Never again. (Governor's Office/Flickr)

Hurricane Sandy was a moment of reckoning for the city, and that reckoning has begun. The general consensus is that the city and the state must build back better, stronger and quite likely differently than before. Are sea walls appropriate? Should we let people live on barrier islands? What kind of improvements should be made to our transportation infrastructure, and how?

These are among the questions our leaders will be grappling with, and to help answer them, Gov. Cuomo has just announced three new commissions, NYS 2100, NYS Respond and NYS Ready. The commissioners are a who's who of business, infrastructure, environmental, planning, utilities and emergency preparedness professionals and experts. As Gov. Cuomo made clear, their job is neither simple nor easy.

"These three commissions have been tasked with a significant responsibility, and we need the best and brightest professionals to serve on them,” Mr. Cuomo said in a release. “These appointments consist of experienced men and women who have the skills and backgrounds necessary to review and make recommendations for New York State to improve its preparedness and response capabilities as well as to strengthen the state’s infrastructure for the future."

Below are the descriptions, responsibilities and members of each of the commissions, as outlined by the governor's office:

NYS 2100 Commission

The NYS 2100 Commission is tasked with finding ways to improve the resilience and strength of the state’s infrastructure in the face of natural disasters and other emergencies. The Commission will be co-chaired by Judith Rodin, President of the Rockefeller Foundation, and Felix G. Rohatyn, former Chairman of the Municipal Assistance Corporation. In addition to President Rodin’s leadership and expertise, the Rockefeller Foundation will provide both staff expertise and other assistance in developing the Commission’s report and recommendations. The Commission’s preliminary recommendations are due January 3, 2013.

Specific areas the Commission has been charged to review and make recommendations on include:
· Strategies to protect existing transportation, energy, environmental, and other infrastructure systems to withstand natural disasters and other emergencies;
· Priority projects to replace damaged infrastructure or to diversify or make more resilient our infrastructure; 
· Long-term options for the use of barriers and natural protective systems; 
· Opportunities to integrate infrastructure planning, protection and development into New York’s economic development strategies; and 
· Reforms in the area of insurance and risk management related to natural disasters and other emergencies.

Appointments
· Judith Rodin, President, The Rockefeller Foundation (Co-Chair)
· Felix Rohatyn, Senior Advisor to Chairman and CEO, Lazard (Co-Chair)
· Richard T. Anderson, President, New York Building Congress 
· Dan Arvizu, Director and CEO, U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewal Energy Laboratory 
· Walter Bell, Former Chair, Swiss Re America Holding Company
· Jo-Ellen Darcy, Assistant Secretary of the Army (Advisory Member)
· Isabel Dedring, Deputy Mayor for Transport, London, England
· Lloyd Dixon, Senior Economist, RAND Corporation 
· Mortimer L. Downey, Vice Chair, Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority
· Clark W. Gellings, Fellow, Electric Power Research Institute
· Patricia Hoffman, Assistant Secretary for the Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability (Advisory Member)
· J. Robert Hunter, Insurance Director, Consumer Federation of America
· Sudhakar Kesavan, Chair and CEO, ICF International
· Roy Kienitz, Former Under Secretary for Policy, U.S. Department of Transportation
· Timothy Killeen, President, SUNY Research Foundation and SUNY Vice-Chancellor for Research 
· Fred Krupp, President, Environmental Defense Fund
· Sylvia Lee, Water Manager, Skoll Global Threats
· Joe Lhota, Chair and CEO of the Metropolitan Transit Authority 
· Miho Mazereeuw, Lecturer, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
· Guy J.P. Nordenson, Partner, Guy Nordenson and Associates
· John Porcari, Deputy Secretary, U.S. Department of Transportation (Advisory Member)
· Robert Puentes, Senior Fellow Brookings Institute
· Gil Quiniones, President and CEO, New York Power Authority 
· Jack Quinn, President, Erie Community College
· Scott Rechler, Vice-Chair, Port Authority of New York and New Jersey 
· Jonathan F.P. Rose, President, Jonathan Rose Companies
· Lisa Rosenblum, Executive Vice-President for Government and Public Affairs, Cablevision 
· John Shinn, USW District 4 Director, United Steelworkers
· Mark Tercek, President and CEO, The Nature Conservancy
· Robert D. Yaro, President, Regional Plan Association (also member of the NY Works Task Force)

NYS Respond Commission

The NYS Respond Commission is tasked with finding ways to ensure that New York State is ready to respond to future weather-related disasters. The Commission will examine and make recommendations to improve the planning, training and resource commitment that must occur before the next major weather event in order for the appropriate deployment of people and resources to take place during and after the emergency or disaster occurs. The Commission will be co-chaired by Thad Allen, Senior Vice President at Booz Allen Hamilton, and Admiral (US Coast Guard, Retired), and Brad Penuel, Director of the Center for Catastrophe Preparedness and Response at New York University. The Commission’s recommendations are due to the Governor by January 3, 2013.

