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Andrew Cuomo and the Curious Case of the $81 Million Elevator
Slate ^ | 20 Sept 2019 | HENRY GRABAR

Posted on 09/20/2019 7:50:01 PM PDT by DUMBGRUNT

Earlier this year, a Connecticut woman died after she fell trying to carry her 1-year-old daughter in a stroller down a staircase in a New York City subway station.

Nine months later, Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority has provided us with the answer: It costs $81 million to make a station wheelchair-accessible—between three to 10 times what peer cities pay for the same work. Eighty-one million dollars for an elevator, or perhaps two. It’s a scandalous figure, and one that says as much about the state of American public infrastructure at large as it does about New York. We’re no good at this, and no one seems to care.

Transit-cost sleuth Alon Levy has some comparisons from across the pond, and they are not pretty: Virtually none of our European peers is spending more than $25 million per station on elevators, and many are spending less. Madrid, Spain, is adding three elevators to a metro station for $6 million. Lyon, France, is adding one for $4 million

Committing to spend $81 million to build a couple elevators, you would think, might have been a moment to step back and say: Something is wrong, and we should fix it.

Instead, Cuomo will plow ahead. We’ll get our 66 elevators. We could have had hundreds more.

(Excerpt) Read more at slate.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Chit/Chat
KEYWORDS: 81m; andrewcuomo; dnctalkingpoint; dnctalkingpoints; henrygrabar; newyork; newyorkcity; slate
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$81M Who knew?

Such a deal.

1 posted on 09/20/2019 7:50:01 PM PDT by DUMBGRUNT
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To: DUMBGRUNT

Half went to public union pensions.


2 posted on 09/20/2019 7:53:53 PM PDT by 2banana (My common ground with islamic terrorists - they want to die for allah and we want to kill them.)
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To: DUMBGRUNT

Fredo’s brother?


3 posted on 09/20/2019 7:57:36 PM PDT by TigersEye (This is the age of the death of reason.)
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To: DUMBGRUNT

How about a few ramps for us mobility-impaired and a railing to hold onto? Set ya back what, a few hundred thou? I don’t need no steekin’ elevator. Hell, once I inevitably graduate to a wheelchair (my doc already wants me to use a walker, but I carry a pimp stick instead), I may get a hair crossways and go full ATV trail on a ramp. Keep your Walmart moon buggies, I want something with off-road tires. *chuckle*


4 posted on 09/20/2019 7:59:09 PM PDT by Viking2002
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To: DUMBGRUNT

Is NYC exempt from the ADA?


5 posted on 09/20/2019 8:00:47 PM PDT by Deaf Smith (When a Texan takes his chances, chances will be taken that's fore sure)
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To: DUMBGRUNT

Maybe when DJT is done being president he can run for mayor of NYC and drain that swamp.


6 posted on 09/20/2019 8:04:46 PM PDT by Pontiac (The welfare state must fail because it is contrary to human nature and diminishes the human spirit)
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To: DUMBGRUNT

And before you know it the elevators smell like urine and/or poop. That’s if they’re not out of order.


7 posted on 09/20/2019 8:09:22 PM PDT by BronzePencil (Liberty's in every blow! Let us do or die!)
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To: Pontiac

Maybe when DJT is done being president he can run for mayor of NYC and drain that swamp.


Are you kidding? NYC hates DJT. They’re in love with their favorite home town daughter HRC.


8 posted on 09/20/2019 8:12:19 PM PDT by hanamizu
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To: Deaf Smith

Is NYC exempt from the ADA?

A very interesting question?

Over twenty tears back, the company I worked for moved to a new building and had to upgrade it to ADA compliant to receive an occupancy permit.

A major project and they had to claim that the second floor was only storage or else an $$$ elevator!


9 posted on 09/20/2019 8:16:26 PM PDT by DUMBGRUNT ("The enemy has overrun us. We are blowing up everything. Vive la France!"Dien Bien Phu last message.)
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To: hanamizu
Are you kidding?

Very much so.

10 posted on 09/20/2019 8:21:36 PM PDT by Pontiac (The welfare state must fail because it is contrary to human nature and diminishes the human spirit)
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To: DUMBGRUNT

Cuomo reminds me of an ugly mongrel dog chasing cars.


11 posted on 09/20/2019 8:21:39 PM PDT by HighSierra5
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To: DUMBGRUNT
$4 million for the hardware, $77 million for impact statements, studies, inspections, design approvals, borough, city, county, state, federal licenses, permits, from half a hundred different offices, bureaus, departments... And then there are 20 different union negotiations, electric, steel workers, concrete, the public utilities, costs, and the Five Families still have to get their beaks wet...

Ever try to build a garage in the city? What's the mystery?

12 posted on 09/20/2019 9:49:37 PM PDT by jonascord (First rule of the Dunning-Kruger Club is that you do not know you are in the Dunning-Kruger club.)
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To: 2banana

81 million, 80 million to my campaign chest and 1 million for the work of a distant family member


13 posted on 09/21/2019 2:29:10 AM PDT by ronnie raygun (nicdip.com)
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To: DUMBGRUNT

It is public employees in general who are unsustainable longer term. Too many paid too much with crazy-generous pensions doing too little too poorly.


14 posted on 09/21/2019 2:54:37 AM PDT by 9YearLurker
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To: Viking2002

These subway platforms are way underground sometimes.


15 posted on 09/21/2019 3:00:24 AM PDT by 9YearLurker
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To: DUMBGRUNT

If folks think it’s bad Downstate, they should take a good look at what’s going on Upstate.

All of which Albany is either ignoring or aiding and abetting.


16 posted on 09/21/2019 3:11:17 AM PDT by mewzilla (Break out the mustard sees)
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To: DUMBGRUNT

yeah but the kickbacks.....we gots to pay the kickbacks....


17 posted on 09/21/2019 3:18:24 AM PDT by cherry
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To: hanamizu; Pontiac
Maybe when DJT is done being president he can run for mayor of NYC and drain that swamp.

DJT escaped from NY!

18 posted on 09/21/2019 4:39:27 AM PDT by Pearls Before Swine
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To: DUMBGRUNT

How much would a ramp cost? $64 million?


19 posted on 09/21/2019 6:13:06 AM PDT by bgill
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To: DUMBGRUNT
Mark Simone of WOR is always talking about how public works projects cost 5 times more in New York than anywhere else in the country.
20 posted on 09/21/2019 8:06:45 AM PDT by Gay State Conservative (A joke: Brennan,Comey and Lynch walk into a Barr...)
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