power broker

chris ward1 -  credit daniel neuner

Chris Ward Responds to Port Authority Audit and New Role as Dragados Exec

It’s the day after the Port Authority released an audit of the agency and Chris Ward is sitting calmly in his new office above Bryant Park.

Coming off of more than three years as its top New York executive, Mr. Ward has no illusions how the bi-state agency is run.

The audit last week cited mismanagement at the Port Authority and spiraling costs at the World Trade Center site, findings that aren’t exactly revelatory. Swelling budgets have been a long-running problem at the complex site and criticisms have been lobbed before at the sprawling agency’s byzantine structure. Read More

Planes Trains & Automobiles

Re-Ward. (waywuwei/Flickr

Chris Ward Could Rebuild Cuomo’s Cherished Tappan Zee

Before he even took office, Governor Andrew Cuomo went and visited the Tappan Zee Bridge, and he has made the Hudson span an important policy priority—one that has angered some locals and transportation advocates as the project was fast-tracked at the same time that mass transit was stripped from the reconstruction plan.

Last week the Throughway Authority selected four partnerships in the running rebuild the bridge. Among them is a familiar face: Chris Ward. Read More

on the waterfront

Chris_Ward

Chris Ward: Redo Red Hook to Save Governors Island

With at least a few people clamoring for a Chris Ward mayoralty, the Port Authority executive director visited the Time Warner Center today and talked about something besides the World Trade Center–not only the focus of much of his work the past three years, but also his public speaking.

Instead, he proffered an ambitious, even absurd, proposal for the Brooklyn waterfront and Governor’s Island. The former he likened to Vietnam: “nobody ever seems to retreat with a clear victory,” he said during an address at Municipal Art Society’s Summit for New York City. Of the latter, he said “it is the last open question, in terms of land-use, in the city.” Read More

Heads of State

Chris Ward chilling with another governor. (Newsday

Governor Cuomo Could Care Less About the M.T.A. and the Port Authority

Just not much less than he already does.

At least that is the impression given by our former colleagues over at Capital and WNYC, who point out that in the governor’s recently released schedules, no mentions are made of meetings with either agency’s head, Jay Walder or Chris Ward. As The Observer has previously reported, the governor has had limited contact with either Mr. Walder or Mr. Ward, despite their being in charge of two of the state’s most important and powerful agencies. Read More

The Neverending Story

The Longest Runway Reopens At JFK

Chris Ward: With Irene, Ground Zero Was ‘Lucky’

With all the angst and frustration over Hurricane Irene, the city actually got off pretty good. At ground zero, precautions to protect the 9/11 memorial actually helped prepare the site for its opening in just over a week. But as Port Authority executive director and big man downtown Chris Ward told the audience at a New York Building Congress forum today, we were inches away from disaster. Read More

The Neverending Story

I've got a strong team behind me. (NY Sun)

Chris Ward Shares the Ground Zero Spotlight

With all his success at rebuilding the World Trade Center, Chris Ward has sometimes been criticized for not sharing the spotlight. But in Jim Dwyer’s About New York column today—the first in months—Mr. Ward gives credit to at least three of the guys who helped solve one of the biggest challenges at the site: How to get the memorial plaza built by the 10th anniversary, instead of some time in 2013. Read More

The Neverending Story

Nice mall. (PANYNJ)

Another Feather in Chris Ward’s Hard Hat: WTC Mall Deal

Chris Ward’s days as head of the Port Authority may be numbered, but he is determined to do as much as possible before he gets the boot sometime after the 10th anniversary of 9/11. Who knows, it might even save his job. In addition to driving World Trade Center ever-skyward and fixing up bus stations no one even knows existed, the Port Authority is now approaching a deal with an Australian mall operator to run the hip, new retail at the site. Read More