with headphones by 2015. At least 10 percent of the open-air fleet must have headphones by July 2011.

When first introduced, the bill would have applied to every tour bus -- whether it is enclosed or not.

Officials called the final version of the bill "a good balance."

"We can't neglect that the tourists come to a city where in all neighborhoods people live," said Council Speaker Christine Quinn. "We wanted to make sure we passed legislation that brought residents a little more quiet, a little bit of ability to sleep in the city that never sleeps, but also created appropriate regulation that would allow the tour bus industry to continue in the city of New York."

Of the 250 tour buses registered with the Department of Consumer Affairs, 170 of them are open-air, according to the council. Quinn also said that the thousands of tourists sharing headphones did not pose sanitary concerns.

A spokesperson said the mayor would sign the legislation.

At a hearing earlier this month, Thomas Lewis, president of tour bus company Gray Line New York Sightseeing, testified that his company had received only a handful of complaints over its 15-year existence and its buses work within legal noise levels.

"We strongly prefer to address this issue on a neighborhood by neighborhood and a block by block basis, rather than the 'killing an ant with a sledge hammer' approach that this broad citywide mandate imposes," Lewis stated in his testimony.

Bus operators that do not have headphones could be subject to a fine of between $200 and $750 per day and could have their licenses suspended.

Some critics of the bill fear that equipping the buses with headphones could spur companies to replace tour guides with taped messages, which isn't prohibited by the legislation.

Officials, including the bill's sponsor, Councilmember Gale Brewer, said they would make sure tour guide jobs are not lost and buses keep their persons and personalities.

"A tourist wants a person," said Brewer, who has been called out to from a tour bus while walking on Sixth Avenue. "They want the nuances of the neighborhood."

Juvenile Justice Disclosure

The council also approved two bills (Intros 37 and 153) requiring the Department of Juvenile Justice to report demographic and restraint data to the council every year.

Under the bills, the department will have to report the race, gender, zip code and ethnicity of every individual confined in juvenile facilities. The department will also be required to report any instances of physical restraint, mechanical restraint, room confinement and any allegations of abuse.

Council Tries to Rein in Horse Carriages


Photo (cc) 2007 caruba

Runaway horses aren't the only things to worry about during carriage rides in Central Park.

The industry might now gallop off with your wallet.

In an attempt to whip the horse carriage industry into shape and diffuse criticism that it's inhumane, the City Council approved a bill (Intro 35) Wednesday that implements new safety and stable conditions for horses, but also doubles carriage ride rates. A half hour ride around Midtown now costs $34. The rate will jump to $50 for the first 20 minutes.

Council officials said the increase is warranted, because rates have not been touched in 20 years. They also say the bill implements important humane standards for the horses, giving them a five-week vacation outside of the city every year and requiring larger stalls.

Despite its intent, the bill was not supported by some animal rights activists, who argue the horse carriage industry should be eliminated altogether.

"New York City is not the ideal environment for it. It's not going to be an ideal environment for it," said Michelle Villagomez, a senior manager at the ASPCA. "Unfortunately, the city and the industry have been unwilling to really put the horses first."

The ASPCA had urged the council to approve a bill to replace the carriages with antique automobiles.

The carriage horse industry overwhelmingly supports the legislation. Its members filled the second floor balcony of City Hall as the council voted. When the council approved the bill by a vote of 43 to four with one abstention, they applauded.

Corralling Support for Carriages

In addition to the initial rate increase, the legislation will allow carriage horse operators to adjust rates for inflation every three years.

Stephen Malone, a spokesperson for the Horse and Carriage Association of New York and a carriage owner and operator, said the rates are a maximum. If tourists balk, he said, the driver can negotiate.

"We're not in business to go out of business," said Malone. "These are all provisions put in place to protect the sustainability of the industry."

According to testimony from the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene on the bill, there are 202 licensed carriage horses, 68 carriages, 19 stables and 284 licensed drivers.

In addition to the five-week furlough, the carriage industry will have to provide horses with heavy blankets in cold weather and put emergency brakes on their carriages. A horse will now have to be between the age of 5 and 26 to pull a carriage.

The bill still allows carriages to operate on days from 18 degrees to 89 degrees. Advocates had urged the city to factor in wind chill and humidity.

The bill also does not change the number of hours a horse can work. Horses can now pull carriages for two hours at a time with a 15-minute break, said Malone. On average, he added, carriages only receive one ride an hour, meaning each driver and equine get a lot of down time. They can work for nine hours in a 24-hour period.

The bill will require horses see a vet before a carriage license can be renewed and every four to eight months after. Carriages will now be prohibited below 34th street.

In 2007, then Comptroller William Thompson audited the industry and found it was infrequently inspected and health conditions for horses were substandard. The audit was released as several accidents led to the death of several horses.

In response to criticism of the legislation, Council Speaker Christine Quinn defended the horse carriage industry, saying it was an iconic activity for any visitor to the Big Apple.