Specific areas the Commission has been charged to review and make recommendations on include ensuring that:
· sufficient trained personnel can be activated for emergency response and recovery efforts
· the health and safety of hospital patients and other vulnerable persons are protected during an emergency
· the public is provided with reliable and timely information
· every locality has planned and is prepared for a disaster
· emergency responses are effectively coordinated across all levels of government
· adverse events are rapidly responded to and post-emergency needs such as shelter, food, water, electricity and essential appliances are identified and met

Appointments
· Thad Allen, Senior Vice President, Booz Allen; Admiral (US Coast Guard) – Retired (Co-Chair)
· K. Bradley Penuel, Director, Center for Catastrophe Preparedness and Response at New York University (Co-Chair)
· Doug Barton, Director of Planning & Economic Development, Tioga County
· Patricia Bashaw, EMS Coordinator, Essex County 
· Bradford Berk, Senior Vice President for Health Sciences & CEO of the University of Rochester Medical Center
· LaRay Brown, Senior Vice President, Corporate Planning, Community Health and Intergovernmental Relations, NYC Health & Hospitals Corporation
· Major General Doug Burnett, Florida National Guard (Ret.) 
· James Burns, President, Firemen’s Association of the State of New York
· The Reverend Frederick Davie, Executive Vice President, Union Theological Seminary in New York City
· Peter J. Davoren, President and Chief Executive Officer, Turner Construction
· Grant Dillon, President, Global Preparedness and Mitigation
· Eli Feldman, President & CEO, MJHS and Elderplan
· Peter Gudaitis, President, National Disaster Interfaiths Network
· Tony Hannigan, Executive Director, Center for Urban Community Services (CUCS) 
· Jerome Hauer, Commissioner, New York State Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services (Advisory Member)
· Scott Heller, Director of Emergency Management, Albany Medical Center
· Tino Hernandez, President & Chief Executive Officer, Samaritan Village, Inc. 
· Bart Johnson, Executive Director, International Association of Chiefs of Police
· Timothy Manning, Deputy Administrator for Protection and National Preparedness, FEMA (Advisory Member)
· Mike McManus, President, New York State Professional Fire Fighters Association
· Thomas Mungeer, President, New York State Troopers Police Benevolent Association
· Chris Renschler, Associate Professor of Geography, University of Buffalo
· Marilyn Saviola, Vice President, Advocacy and the Women’s Health Access Program, Independence Care System
· Jennifer Schneider, Professor & Russell C. McCarthy Endowed Chair, Civil Engineering Technology, Environmental Management & Safety Department, Rochester Institute of Technology
· Mark J. Solazzo, Executive Vice President & Chief Operating Officer, North Shore-LIJ Health System
· Harry L. Weed, II, Superintendent of Public Works, Village of Rockville Centre
· Sheena Wright, President, United Way of New York City

NYS Ready Commission

The NYS Ready Commission is tasked with finding ways to ensure critical systems and services are prepared for future natural disasters and other emergencies. The Commission will be co-chaired by Ira M. Millstein, Senior Partner, Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP, and Dr. Irwin Redlener, Director of the National Center for Disaster Preparedness at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health. The Commission’s recommendations are due to the Governor by January 3, 2013.

Specific areas the Commission has been charged to review and make recommendations on include:
· addressing vulnerabilities in the State’s health care, energy, transportation, communications and other systems
· ensuring that new, modified and existing construction is resilient
· ensuring the availability of adequate equipment, fuel, food, water and other emergency supplies
· ensuring that first responders and other critical personnel are able to communicate efficiently and have access to adequate resources
· ensuring the availability of reliable real-time information for decision-makers
· ensuring that lines of authority are clear and officials have the authority to react rapidly to emergency situations.

