New York Observer, The (NY) - Friday, January 6, 2012
Author: Matt Chaban
Don't mind me. (Business Insider)
Mayor Bloomberg was asked about Jay Walder’s glum assessment of the M.T.A. yesterday. He agreed with the ousted transit chief and then proceeded to throw up his hands, passing the buck to the governor, according to Capital New York.
“Keep in mind, it’s all relative,” said the mayor. “When I came to New York in 1966, the subway cars were covered in graffiti, they broke down all the time, they had no signalling.”
“Having said that,” he continued, “if you compare today’s M.T.A. system here to modern M.T.A. systems, and I have been on the Hong Kong system, it’s an order of magnitude more modern, and that’s what we have to do.”
By “we,” Bloomberg, whose third term expires at the end of next year, really meant “they.”
“It’s a state problem,” he said. “They’ve got to find the monies.”
The mayor later added that the state of the M.T.A. is “hurting our economy.”
“That’s where I think the governor really can do something here,” he said. “But he’s got to get the legislature together and find funding for the M.T.A. And I’ll be happy to help him, but I certainly don’t want to get in the ways of, be an impediment to him doing this.”
Will the mayor even bother to “take” the subway when he’s out of office?
