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MTA Escalator under water at South Ferry
Today is supposed to be a “back to normal” day in New York City, with businesses reopening, along with the stock exchange. But with most transit points closed, the city must be a complete nightmare to navigate today.
The MTA subway system continues to be closed, but so are the PATH, Long Island Railroad, Amtrak and New Jersey Transit rail lines into the city, with tunnels to Manhattan still flooded. The Holland Tunnel and Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel are still closed, with the Lincoln Tunnel the only major tunnel open for autos. The MTA has free but limited bus service back on track, and most ferries and bridges are open.
But what happens if you manage to get a car into New York City? The city is not built to withstand parking for the swell of cars who have no other option. Lots are usually $40 a day, which is enough of a problem. But the anecdotal reports I’m hearing is that they, along with street parking, are all full. There’s just nowhere to put your car.
I don’t think people living in other parts of the country appreciate exactly how vital public transit is to the functioning of New York City. My dad took New Jersey Transit in from Trenton station, about 70 miles or so away, every day for 15 years. Vast amounts of people commute in from as far as the Philadelphia suburbs and all over New Jersey, Long Island and Connecticut. They have no way to do it today. And there’s no timetable for when those transit spokes will re-open. Mayor Bloomberg said “a couple days” and when he did, it sounded like a contractor saying the house will get done in “a couple weeks.”
This is what Marcy Wheeler’s talking about when she describes Superstorm Sandy’s “teachable moment” on infrastructure. Without durable infrastructure built to withstand the expected massive storms we’re going to see in a post-climate change world, cities like New York will simply shut down, causing massive economic dislocation and residual suffering, more than just the $25 billion in direct damage from the storm (a preliminary estimate). Moreover, it’s completely unclear where the money will come from in the case of the MTA, a self-insured institution.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo is talking about a levee system, or barriers or sea gates. And it’s a long overdue conversation. The city’s vulnerabilities have been laid bare. And this impacts a giant stretch of the East Coast, a non-trivial percentage of the US population.
The time for talking in isolation about preventing the effects of climate change have ended. We’re in the era of adaptation.
Image by MTAPhotos under Creative Commons license
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that sandy storm was government issued.
I don’t think people living in other parts of the country appreciate exactly how vital public transit is to the functioning of New York City.
That’s okay. People living inside New York City don’t appreciate just how vital the rest of the country is to its functioning.
Actually, we should be in the era of replacing capitalism with participatory economics (parecon). But the coordinator class still doesn’t want to see itself.
Our hearts go out to Americans in the Northeast affected by Hurricane-Superstorm Sandy.
It is time for us to deal with the solution to the problem so this Groundhog Day disaster after disaster scenario can go away.
Bitter much about something? Geez . . .
Well, at least he didn’t call them a bunch of icky Jews and Negroes and Hispanics and such. He did restrain himself that much.
It will be like sci fi to watch as our coastal cities adapt and well, in some cases, are abandonded . . . due to science and mama nature.
Thanks for the update Mr. Dayen.
Has that tone about him, yes . . .
Bloomberg, last I’d heard, is telling most folks to stay home so the city workers can come in and get the subway and the power stations up and running.
By the way, the best places to follow what’s up are FDNY’s Twitter account (@FDNY) and http://www.nyc.gov.
Eric likes to leave a mess whever he goes. Saw him squirting another turd over at nakedcapitalism this AM.
Do not Feed.*g*
Thanks for the update. I actually listened to National Propoganda Radio a bit yesterday, as I was driving a lot.
I never ever ever ever heard even ONE word abotu climate change and how this Sandy Storm with resultant major rising of water is caused by this.
All I ever hear from my rightwing fundie family members is just how great it is to have warmer winters on the Eastern seaboard.
I heard about the pounding that the Jersey shore took. Lots of small businesses will go out of busines, but hey? Who cares? Winter is warm. Good stuff.
Nary a word on NPR about effects of climate change, much less what to do in response. ptoui!
I’m not familiar with Eric Patton, so I don’t have the history you, PW and Larue have with him, but the point he makes in Comment #2 is a valid one (speaking as someone born in New York City and raised in the City (as it’s known to New Yorkers) and its close environs).
In this particular thread, the three of you are setting a tone I find unpleasant, whereas I don’t see anything objectionable that Eric has done.
I’m very interested in the topic and would like to keep reading the comments without feeling like there’s a self-appointed mafia ready to jump on valid comments because they have some history with the commenter.
Thanks for reading.
Pathetic humans…
You alter the very world you live on with machines of convenience, never heading the warnings.
Now with a vivid demonstration of your folly, you start to talk about “solutions”…and one of those solutions is…building a big wall around NYC.
Pathetic indeed. Go ahead, build your stupid wall. Like children at the beach, your wall will not slow the angry ocean you have cultivated.
“Lots of small businesses will go out of busines, but hey? “
Nothing the 1% likes better than a fire sale. Or should I say a flood sale.
“The time for talking in isolation about preventing the effects of climate change have ended.”
I still have never heard a viable “prevention ” plan.