Appointments
· Ira Millstein, Senior Partner, Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP (Co-Chair)
· Irwin Redlener, Director, National Center for Disaster Preparedness at Columbia University (Co-Chair)
· William Acker, Executive Director, NY-BEST
· Scott Amrhein, President, Continuing Care Leadership Coalition
· Robert Atkinson, Director of Policy Research, Columbia Institute for Tele-Information at Columbia University
· Guruduth Banavar, Vice President and Chief Technology Officer, Global Public Sector, IBM
· Donald Capoccia, Managing Principal & Founder, BFC Partners
· Mae Carpenter, Commissioner, Westchester County Department of Senior Programs & Services 
· Gerry Cauley, President & CEO, North American Electric Reliability Corporation
· Mary Ann Christopher, President & CEO, Visiting Nurse Service of New York
· Arthur V. Gorman, Jr., Lieutenant Colonel, US Marine Corps (Ret.) 
· Patricia A. Hoffman, Assistant Secretary of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability, U.S. Department of Energy (Advisory Member)
· William Hooke, Senior Policy Fellow and Director, American Meteorological Society
· John Kemp, President & CEO, The Viscardi Center
· Kit Kennedy, Counsel to the Air & Energy Program, Natural Resources Defense Council
· Steven Levy, Managing Director, Sprague Energy
· Robert Mayer, Vice President - Industry and State Affairs, US Telecom
· Daniel McCartan, Emergency Preparedness Coordinator, Western New York Regional Resource Center & Erie County Medical Center 
· John Merklinger, 9-1-1 Coordinator, Monroe County, and President, New York State 9-1-1 Coordinators Association
· Cynthia Morrow, Commissioner of Health, Onondaga County 
· Major General Patrick A. Murphy, Adjutant General of New York State (Advisory Member)
· Kyle Olson, Founder, The Olson Group
· Walter Parkes, Chairman, O’Connell Electric Company, Inc. 
· Cynthia Rosenzweig, Senior Research Scientist, NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies at Columbia University
· Howard Schmidt, Former Special Assistant to the President and Cybersecurity Coordinator
· Denise Scott, Managing Director, LISC
· D. Gregory Scott, Senior Vice President, Terminal Operations & Petroleum Distribution, Gulf Oil
· S. Shyam Sunder, Director, Engineering Laboratory, National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) 
· Major General (Retired) Joseph J. Taluto, Former Adjutant General, New York State
· Anthony Townsend, Associate Research Scientist, Rudin Center for Transportation Policy and Management, New York University
· Russell Unger, Executive Director, Urban Green Building Council
· Susan C. Waltman, Executive Vice President and General Counsel, Greater New York Hospital Association (GNYHA) 
· William “Bill” Wilson, President & CEO, Pepsi-Cola Bottling Company of New York
· John E. Zuccotti, Co-Chairman, Brookfield Office Properties

For biographies of commission members, please go to:
www.governor.ny.gov/assets/documents/NYSRespondBiographies.pdf 
www.governor.ny.gov/assets/documents/NYS2100Biographies.pdf 
www.governor.ny.gov/assets/documents/NYSReadyBiographies.pdf

London has had barriers on the Thames since 1984. (Getty)

It's starting to seem like Mayor Bloomberg is the only one who doesn't think storm barriers are a worthwhile investment. Not only do Governor Cuomo, MTA chief Joe Lhota and both Jerry Nadler and Chuck Schumer think it's a good idea, but so do 80 percent of New York City voters, according to a new Quinnipiac poll out today.

They were asked, specifically, if it was worth spending billions—no exact amount, or source of funds beyond the federal and state governments was given—on new waterfront infrastructure. Only 14 percent thought it was not worth the cost. Support was even higher when the pollsters asked if the cost was justified it if the storm protections could "reduce the cost of disruption and restoration." Then, 88 percent supported the new infrastructure, compared to 6 percent who did not support.

But the whole "worth it" debate is at the heart of the issue. Mayor Bloomberg has said time and again he does not believe sufficient protections could be built, at least at a cost making such efforts worth it. One person who believes this will happen anyway, because of American political vagaries, good and ill, is Times architecture critic Michael Kimmelman.

Hurricane Sandy was a toll paid for procrastination. The good news? We don’t need to send a bunch of Nobel laureates into the desert now, hoping they come up with some new gizmo to save the planet. Solutions are at hand. Money shouldn’t be a problem either, considering the hundreds of billions of dollars, and more lives, another Sandy or two will cost.

So the problem is not technological or, from a long-term cost-benefit perspective, financial.

Rather it is the existential challenge to the messy democracy we’ve devised. The hardest part of what lies ahead won’t be deciding whether to construct Eiffel Tower-size sea walls across the Verrazano Narrows and Hell Gate, or overhauling the city’s sewage and storm water system, which spews toxic waste into rivers whenever a couple of inches of rain fall because the sea levels have already risen so much. These are monumental tasks.

