In other news:
Migrant Rift Opening Between NY’s Top Dems The alliance between Gov. Kathy Hochul and Mayor Eric Adams over how to handle the migrant crisis just cracked. Late Tuesday, Hochul submitted a legal brief claiming the state has offered the city lots of support — but the city has failed to use much of it or to request repayment for what it has spent. The filing came from a private attorney after Attorney General Letitia James declined to represent the governor — a rare move showing a big gap between the two. A judge had asked for the letter ahead of a coming court hearing in a lawsuit seeking to strictly apply the city’s right-to-shelter legal agreements, after Adams began to cut corners. In recent weeks, migrants slept outside the city’s “welcome center” in midtown Manhattan for multiple nights. Hochul’s filing makes some legal sense, as a way to try and ensure a judge doesn’t extend the city’s right to shelter, which stems from a clause in the state constitution, to all of the Empire State. But what’s meant to be an indictment is also a confession, given how the city is only an agent of the state, with only the powers the state delegates to it. That means a governor blaming a mayor for not doing his job is admitting she hasn’t done her own by stepping in. — Harry Siegel Interboro Express Approaches
Last night the MTA updated commuters on the anticipated Interboro Express light rail line, which would largely run along an existing freight rail line and connect Bay Ridge in Brooklyn with Jackson Heights in Queens. Michael J. Shiffer, the MTA’s senior vice president of regional planning, said during the “town hall” webinar that he expects a two-year environmental review process to kick off in the next few months, paving the way for what he called “a transformative new transit connection” linking up to 17 subway lines and the Long Island Rail Road. He noted that in order to preserve freight service along the corridor, the MTA would have to reconfigure trenches and as many as 45 bridges. “That’s where most of the expense comes in,” he said. “You have a lot of complexity in this right of way.” The Port Authority is spearheading a separate review of a potential freight service upgrade that could include a long-envisioned Cross Harbor Freight Tunnel linking New Jersey and Brooklyn. Currently, the line carries no more than three freight trains a day. One recurring question popped up Wednesday night: Why can’t the Interboro Express reach The Bronx, as earlier route concepts did? Blame the coming Penn Access project that will connect four Bronx Metro-North stations to Penn Station in Manhattan, said Shiffer: “The existing corridor is completely subscribed.” — Alyssa Katz |
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