MTA Takes Credit for Money-Saving Idea from the TWU
Today's (November 15) AM New York carries a front-page story on "5 Cool Ideas to Improve Subways." Chief among those is an "idea" to put stores into Subway arcades where they can generate rent for NYCT. This of course was a centerpiece of TWU Local 100's "MTA Money Thrown Away" campaign two years ago -- that the MTA should fully utilize those underground spaces not just for retail tenants but also for office space for the Authority itself. The MTA ignored the campaign, and defends the money pit of 2 Broadway (lifetime lease cost: $2.3 billion) as a sound deal for taxpayers. Think of what it could save if it instead used the vast underground spaces, complete with HVAC and fiber optic lines, as its headquarters! Check out the campaign's website here.