But more difficult still will be staring down the pain, dislocation and inequity that promise to upend lives, undo communities and shake assumptions about city life and society. More than requiring the untangling of colossal red tape, saving New York and the whole region for the centuries ahead will become a test of civic unity.

So while Mr. Kimmelman agrees with the majority that big infrastructure must be built, he also agrees with the mayor, that so, too, must smart construction—or no construction. "At this point there’s no logic, politics and sentiment aside, to FEMA simply rebuilding single-family homes on barrier islands like the Rockaways, where they shouldn’t have been built in the first place, and like bowling pins will tumble again after the next hurricane strikes."

Still, tell that to all the people whose lives have been upended by the storm. It will be like swallowing a bitter pill after be socked in the stomach.

Speaker Quinn weathers the storm. (NYSUT/Flickr)

"Millions of New Yorkers have stories" from the hurricane, Council Speaker Christine Quinn declared this morning during a soaring, post-Sandy speech at the Association for a Better New York. Among those stories was Ms. Quinn's own.

It was an emotional moment that came during what was otherwise a wonky, if powerful, policy-laden address to the city's business leaders during which the council speaker (and presumptive mayoral candidate) called for at least $20 billion in new infrastructure across the five boroughs to protect against future disasters. The story, from the summers of Ms. Quinn's youth, underscored her belief that the city must seize upon this disaster to create a stronger (or at least drier) future.

"My grandfather came over on a boat from Ireland with a third grade education and worked his way up through the ranks of the Fire Department," Ms. Quinn explained. "Rockaway Beach offered him a chance to rent a bungalow in the summer, to afford a little place on the ocean just like the rich people he saw in the magazines. It was his own piece of the American Dream."

And also Ms. Quinn's. "I can remember walking along the boardwalk as a young girl with my late mother and aunt," she said. "It’s one of my favorite memories of my mother, of how much that place meant to her and to my whole family.

But it is no longer a place for dreamers, at least not now. "Last week, visiting with families in the Rockaways, I saw that boardwalk lying in pieces, tossed into street corners or crashed into people’s homes."

As if defying Mother Nature, Speaker Quinn wants to make sure that never happens again. She announced today that the City Council, in partnership with the Bloomberg administration, will accelerate two studies analyzing what kinds of risks the city faces from storms, and what could be done to mitigate them.

She expects New York will spend billions implementing new infrastructure to combat future disaster, which she predicts would cost around $20 billion. Ms. Quinn believes the federal government should cover most of those costs, pointing to the government response to Hurricane Katrina as a precedent. She also announced that Senator Chuck Schumer is putting together a study of his own with the Army Corps of Engineers that will help the city determine the best defense for the city from future disasters, as well as the general rising of the tides due to climate change.

"Let me be clear, this is not an academic exercise," Ms. Quinn said. "It will produce a concrete blueprint for action, along with a price tag for any and all projects."

The speaker pointed to the now very voguish topic of Dutch-style sea barriers as one possible solution for the city.

"In the Netherlands, they’ve spent billions of dollars on miles and miles of connected barricades like dams, dikes, walls, and levees," Ms. Quinn said. "In more recent decades they added massive storm surge barriers at critical locations. The largest one, which has a really, really, long, unpronounceable Dutch name, stretches five and a half miles from end to end."

"At the City Council," she added, "we would have just called it the Ed Koch Barrier." The crowd all chuckled, this being a reference to a fight earlier this year over whether or not to rename the Queensboro Bridge after the former mayor.

On the smaller side, the speaker called for major investments in the city's sewers, to stave off sewage flow into the city's waterways during storms, due to our combined sewer overflow system. She also wants soft infrastructure that will help absorb stormwater, like permeable pavement and green streets, or new marshlands, known as bluebelts, that help purify runoff. She called for buffers around subway grates, raising station entrances, even out-there technologies like industrial balloons that would seal the subways and other subterranean infrastructure off.

There should be revisions to the building codes and the development patterns, which the city's Building Resiliency Task Force will undertake. Through the Urban Green Council and the Real Estate Board, the task force will be holding emergency sessions to assess the rebuilding effort following the storm.

"We also must rethink the way we build in neighborhoods that were destroyed by the storm," Ms. Quinn said.

She called on Con Ed and other utilities to strengthen their substations, protect their power plants and to bury their electrical wires where it makes sense. "I want to send a clear message to ConEd today," the speaker declared. "We will not tolerate you simply passing these costs on to ratepayers." She also said the region needs to improve its gas and oil infrastructure to prevent the kind of shortages and long lines New York saw after the storm.

