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Passengers board a subway train from a snow covered platform at a Bronx stop on January 12, 2011 in New York. (DON EMMERT/AFP/Getty Images)
NEW YORK—Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) head Joe Lhota and New York City Economic Development Corporation President Seth Pinsky discussed the broad topic of development and infrastructure at a panel discussion hosted by City and State newspaper at Baruch College on Thursday.
With more mega projects taking place in the city than ever before, and the funding for those projects constantly in question, these two men who oversee a large portion of the work weighed in on the challenges facing the city.
Joe Lhota, executive director of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. (Tara MacIsaac/The Epoch Times)
Joe Lhota:
“With the amount of expansive growth we’re seeing in the number of passengers, the future of infrastructure is not about expanding the system, but using the existing system and putting in modern technology so that in the future, we can get more trains on the same track.”
“Is this model [of infrastructure spending] sustainable? It is only sustainable if our economy continues growing, or grows anywhere between 5 and 10 percent a year—forever. We can’t always rely on that.”
Seth Pinsky, president of the New York City Economic Development Corporation. (Tara MacIsaac/The Epoch Times)
Seth Pinsky:
“A national attitude that is very dangerous in the electorate … is this notion that the government spends too much money and therefore we need to cut spending. As part of that, all spending is viewed as equivalent, and that just isn’t the case. When we spend money on infrastructure … that’s not just spending, that’s investment.”
“The ridership [of the cross-Hudson ferry services] now is such that they are able to pay their own way [without subsidies], which in the world of mass transportation is almost unheard of. … Highways are enormously subsidized; all transportation is by its nature subsidized. The bottom line with ferry service is that it requires much less capital investment, there are private entities that are investing to run ferry service in the city.”