"We want to support this industry," said Quinn. "We want to keep it alive and running."

Another Williamsburg Development

The City Council also gave the OK for a 754-unit, mixed-use development, Rose Plaza on the River, to take root in south Williamsburg.

The development will include about 25,000 square feet of community and commercial space, and extend open space along the Brooklyn waterfront south of the Williamsburg Bridge.

For weeks, officials questioned whether the community and the developer, Isack Rosenberg, would be able to reach an agreement over the size of the units and the amount of affordable housing. Up until Tuesday night, the area's council member, Stephen Levin, had not expressed support for the plan.

Under an agreement reached between Levin and the developer, the mixed-use development will make 30 percent of its units affordable, including 144 that could accommodate large families.

"This project has not been without controversy, but I am pleased to report we have come one step closer to reclaiming the Williamsburg waterfront," said Levin. "Affordable housing is desperately needed throughout the city and it is essential to communities like Williamsburg that have suffered from gentrification over the past several years."

MTA Tries to Catch Up With Its Finances


Photo (cc) 2006 moriza

It's getting worse.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority faces an operating gap of about $800 million and its five-year construction plan is down $10 billion. The authority is already planning cuts that include eliminating free rides for students and reducing Access-a-Ride services.

Now, a recently released report by the Drum Major Institute for Public Policy, titled "The Urgency of Resurrecting Congestion Pricing in New York," claims fares could rise 15 percent by 2011 if new funding sources aren't found. The report has spurred a discussion of how to establish a long-term funding mechanism for mass transit.

Meanwhile, the war over the root of these financial problems continues: Politicians blame mismanagement and greed at the authority, while the authority and advocates claim politicians are simply unwilling to provide the agency with proper funding.

A Steady Stream of Money

While transportation advocates are encouraged by reaction to the Drum Major Institute report, they fear history will repeat itself. Several plans for funding mass transit -- including congestion pricing and putting tolls on the East River bridges -- have died at the Capitol in the last few years. Now, advocates say they are now entirely at the mercy of legislators.

"At this point, the reality is we had plans, one from the mayor, two from [Richard] Ravitch. This time around who is going to bring it up? There is no guiding hand in this. Who would work for this? Who would want to take that risk?" asked Neysa Pranger of the Regional Plan Association. Pranger and other transportation activists will be in Albany on Monday to lobby legislators on MTA funding issues.

These advocates say they think the legislature has to come up with a plan of its own. "The one thing we have learned from Albany the past few years is they don't like being told what to do. I think any plan needs to be organic, to come from the Senate or the Assembly," Pranger said.

To that end, advocates hope that service cuts will motivate New Yorkers to complain to legislators -- a tactic they hope may be effective since this is an election year.

"To put it crassly," said Pranger, "we are going into an election, and they have to decide whether they want to deal with cuts or taxes, and neither sits well with people. But they need to deal with this issue and the student MetroCard issue, and I don't think they want to deal with results of inaction."

Congestion Pricing Revisited

John Petro, the author of the Drum Major Institute study, wants to revive congestion pricing -- an $8 daily charge on cars entering or leaving Manhattan below 86th Street between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m., Monday through Friday. He estimates it could generate $400 million or more a year to help keep fares at a reasonable price. But other advocates say that the authority's financial situation is so desperate that it would take a congestion pricing plan, the current payroll tax and full funding from Albany to keep the agency afloat.

"Even if congestion pricing passes, Albany and City Hall will have to commit to properly funding the MTA or the situation won’t get better," said Petro.

While congestion pricing might be politically unpopular, the report's findings may make it more palatable for the city residents and legislators who argued the proposal would disproportionately affect working and middle class New Yorkers. According to Petro's calculations, without new funding sources a family of four with two working parents and two school age children would see their mass transit costs increase by $2,300 a year in 2011.

Legislators in the past railed against congestion pricing as well as the Ravitch plan, which would have placed tolls on East River bridges, saying that either change would hurt their working class constituents. One of the most outspoken critics of bridge tolls, Sen. Ruben Diaz, explained his opposition to the tolls tearlier this year: "Taxi drivers have to pay, too, and they will have to increase their fares. Who is gonna pay for that? The people," he said. But advocates point out that 67 percent of households in his district do not have access to a car and rely on mass transit.

The data shows middle and working classes would not be the ones paying to drive into the city under a congestion-pricing plan, Petro says. "We know from transit data that middle class and working class families use mass transit to get to New York if they work in the central business district," said Petro. "This idea that congestion pricing would hurt middle class families is very frustrating because it is patently false."

Petro said that only 5 percent of working New Yorkers commute by car in the city's central business district. Data from the city's Independent Budget Office from 2007 shows the median annual income of those who do drive into the city is 30 percent higher than the income of those who commute by mass transit.