We must do all these things not only for us, Ms. Quinn said, but also, and more importantly, for the future.

"Millions of New Yorkers have stories just like mine," the speaker said. "We will make sure our children and our grandchildren have those stories too–not of a Rockaway destroyed, but of a Rockaway reborn."

Deja vu: NOLA and NYC. (Getty)

How many more lives will be lost and how much damage will it take for us to realize that Sandy was part of a continuing menacing pattern of extreme weather events that are here to stay? In 2005 it was Katrina, last year Irene and now Sandy. But around the world, extreme weather has crippled nations and destroyed property since 2000. You may think this has been going on forever, since the time of Noah, but this destruction has been escalating, with more damage every year than any similar span in recorded history.

Insurance losses in the U.S. averaged $9 billion in the 1980s. Katrina alone cost nearly $100 billion, with an average of nearly $40 billion a year in the 2000s. If we include Japan, the destruction to the globe in the last couple of years is unparalleled. Is this global warming or something else? No matter what the cause, there is a clear pattern of severe weather causing catastrophic human losses. This pattern, according to the National Research Council, is going to continue. We have to do more than hope it won’t happen here (wherever here is). The data indicates that a disaster is coming to you, or near you, in the near future, if you live in an urbanized coastal area. More than 60 percent of all Americans do.

So, what to do?

First, like anyone in trouble, we have to acknowledge that we have a problem. Our problem is that since World War II, we have built too much of our housing and commercial structures the wrong way and in the wrong places. We have built single-family homes on slabs, so that when severe rains come, the water washes through our structures in raging torrents, destroying everything in its path. We have covered over too many wetlands on the presumption that floods occur only once every 100 years. We have grown too dependent on a cheap-fuel, high-energy living pattern that is crippled by any loss of power from a fragile electric grid.

Secondly, we have created a land-use pattern that we cannot support. We build in areas too close to the sea or to large bodies of water. We even create bodies of water near homes. This is a recipe for the trouble we see. Third, we are forced to evacuate our homes in times of danger by going out on highways that were not built for this, when the most intelligent evacuation should be into shelters near where we live, work and go to school. Finally, we have not built any backup systems for our fragile, over-taxed utilities. So in times of danger, these systems fail when we need them the most.

Here is what New York, what America, must consider going forward.

After Sandy, we need to reposition and not merely rebuild. Sandy presents the ideal opportunity to think about reorganizing Lower Manhattan with stronger, smarter—and higher—transportation modes. Building tidal barriers around the tip of the city is important, as well as creating better links between New York and New Jersey so evacuation and train travel can create more options for human movement in good and bad times.

We need to develop local power generation systems interdependent with the grid so we can generate local power for days and perhaps weeks using solar, wind and even tidal power generation. Every neighborhood needs to have local clean water cisterns. In San Francisco and Japanese cities, this is standard, and now in New York and throughout the nation it should be too. How else to provide local fresh water for an extended period of time, not only for drinking but also fighting fires quickly using local trained volunteers?

We have to commence a strategic retreat from many coastal areas, particularly in the Carolinas, Virginia and parts of New York and several other states. This may take 50 or more years, but it has to begin with offering people new resettlement options post-disaster rather than reinforcing current dangerous patterns. Even for those who elect to stay, the rebuilding should be more resilient, with deeper setbacks and barriers. Moreover, we must use state and federal rules to curb coastal building.

These ideas may not be popular, but a century ago, creating our great National Parks system was not popular in many quarters, either. Our parks are the envy of the world. We save nature. Now, saving nature and saving lives have to work together to make stronger communities in a stronger nation.

Edward J. Blakely is Honorary Professor of Urban Policy at the University of Sydney. He headed the Office of Recovery Administration and Development after Hurricane Katrina. His book, My Storm (Univ. of Penn. Press, 2011) recounts his experiences in New Orleans.

What, me worry? Not if we build the right stuff. (MTA/Flickr)

MTA chairman and CEO Joe Lhota has thrown his support behind Governor Andrew Cuomo's call for stronger infrastructure to protect New York City from future natural disasters like Superstorm Sandy.

This may not be surprising—after all, the governor is Mr. Lhota's boss—but their unanimity on the matter will lend extra support to the idea of improving the city's defenses against future floods and rising sea levels. That support is especially important when Mayor Bloomberg has so far dismissed calls for strengthened infrastructure around the city.

"We're going to have to evaluate what can be done to prevent it, because quite honestly, Lower Manhattan, the actual track is only 20 feet away from the entrance way, it's not that deep down there," Mr. Lhota told reporters at a briefing earlier today. "So we need to evaluate it. As the Governor said, we need to look at everything. And I think we need to look at what other cities have done, both in Europe where they've dealt with rising tides, as well as in Asia, where they've dealt with rising tides."

