Yo! Cuomo … Christie … Listen Up!
Anyone who has been paying any attention knows that the tunnel under the Hudson River and connecting New York City with New Jersey need to be replaced. It’s over 100 years old and was badly damaged by Hurricane Sandy in 2012.
The consequences are staggering should the existing tunnels sudenly become unusable. Sooner and maybe later, that’s inevitable, and the people who know about this stuff say the regional economy would lose $100 million a day. Yes, a day! And it will literally take 2-3 years to complete replacement tunnels.
Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx has said that neglecting this problem is almost criminal. He wants to meet with Chris Christie, the Republican governor of New Jersey, and Andrew Cuomo, New York State’s Democratic governor. After a lot of hemming and hawing, Christie said OK, he’ll meet with Foxx. Cuomo says (I’m paraphrasing), What’s the point of meeting until we know that the feds are going to pony up 80-percent of the estimated $14 or $15 billion?
The point?? Seems to me, governor, if the potential hit to the economy is a hundred million bucks a day, it would be a damn good idea to get off your okole*, go to Washington, meet with Secretary Foxx, and make real nice. And take Christie with you.
*Hawaiian for butt.
Here’s an even better tidbit from Cuomo. He said that since Amtrak uses the tunnel, Amtrak should cover some of the cost. He’s clueless.
Seems to me Amtrak has pledged to contribute something, but of course it will be a tiny fraction of the actual projected cost. Cuomo is particularly disappointing to me since I was a huge fan of his father, Mario … also governor of New York who seriously considered running for president. I wrote him a letter urging him to do so and got a very nice reply. He decided not to run, finally, to my great disappointment.
I agree wholeheartedly on Mario Cuomo. He was governor during most of my seven years on Long Island. It was a huge disappointment when he lost to George Pataki in 1994.
Inspiring, wasn’t he! And a terrific speaker.