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Let Our Cities Move (by Bill DeBlasio and Mick Cornett)
The New York Times ^ | May 13, 2015 | Bill DeBlasio and Mick Cornett

Posted on 05/13/2015 10:46:59 AM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks

EVERY day, millions of Americans rely on a remarkable network of roads, bridges, subways, trains and buses to connect us to work, school and opportunity. But our transportation system, once the envy of the world, is in jeopardy.

In New York City, subways and buses are overcrowded and often unreliable, and roadways and bridges are in dire need of repair and rehabilitation. From the next phase of the Second Avenue subway to plans to connect the Metro-North Railroad to Pennsylvania Station, to the proposed new subway line under Utica Avenue in Brooklyn, there isn’t a short- or long-term expansion project that isn’t dependent on federal funding.

In Oklahoma City, highway bridges are failing, city and state roads are unable to keep up with the region’s growth, and the bus system struggles to meet demands. Just last week in Oklahoma City, the state Transportation Commission declared an emergency after learning that more than half of the piers supporting a heavily trafficked bridge on an Interstate had been damaged by salt and weather.

The federal government sets transit and highway policies and funding levels for the country through the surface transportation authorization laws, generally in six-year cycles. But since 2009, Congress has funded transportation through a dozen short-term measures, ranging from one week to two years. On May 31, the current transportation authorization bill — the Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act of 2012, or MAP-21 — is set to expire. Shortly thereafter, the Highway Trust Fund, which invests about $50 billion annually, will run out of money to cover the federal share of urgently needed roadway, bridge and transit projects in cities and states across the country.

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Constitution/Conservatism; Editorial; Government; News/Current Events; Philosophy; US: New York; US: Oklahoma
KEYWORDS: billdeblasio; bridges; cities; funding; highways; infrastructure; mickcornett; nyc; oklahomacity; roads; spending; taxation; transit; transportation
Myself, I prefer the Transportation Freedom Act, which reduces the federal gas tax to 3.7 cents per gallon and devolves most transportation responsibilities back to the states.
1 posted on 05/13/2015 10:46:59 AM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks

Force the public union into 401ks and have them pay for some of their health care...

The trillions that are freed up will be more than enough to fix the infrastructure.

Without reforms to public unions - it is all a rat hole and no amount of money will fix the infrastructure or schools.


2 posted on 05/13/2015 10:49:59 AM PDT by 2banana (My common ground with terrorists - they want to die for islam and we want to kill them)
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks
"devolves most transportation responsibilities back to the states".

Why government, let free enterprise develop the solution. That would actually work!!!

3 posted on 05/13/2015 10:50:03 AM PDT by rhubarbk ( Cruz/Walker 2016)
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks

I’m in favor of personal transportation from walking through skateboards and bicycles and then motorcycles, cars, SUVs and Motor-homes.


4 posted on 05/13/2015 10:50:04 AM PDT by Paladin2
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks

“Comrades! Communism will bring us prosperity and freedom! Just give us all of your wealth and property.”


5 posted on 05/13/2015 10:50:12 AM PDT by Dr. Thorne (The night is far spent, the day is at hand.- Romans 13:12)
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks

I recall reviewing the renovation of a university campus building. The tour guide commented on how hard it was to get money for the project: “everybody wants to pay for a new building, nobody wants to put money into an old one.”

Same thing with national infrastructure. Building roads/bridges/rails/etc is exciting and is easily funded. Once up, nobody wants to forego more such projects in favor of maintaining what’s in place and aging.


6 posted on 05/13/2015 10:51:28 AM PDT by ctdonath2 (Hillary:polarizing/calculating/disingenuous/insincere/ambitious/inevitable/entitled/overconfident/se)
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks
I am in favor of cordoning off NYC and blocking exit from or entrance into that cesspool.

Or, excise it and declare it a foreign country, hostile to the USA.

7 posted on 05/13/2015 11:05:04 AM PDT by doorgunner69
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks

I thought Congress gave states money for road management and repairs?
I thought many states in turn took their road money and spent it on welfare crappola instead???


8 posted on 05/13/2015 11:08:13 AM PDT by Joe Boucher ( Obammy is a lie, a mooselimb and pond scum.)
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks

Authorities: Group Of Teen Subway Vandals Could Pose Serious Threat To Straphanger Safety (NYC)
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3289262/posts


9 posted on 05/13/2015 11:19:15 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet (You can help: https://donate.tedcruz.org/c/FBTX0095/)
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks

New York has been moving.

To Florida. One person at a time. For decades.


10 posted on 05/13/2015 11:47:05 AM PDT by Buckeye McFrog
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To: ctdonath2

Wrong......

In Tennessee the public bridges are regularly inspected and when needed, repairs or replacements are accomplished. Interstate highways are regularly repaved in ten to 15 mile segments on a regular schedule.

There is a problem with some Portland cement concrete roadways with heavily deteriorating expansion joints.

Our politicians have not robbed the road maintenance funds for other purposes.


11 posted on 05/13/2015 11:54:29 AM PDT by bert ((K.E.; N.P.; GOPc.;+12, 73, ..... No peace? then no peace!)
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks

I would be happy to move everyone in each of our ten largest cities to Kabul, Afghanistan. It would solve a lot of our problems and the Afghanis would likely not even notice the thugs we placed among them.


12 posted on 05/13/2015 12:13:01 PM PDT by MIchaelTArchangel
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To: rhubarbk

The private sector certainly has a role to play in transportation. Most mass transit systems used to be private.


13 posted on 05/13/2015 12:41:41 PM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks (Brian Moore was an exemplary cop. Let his conduct be the example for Baltimore police to follow.)
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To: doorgunner69
I am in favor of cordoning off NYC and blocking exit from or entrance into that cesspool.

Mental image of Snake Plissken.

14 posted on 05/13/2015 12:47:48 PM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks (Brian Moore was an exemplary cop. Let his conduct be the example for Baltimore police to follow.)
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks

......and devolves most transportation responsibilities back to the states.
*******************************
ALL FOR THAT ,, I am more than tired of having crybaby states like NY take all of my gas tax money for their stinking subways that they can’t even be bothered to maintain. There is no reason to take my money , send it to DC and return it to me minus the haircut... If NYC and California want their trains let them pay for it. Too bad Biden wasn’t on the NY==>DC train.


15 posted on 05/13/2015 1:55:54 PM PDT by Neidermeyer ("Our courts should not be collection agencies for crooks." — John Waihee, Governor of Hawaii, 1986-)
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks

“Give more money to my union buddies!!”


16 posted on 05/13/2015 4:54:35 PM PDT by Impy (They pull a knife, you pull a gun. That's the CHICAGO WAY, and that's how you beat the rats!)
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks

bump that!


17 posted on 05/13/2015 6:00:41 PM PDT by BenLurkin (The above is not a statement of fact. It is either satire or opinion. Or both.)
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