The New York City landscape seems to change with the blink of an eye. Over the last 12 years, new buildings have been going up across the city, attracting businesses and newcomers from all across the country and globe.
But for all the new construction, it seems little has been done to improve and upgrade the infrastructure accommodating all New Yorkers, from those here six months to those here 60 years.
There hasn’t been a new bridge that handles traffic built since 1964, when the Verrazano Narrows Bridge opened and linked Brooklyn and Staten Island together. The last major tunnel project wrapped up in 1957 with the completion of the Holland Tunnel’s south tube.
Hardly a bridge, tunnel, roadway or highway in and around New York City isn’t in some form of dire disrepair. Improvements are either slow in the offing or have been delayed indefinitely due to lack of resources or myriad other excuses.
New York State has finally rolled out plans to rebuild and replace the Tappan Zee and Kosciuszko bridges in the years ahead, but so much more needs to be done on both large and small scales. As one local example, the replacement of the Grand Street Bridge between Maspeth and East Williamsburg- opened in 1903, structurally obsolete and constantly closed for weekend repairs-has been pushed back to at least 2024.
Plans to reconstruct sewer lines and roads in southern Middle Village-a project sought by Community Board 5 for two decades-have also been delayed indefinitely by the city. Also put on the back burner is a similar rebuild for Wyckoff Avenue on the Brooklyn/Queens border in Ridgewood.
Improving city streets is essential to propelling the city into the 21st century. Just look at the embarrassment that is the Van Wyck Expressway, the main artery to and from John F. Kennedy Airport, our gateway to the world. JFK ranks 17th out of 30 of the busiest international airports in the world, but no one has figured out how to get the more than 20 milllion users each year in and out of New York City without a major traffic hassle.
We haven’t even mentioned the subways. Aside from the Second Avenue Subway and the West Side extension of the 7 line, the MTA hasn’t built a new tunnel in the outer boroughs in over 20 years. Brooklyn and Queens are bursting at the seams with people left to rely on an antiquated transit system that gets them nowhere fast. Needless to say, a new subway line (or two) linking the boroughs to Manhattan would be quite welcome.
The infrastructure of New York City is seriously compromised. This great metropolis which built skyscrapers that are engineering marvels can’t seem to look downward at the archiac series of bridges, tunnels and roadways eroding under our feet.
Barely enough money is in the city treasury to mininally maintain these broken down structures, no less build new ones. We could use a huge infusion of federal cash to do this-it would create jobs, improve the economy and make our city more efficient and easier in which to live.
For the billions of dollars we send to developing countries throughout the world, the federal government ought to look at home a bit more often. Let’s put a few shovels in the ground here for a change.
