I hear the weather's lovely in Hong Kong this time of year. (Getty)

With Jay Walder hopping the express to Hong Kong this October, the city's transit junkies are stunned and saddened by the loss of one of the most highly regarded transportation directors in the business.

"It's a great opportunity for Jay and a real loss for New York," Regional Plan Association president Robert Yaro told The Observer. Mr. Walder will be leaving behind a cash-strapped agency for a publicly traded company that operates the Hong Kong metro as well as rail lines throughout the world. And while the pay at the MTA is one of the highest in state government ($350,000 a year for Mr. Walder), many point out he will be making a good deal more on the other side of the world.

"Jay has a global network to play with, one several times the size of New York's," Mr. Yaro said. "He has been a very steadying hand at the M.T.A., but since he got here, it had its financial problems. I think he came with the promise of stable finances, but it's been anything but that."

Transportation Alternatives' director Paul Steely White echoed these feelings in a statement:

Jay Walder steered the MTA through its toughest challenges since the bad old days of the 70s. Facing a daunting fiscal situation brought on by the governor and state legislature’s repeated budget raids, Walder kept our trains and buses serving millions of New Yorkers 24 hours every day. His work to bring Select Bus Service and Real-Time updates to transit riders is bringing New York City’s transit system into the 21st Century and will help keep the city and region competitive with other global leaders vying for business, talent and capital.

Experts are nervous about the future of such programs now that the tech-savvy Mr. Walder—who implemented magnetic toll cards, 21st-century doubledeckers and congestion pricing in London—is departing. From M.T.A. blogger extraordinaire Ben Kabak:

As the news sinks in, I’m finding little good in this announcement. The next few months are going to be of paramount importance for the MTA as it must figure out how to close a $10 billion capital funding gap and negotiate a new contract with the Transport Workers Union Local 100. Walder had been a vocal part of both of those efforts, and it appears as though he likely won’t be around to see either through. Gov. Andrew Cuomo will likely appoint an interim CEO at a time when the authority can ill afford to suffer through turmoil at the top.

I also can’t help but feel as though Walder is leaving before the job is done. The MTA is very much in transition as it has tried to cope with an austerity budget, major capital projects and technological innovation. The job isn’t done yet though as funding isn’t in place and projects are in flux. Will the next leader push through countdown clocks and better fare payment technologies? What will happen with the bus tracking projects and the authority’s commitment to providing datasets for developers? What happens with the labor negotiations and the capital budget wrangling?

Mr. Kabak also points out that Mr. Walder will not be taking his controversial golden parachute, valued in 2009 at $850,000.

Governor Andrew Cuomo wished him well:

For nearly two years, Jay Walder has shown true leadership at the helm of the MTA and been a fiscally responsible manager during these difficult financial times. Riders of the MTA are better off today because of Jay’s expertise and the reforms he initiated will benefit all for years to come. Jay’s departure is a loss for the MTA and for the state, but I thank him for his service and wish him the best in his future endeavors.

One thing's for sure: They don't have Shake Shack at the stations in Hong Kong.

mchaban [at] observer.com | @MC_NYC

The State Senate hamstrung a bailout for the M.T.A. earlier this year, and while Walder was contrite in accepting his nomination by David Paterson to lead the authority after the dust had settled, some members of the chamber still have lingering concern with how it is operated.

At today's hearing, in Mineola on Long Island, Regional Plan Association President Bob Yaro said that Walder's pay is fair (and low, if you compare it based on ridership) and the severance package is justified "given the volatility that is unfortunately associated with the position."

"We are also aware that some have questioned the extra compensation Mr. Walder would receive in the event that his contract were terminated prematurely," Yaro testified. "We would argue that this provision reflects the risk Mr. Walder is taking in coming to the MTA at this time, with little more than a year to go in the current governor's term, and given the volatility that is unfortunately associated with the position. It will also encourage the MTA Board and the governor to think twice before discharging Mr. Walder for frivolous or purely political reasons. Keeping him in place for his whole contract would provide the continuity of leadership that this important agency urgently needs."

A second hearing will be held September 8 in Harlem, and the Senate will return to Albany to act on Walder's nomination September 10.

You may remember that recently some 9/11 groups objected--and got a lot of publicity for their objections--to the idea that topics beyond the historical events of the day the towers fell would be represented at cultural institutions stationed at Ground Zero. A group has formed to represent some of them.

Most of the objections were non-partisan: exhibits about slavery, for instance, were simply considered outside the scope of a museum commemmorating Sept. 11. But the way the story played out on the television news channels and in the papers was more political: the implication was that a liberal political agenda would drive the

Finally, the memorial foundation took no position on the conflict after a lengthy meeting today. While we don't know what transpired behind closed doors--what, you want these people to act like a government agency or something?--its press release mentions no such resolution, pro or con.

At least Foundation Prez Gretchen Dykstra is getting a little help in her quest to raise $500 million. The board approved her hiring of an old employee from her Times Square BID days, Suany Chough, as senior design advisor; and as general counsel, Joseph Daniels, late of every celebrity's favorite charity, the Robin Hood Foundation.

Also, Lynn Rasic, who ran Pataki's New York City press operations until, well, today, will be vice president of public affairs. Does that mean this foundation thing really is as big a deal as everyone makes it out to be?

Speaking of the governor, the RPA's Bob Yaro et al. raised their pens in support of the Drawing Center and International Freedom Center--the aforementioned stoic museums--in a letter to Pataki today.

"We fear that this controversy may threaten the existence of civic and cultural uses at the World Trade Center site, activities that we feel have a rightful place at Ground Zero," they write.

- Matthew Schuerman