"There has been a lot of misinformation that was aided by politicians who talked up this line that congestion pricing would hurt the working class," said Petro. "It will definitely be a slog to get this through Albany. The first step is addressing that this is misunderstood -- who would it affect, who it would benefit, who would have to pay."

Advocates say politicians are building on the public's distrust of the MTA to avoid responsibility for properly funding the organization.

Other Plans

Other proposals lto address the authority's fiscal problems include using federal stimulus funds to temporarily prop it up or redirecting capital funds into its operating budget. Advocates oppose redirecting capital funds because they say that money is used to maintain the infrastructure of the transit system, to make sure riders are safe and the system runs smoothly, as well as to expand service routes.

Gene Russianoff of the New York Public Interest Research Group said that thanks to anti-incumbent sentiment and the anti-tax fervor, the legislature will likely rule out bridge tolls and congestion pricing. He thinks the best case scenario could involve the MTA securing federal stimulus funding. "They could use stimulus funds to buy time and allow chairman Jay Walder to institute efficiencies he has planed," said Russianoff.

The worst plan currently proposed in Albany, according to Petro and a number of other advocates, Gov. David Paterson's plan to restructure the payroll tax, which has so far failed to live up to funding expectations.

Paterson's plan would increase the payroll tax in New York City from .34 to .54 percent, while counties in the rest of the MTA region would see their share reduced from .34 to .17 percent. Not only has the plan been slammed by Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Karthryn Wylde of the Partnership for New York City and loads of city legislators, but it would only raise a little over $200 million next year -- not enough to ward off already proposed service cuts.

Paterson's proposal would, to a degree, address the authority's funding problems. But the plan is a long shot because of Paterson's bitter relationship with legislators, and advocates charge that it has less to do with patching the MTA budget deficit than with pandering to suburban counties.

"It is little more than a shell game to reduce the tax for a portion of the MTA service area and then nearly double it for all businesses, including independent contractors like realtors, operating in New York City," said New York State Association of Realtors President Hank Fries. Fries’ organization is against any payroll tax to support the MTA. "Gov. Paterson is missing a key opportunity to demand meaningful reforms that result in long-term MTA cost containment," said Fries.

Transportation advocates say that the MTA's current financial situation is at least in part due to the failure of the payroll tax revenues to reach the levels projected by the state. Meanwhile, the legislature cut the MTA budget by $140 million in its end of the year deficit reduction plan approved in 2009.

The Fight Over Student Metrocards

The MTA made what is seen as a political gambit to spur the legislature to provide more consistent funding by approving a plan to phase out for free MetroCards for students. The plan, announced earlier this year, comes during a politically sensitive time as city legislators head into election season. The legislature is already dealing with public backlash and anti-incumbent sentiment left over from the Senate coup and cutting student MetroCards would not help them. However, it isn’t clear who is less popular -– legislators or the MTA.

In recent days, more than 19 members of the Assembly have called on the MTA to stop plans to cease funding free rides for school children. They sent a letter to MTA Chairman Jay Walder calling on him to continue the program. They argue the cuts will unfairly affect working class and poor families.

"Our working and lower-income families will not be able to absorb these additional costs, especially in the current depressed economic state we are in," said Assemblyman Felix Ortiz. "This cut is discriminatory in that it affects minority communities to a much higher degree. Everyone is entitled to an education; it should never become a privilege for those who can afford it."

Ortiz said he can't see providing the MTA with more funding until the agency makes its accounting more transparent. "Until they reveal their two sets of books and say here is book A and book B, we can't listen to the MTA. We need to fire everyone, restructure and reorganize," Ortiz said. "The MTA needs to get rid of the fat at the top."

Since 1995 the state and city provided the MTA with $45 million apiece to help fund the student MetroCard program. In 2009, the state decreased its share to $25 million. But the authority says the cost of funding the program has increased over the years and is now actually $214 million. City Council Speaker Christine Quinn and some senators have indicated they would be willing to look at increasing thei commitment to student transportation funding.

In a letter to Walder, Assemblyman Richard Brodsky questioned the cost of the program. "While the MTA asserts it needs $214 million in additional state and city aid to preserve the program, the actual cost of free and discounted student fares is close to zero. We reject the MTA's assertion that the program must be valued at the ostensible lost revenue, and point out that state and city funding for the program actually exceeds the cost of providing the service."

The letter continues, "We understand the use of political tactics in budget controversies. But there are limits, and the decision to put students and families out as a pawn in the struggle to increase city and state funding crosses a line."

Transportation advocates called the letter a farce, saying it was a shameless attempt by the assemblyman to distort the issue and skirt their responsibilities.

Russianoff, for example, points out that the load of students riding in the morning and afternoon certainly necessitates the use of more busses, which costs the MTA.

"About 20 percent of the morning bus peak is due to schoolchildren," said Russianoff. "I am disappointed in [Brodsky]. He has done good work watching over authorities and passing important legislation this year but I don't think he is adding anything constructive to the conversation."



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