Europe and Asia—sound familiar?

Mr. Lhota stressed that this is not just a matter of protecting the subways, but also the entire city. " This is gonna need to be a concerted effort," he said. "It's not just the subways. There's a lot of property downtown. We all have to come together and figure out what to do with it."

That Mr. Lhota has now taken such a public position on the matter is important, because as the governor said on Thursday night, he thinks it will be the MTA's responsibility to fund and maintain any new storm infrastructure. This sounded like a joke at the time, but in some ways, it makes sense. The MTA is, after all, an agency whose primary role is maintaining infrastructure, and while it is most often thought of it terms of transportation, is a bridge or tunnel really that different from a sea gate or damn?

This might more naturally seem to be a job for the Port Authority, but Governor Cuomo is not solely in charge of the Port Authority—he shares that power with the governor of New Jersey—so were Governor Cuomo seeking to exercise unilateral control over a new maritime infrastructure system, the way to go about it might well be through the MTA.

Also, the agency has a history of building great public works. After all, one of its predecessors was the Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority, now MTA Bridges and Tunnels. That was one of the domains of none other than Robert Moses. So the MTA certainly has the capabilities.

And ultimately, it is their assets they have to figure out a way to protect, to make sure those subways and vehicular tunnels, as well as homes and business, never flood again.

They could use the work, as Mr. Lhota made clear today. "When you think about the subway system, when you think about the fact that it was opened in 1904, it's 108 years old, it opened in Lower Manhattan, it was designed, believe it or not, in the 19th Century," Mr. Lhota said. "They never expected the water would come up as far as it did."

In other words, it is time to start thinking about these things, even if our forebears did not.

Never again. (MTA/Flickr)

New York has a history of governors who were master builders, Rockefeller, Smith, Carey, Pataki and both Roosevelts among them. Add Andrew Cuomo to that list. While Mayor Bloomberg has so far refused to consider building new infrastructure to help protect New York City from future natural disasters, Gov. Cuomo strongly declared last night that it is his intention to do so.

"I think we have to look at the bigger things," he said at a press briefing yesterday evening. The Observer had asked if he was leaning toward small fixes, like new MTA vents to keep out rainwater, or more grandiose plans, like building locks and storm gates in the harbor (a practice that is popular in Europe). The governor clearly fell into the latter camp, and much of the reason seems to be because he fears this is only the beginning of problems from these natural disasters. After all, he has spent his first two years in office cleaning up after two hurricanes.

"I do not believe these extreme weather patterns are going to end; I do not believe, anymore, that this is once in a lifetime, once in a hundred years, once in a generation or just a fluke," the governor said. "It's happening more and more, with more and more frequency. This is just statistics and probability. You look at the number of devastating floods, the number of devastating fires, the number of extreme weather patterns is going up. That is a fact. That is a fact."

He said you can debate the causes, whether this is a natural cycle or a man-made crisis, but whatever the reason, there will still be freak storms, there will be flooding, there will be new disasters, and something must be done to protect against them. "I'm a governor, I'm an executive, I manage," Gov. Cuomo said. "The effect is the same. The water comes over the bank and fills the subway tunnel. That's the effect; I believe it's going to happen more and more in the future. I don't believe this is the last time."

"These are very expensive, disruptive problems when they happen, and they can be devastating," he added. Therefore, better infrastructure "would be a big solution." Better to pay the price for protection than for rebuilding everything that has been washed away.

When asked what kinds of investments he might make, and whether he could afford to pay for them, since earlier in the press briefing he had mentioned how tight budgets could constrain reconstruction in the region, the governor responded with what may or may not have been a joke.

Gov. Cuomo said he would pay for these projects, but he could not get into it now "because I want the MTA to fund the entire situation. It's going to be multi-billions of dollars and I don't want to tell them that now, because they've been working very hard, they're a little bit cranky, and I'll tell them after they sleep a little bit."

Keep digging. (DumboNYC)

Remember shovel ready projects? Thought they were so 2009? Well, you'd be wrong, at least here in New York, where Mayor Bloomberg, Council Speaker Christine Quinn and the ever financially creative City Comptroller John Liu have done some juggling with the city's capital construction program to fast track $1 billion worth of infrastructure work. These projects will begin in the coming months, rather than in the coming years. Let's hear it for putting people to work.

