Friday, June 20, 2025
MTA inventing new ways to fail with battery locomotives
For reasons apparent to no one the MTA, instead of either investing in electrification or using standard EMU technology, is paying Siemens to invent a battery powered locomotive. Truly bizarre.
There are multiple superior, proven train options that can handle the different types of electrification on PSA. Improving connectivity between Midtown West, the Bronx, and Southwestern Connecticut is only possible with the right trains, but battery locomotives will condemn new Bronx riders to slow, unsatisfactory service, and worsen existing service on the New Haven Line. Furthermore, the rationale for acquiring new trains is inscrutable, given that the MTA already purchased M8s for PSA.
Sunday, March 17, 2024
El Dorado West closed in 2017
Not exactly breaking news, but I was trying to go there and couldn't find it - I kept finding another El Dorado I had never known existed. Doing a little research, the family owned a mini-diner empire and got pushed out for a Honda service center. Very sad times.
Tuesday, March 21, 2023
New mutual bank for NE/NY argiculture
Always wanted to be part of a mutual.
A mutual is a company owned by its customers, depositors in this case. They'll be focusing on supporting farmers, etc in the local area.
If it opens its doors as planned in January 2022, Walden Mutual Bank will be the first new mutual bank charter in New Hampshire in a century and the country’s first new mutual charter in five decades.
A mutual is a company owned by its customers, depositors in this case. They'll be focusing on supporting farmers, etc in the local area.
Monday, February 08, 2021
Did the city get out of the fiscal crisis with hard work and grit?
Turns out, it was luck and inflation, that made their debts go away. Sad but true. Which doesn't bode well for the future.
Well that is what actually happened to allow the City of New York to recover from the 1970s. In a “real” sense it only paid half, or less, of its debt and pension obligations. Not by formally going bankrupt the way Detroit did. Not by the people in the room agreeing to get less than they had promised themselves. They agreed to get every dime, as noted.
The City of New York paid half and less by paying a fixed amount in dollars, as the value of the dollar fell by half from 1970 to 1980, as a result of inflation. The bondholders and pensioners of 1980 found that the big tax-exempt score they had made in 1960s and early 1970s had been cut in half. It would then fall further. As one can see by using the Consumer Price Index calculator from the Bureau of Labor Statistics,
Labels: history, local, New York
Monday, June 17, 2019
MTA, rent, all terrible
RIP being able to accomplish anything.
Friday, January 12, 2018
MTA construction costs, analyzed
For years, those watching the MTA have rung the alarm on the agency’s high construction costs. I’ve written about cost concerns and the ever-increasing budgets for big-ticket MTA capital projects for years, and I’m not alone. Alon Levy has, since this post in 2011, charted the absurd costs of U.S. rail construction in detailed comparisons with international peers, and Stephen Smith, via the @MarketUrbanism twitter feed, has beaten the cost drum. When challenged, MTA officials have acknowledged that construction costs, but no one has tackled the twin issues of cost transparency and cost control. No one, that is, until last week, when The Times ran a massive front-page story charting all the reasons why NYC transit construction are so high.Unsurprisingly, it's not because NYC is special, but because NYC is especially corrupt.
Labels: local, politics, trends
Wednesday, September 20, 2017
Diners, no more?
My favorite place to eat has been disappearing at an alarming rate, and it looks like it's going to continue to get worse, alas.
Friday, August 18, 2017
No more nuts
SP’s Nuts & Candy, the store at 166 Church that you probably know as We Are Nuts About Nuts, is closing at the end of July. Word has quietly been going around, and now owner Michael Yeo has posted a sign in the window. He told me a couple of months ago that the landlord didn’t seem to want him to renew, and he had no interest in trying to relocate.I went there when I worked in the financial district and thought it was excellent. Alas, probably another bank replacing it.
Tuesday, May 24, 2016
Where shall I eat now?
Papaya Dog was the spot of spots.
Monday, December 14, 2015
Support Rudy's
Free hot dogs with your beer, no money spent on furnishings since 1933. The best.
Monday, July 20, 2015
The Market Diner, soon to close
There's another one up the street, but it's not as good. Alas.
Monday, June 15, 2015
Sketchy sushi is no more
I ate at this deli many times during my brief tenure at NYU. Alas.
Tuesday, May 26, 2015
Bad restaurant reviews - Multi Tastes Diner
Inspired by the Slice Harvester's visit, I went to check out the weirdness and dragged along an exceptionally indulging lady. A slice of pizza, egg drop soup, and a pair of sandwiches, how could you go wrong? Pizza was decent, maybe 6/10. Soup was tasty but lukewarm. Sandwiches were very tasty, french fries were lukewarm. Coffee was good for a diner. Will be returning.
Just posted this on Yelp as well.
Just posted this on Yelp as well.
Tuesday, May 19, 2015
Another reason to run Jimmy Van Bramer out of office
As if I needed another one.
Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer, who allocated $750,000 of city funds toward the new center, said, “the borough of Queens is better and safer today because Planned Parenthood is here.”No, abortion is not really about hope. It's really about killing.
“This is one of the most beautiful buildings in my district,” he added. “It is so full of light, and air, and color, and it’s really all about hope.”
Labels: local, New York, news, politics, prolife
Wednesday, March 25, 2015
Another business getting screwed by the High Line
Sean sometimes thinks of going up on the High Line, after work, when the weather is nice. But he won't do it.My man.
"I boycott the High Line," he said. "I'll never go on it. After I've seen what it's done--and what it almost did to us."
Labels: economics, local, New York
Wednesday, February 04, 2015
Tunnels under the Pelham train station
Not the Metro-North one, but the NYNHH one. I know this isn't a train blog, but what the hey, it's right by where I used to live. Looks like that line's been there since 1873.
The Branch Line now serves freight and Amtrak trains. The commuter tunnel long since has been filled and closed. There seems to be no visible remnants of the tunnel, with one possible exception. Approximately where the tunnel stairs would have been entered, the curb along Manor Circle is cut away as if to allow easy access. This cutaway remains today.
Thursday, July 31, 2014
Vanishing bar update
Rodeo is no more, and the Ding Dong Lounge is gone tonight. I am running out of places to spend my time.
Labels: drink, local, New York
Thursday, July 03, 2014
Bereket closes
As another block of Houston gets lame. Never had a chance to run in there. Bah.
Thursday, May 29, 2014
RIP Suspenders
You were a fine bar. Another part of my time in the Financial District MIA.
Labels: drink, local, New York
Friday, January 10, 2014
Vanishing places to eat
Gray's Papaya is down to one location in NYC, after the one by NYU closed. And Cafe Mozart by Lincoln Center closed, leaving just the one in Westchester. I really am running out of places to eat. At least Cafe Reggio is still around.