This marks the finalization of the city’s four-year Capital Commitment Plan. The plan—which originally called for $2 billion in accelerated investment but who’s counting—was conceived in May to boost New York’s global competitiveness by increasing capital investment in the city’s aging infrastructure while taking advantage of historically low interest rates. It’s what comptrollers like to call a win-win.

“Tough economic times demand creative solutions like this Capital Acceleration Plan,” Comptroller Liu said. “Put simply, this plan will deliver a much-needed shot in the arm to our city’s economy. Creating good jobs, accelerating infrastructure improvements and realizing long-term cost savings are a winning trifecta for our city’s taxpayers.”

The authorized projects include some 300 miles worth of road and bridge repairs, waterfront infrastructure improvements, and $175 million to invest in schools and libraries. Mayor Bloomberg believes these capital investments will help New York continue to maintain its spot as de-facto Capital of the World.

“Throughout our Administration, during good economic times and bad, one thing has remained constant—we’ve continued to invest in New York City’s future,” Mayor Bloomberg said. “Efforts like this one are what make city government effective and are yet another example of how, in contrast to places like Washington where people from opposing parties or ideas cannot get anything accomplished, here in New York City, we can work together to what is right for our city.” Oh snap.

The plan is a welcome boost to the city's construction sector, which has seen a decline of nearly 20,000 jobs over the last four years. By expediting the start of some of these proposed projects, the city hopes to take advantage low construction costs saving, more than $200 million over the life of the bonds. It is expected to create an estimated 8,000 jobs.

The construction industry is already eager for the work to begin. “The Building and Construction Trades Council applauds today's announcement regarding the Capital Acceleration Plan,” Robert Barletta said in a release. “It's a creative way to keep our economy growing by putting construction workers and others to work while rebuilding our critical infrastructure.”

From underground parks to entirely new neighborhoods, Mayor Bloomberg and, as such, New York City really is all about the creative thinking these days. But pulling $1 billion in new financing from the ether is a neat trick that’s going to be hard to top. Like Jay Z said, “When your boy reach a billion it’s a wrap.”

Give us the money... or else. (MTA)

The MTA, nor its allies, will stand idly by as a state judge knocks down the payroll tax providing the transit agency nearly $2 billion a year in fund. Yesterday, they rallied at Grand Central Terminal to insist the tax does not conflict with the state constitution and they will be launching a vigorous appeals.

“For the eight and half million passengers who ride with us every single day, and for everybody in the New York metropolitan area, the transportation mobility tax is a key component of the transportation system that drives the economy of New York City, of Long Island and of our New York suburbs,” Mr. Lhota declared. “In fact, it drives the entire economy of the state of New York. Without the service that the MTA provides, New York would choke on its own traffic.”

This tariff required employers and self-employed individuals, located within the MTA’s 12-county region and who earned more than $50,000 per year, to set aside between 11 and 34 cents for every $100 in payroll costs. Governor Cuomo already signed legislation on December 12, 2011, revising the Mobility Tax structure by exempting or reducing some categories of taxpayers who had been paying the 0.34% rate. However, to compensate for the reduction in funding, the State agreed to make the MTA whole with direct payments.

If Wednesday’s court ruling stands, the MTA will lose $1.8 billion dollars of its budget, which is 15 percent of its total annual revenue.

“We’ve created a concentration of people and jobs that simply cannot exist without the public transportation system that the MTA provides,” added Robert D. Yaro, President of Regional Plan Association. “We simply cannot afford to pull the economic legs out from under the MTA.”

The State Legislature passed the tax in 2009. Upon taking office in 2010, Nassau County Executive Edward Mangano,  initiated a lawsuit to challenge the MTA’s payroll tax. The court ruling sympathized with the residents of Nassau County who were “unfairly burdened” by the tax. Nassau County alone has paid nearly $10 million in MTA Payroll taxes since the law went into effect.

“The bill is unconstitutional because it appropriates public monies for a local purpose,” the court ruling found. “And that it is unconstitutional for imposing liability onto political subdivisions for the debt of a public corporation.” Furthermore, the MTA must be “self-sustaining” under Public Authorities Law section 1266(3).

Mr. Mangano declared victory for taxpayers and job creators throughout the New York State.

“This is a great victory for every taxpayer and tax relief as the Supreme Court decision buries the job killing payroll tax,” Mr. Mangano rejoiced. “This success sends a strong message to job creators that we will not allow residents to be nickeled and dimed to the poor house nor will we allow job killing taxes to go unchallenged. This is a historic victory for tax relief and tax reform.”

Four similar lawsuits have been overturned, a fact the MTA hopes will eventually play out in this case.

Denise Richardson, director of the General Contractors Association, was keen to point out that this may be a hollow triumph. “To every elected official cheering this ruling, I have one simple question,” Ms. Richardson retorted. “Will your constituents support you when they realise that you put their jobs, their families, their quality of life and their communities at risk?”

Mr. Lhota was confident that the court ruling would be overturned.

“I am optimistic that we will prevail,” he simply said. Mr. Mangano declined to comment on whether he thought the MTA would be successful in this endeavor.

(Flickr/jphilipg)

Earmarks! Even when Congress won't spend them, the government will.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood announced today that the Department of Transportation will return $473 million in unspent highway earmarks to the states for projects to improve infrastructure and create jobs.

“These idle earmarks have sat on the shelf as our infrastructure continued to age and our construction workers sat on the sidelines,” Mr. LaHood said. “That ends today.”

“We can’t wait any longer,” he insisted. Every state, with the exception of Wyoming, along with Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico will receive the previously unspent funds immediately. The states must identify the projects they plan to use the funds for by October 1, and obligate them by December 31—“use it or lose it” in the words of the department.

The U.S. DOT will return unspent earmarks from between 2003 and 2006 to each state, and it looks like New York should receive close to $30 million—more than any state except for Texas, California and Alabama. When asked by Mr. LaHood whether the earmarks were unspent because of political intransigence or grandstanding on Capital Hill, the Transportation secretary demurred. This is about creating jobs, not debating politics, he said.

Mr. LaHood emphasized the large degree of flexibility the states will have in determining how to spend the funds. “It’s not complicated,” he said, explaining that the main criteria the DOT would use when approving projects is that they be “shovel-ready.”

This approach has drawn criticism from some infrastructure experts who say that shovel-ready projects are not always the most essential or impactful kind, but when the issue (during a tough election year) is job creation, that appears to be the direction the administration is focused on. Given the deadlines, any jobs are not likely to be created until next year, however.

“We have to sign off on the projects, but we’re not going to take forever. We’re going to work with states to make sure this money can get spent,” he said, confidently predicting that the money would enable the states to create thousands of jobs.

Just build it. (AP)

Last year, The Observer lamented an infrastructural ambivalence on the part of governors on both sides of the Hudson, and wondered if the great states of New York and New Jersey had not finally given up the ghost of shovels in the ground begun grandly, if problematically, by Robert Moses nearly a century ago.

Governor Andrew Cuomo assuaged some of those fears with his grand visions for investment premiered at this year’s state of the state. While those proposal have been met with sometimes mixed reviews—Really, another casino? Will an Aqueduct convention center work? Where’s the mass transit?—it has at least restored some faith in the govenor’s willingness to build.

Yesterday, Governor Cuomo announced the 15-member board of a new infrastructure bank, and in so doing, invoked the name of Robert Moses, both grandly and problematically.

The governor has made a point of expediting desperately needed infrastructure investments, which has done much to get languishing projects moving but may also undercut the publics wishes for what these projects should be. This caused the Times-Union’s Jimmy Vielkind to ask how Governor Cuomo could avoid “the ramrod” employed by Moses to get his projects through.

There are ways for government to get things done without using a ramrod, obviously. Your characterization, that Mr. Moses used a ramrod, other people would disagree with that characterization, but it’s yours. My point is that government can function efficiently and effectively, I said with due process, with an open process, with consultation. But the consultation and the process shouldn’t be paralyzing. You know, government needs to work, society needs to be able to replace a bridge.

Talk about it, discuss it, analyze it, argue it. Look at different styles, look at different financing options, but ultimately, you have to decide if you’re going to get anything done.

As the gang as Streetsblog, chroniclers of all things Tappen Zee, point out, this attitude could present problems for transit advocates and neighborhood advocates the state over.

So if you think the Cross-Bronx, Sheridan, Bruckner and Major Deegan Expressways reinvigorated the South Bronx; if you think the Bronx-Whitestone Bridge is better off without its once-proposed inter-borough transit connection; if you still shake your head at those in Greenwich Village who had the nerve to speak up against a freeway through downtown, then you’ll love Andrew Cuomo’s transit-free Tappan Zee Bridge.

On the other hand, Robert Moses has undergone a serious rehabilitation campaign in the past decade—New York wouldn't be what it is without him, for better and worse! his new backers cry. And it is quite true, much of the state is in a state of disrepair, desperate for investment. But as the past has shown, the wrong kind of investment can be just bad as none at all.

Beware the ramrod.

mchaban [at] observer.com | @MC_NYC