It might be time to talk seriously about moving cities and homes away from the coasts. A simple you can’t build any new building within a 1/2 mile of any coast would be a good idea.
Just how big and expensive would such a system be if the the ocean levels keep rising and NY starts getting more hurricanes?
Mr. Patton wrote: “That’s okay. People living inside New York City don’t appreciate just how vital the rest of the country is to its functioning.” In my opinion, a perfectly reasonable thing to say in response to the suggestion that people outside the city just don’t know how life works there, an assumption that paints with a pretty wide brush, don’t you think? Indeed, Patton’s point – that NYC (I lived in Manhattan for 30 years, until 2 years ago when I finally left the scene of the crime) – that New Yorker’s think themselves exceptional, is a valid one. Is New York City a fabulous place? Undoubtedly. Is New York City also den of thieves who have robbed the middle class of trillions?
JClausen writes about squirting and messes and turds…
projection much?
Whose comment is stinking up the place more?
Subways should be replaced by elevated trains.
Bingo!
$25 billion damages total with only $5 to $10 billion of insured damages. Never mind the economic damage of how many people missing work? how many businesses are destroyed? Imagine what happens to the stock market as the insurance companies sell everything to start paying off insurance claims over the next few months.
I’m interested in how the self appointed “masters of the universe” are going to fix it all without that evil federal government interference? Its welfare and entitlement until it happens to you and then “wah wah” where’s the fed when we need them? Christie could not kiss butt any more now but he sang a different tune not long ago. Reminicient of Bobby Jindahl before big bad BP messed it up for him… Hurts when reality gets in the way of your narrative….
How the Repubs get more than 2% of the votes amazes me time after time. How the progressive wing does not own the Dems is beyond me also though…
The Construction Industry and the Mob are having a Mr Burns “Excellent” moment after this storm. The profits and graft from the projects to Adapt to the effects of GW will be huge.
The PTB are not really ignoring or denying GW they are quietly celebrating it and the huge profits it will bring.
adapting?
building seawalls, and moving cities?
How about, reducing carbon emissions? reducing consumption?
It probably would work better in the long run. And it’s actually probably easier to do than building giant sea walls, and moving cities.
Do it now.
True.
The PTB pump out the propoganda about how climate change/global warming is a “liberal hoax,” but when the crunch come, they’re all there shoving to the head of the line looking for the big Grift/Graft.
Make no mistake, it’s the 1% and other mob/gangster elements who’ll profit mightily from this and other similar “natural” disasters… all while corp owned rightwing propoganda wurlitzer keeps telling the dittoheads how govt should be shrunk to fit in a bath tub.
Much as they are gleeful about arctic sea ice disappearing.
wait till the tundra trapped greenhouse gases, and submerged methane get going.
Hurricane Sandy will look tame in comparison to what’s coming.
Building levess ain’t a fix. Just ask New Orleans. Sacramento CA is in serious danger of a huge levee break-down.
Who’s gonna fund levee’s like that?? Oh yeah, right: via a giant sucking honking tax BREAK for the 1%. Then the money for levee’s will just “trickle down”…. bogus.
Yes. Unfortunately. Hurricane Sandy is just the very tippy-top tip of the iceberg…
Talk about DENIAL.
I just found a fact.
One inch of rain falling on 1 acre of ground is equal to about 27,154 gallons and weighs about 113 tons.
Hard to imagine the weight of the sandy storm surge, and what humans can do to stop it next time.
I wonder how many businesses are thinking…rebuild or move…rebuild or move?
How many low wage workers are thinking the same thing? Will the big apple move north.
although, I thought I noticed a look of something like comprehension of the power of the storm, on, in the faces of some of these political leaders.
They actually appeared to be surprised, and maybe stunned. After all they are in complete denial as you say.
I doubt that will cause them to change what they do, still need oil campaign money.
The city’s up and running on surface transit–buses and taxis. And of course, many healthy people in Manhattan can walk to work if they have to. The Wall Street Journal’s blog Metropolis, of all places, has a good rundown of the transit system.
But–and here is something you seldom hear–the rail system has much more capacity than the bus system and, because the tunnels are shut down, the rails are shut down.
Maybe it’s time for another major bridge across the Hudson.
Considering the higher capacity of commuter rail over highways plus the added bonus of keeping additional cars out of the city, some folks used to think that an additional trans-Hudson tunnel would be a better idea than another bridge.
Of course as you can see at the link, some other folks used to disagree.
My thought also but it won’t be talked about.
Another fun fact: salt water weighs more than fresh water (8.55 lbs/gallon v. 8.34).
I think you realize that when the Uniparty talks about shrinking the Gov they mean Privatizing the profitable bits and Socializing the rest.
Just like the War part the Adapting part will be paid for with the other kind of levy.
Very well said. His comment was, or should have been, pretty uncontroversial.
I agree.
But outside of certain folks in Manhattan-usually transplants from other sections of the country-I’ve never found New Yorkers to be particularly “exceptionalist” about where they live.
I don’t think the comment in question gave them enough credit for that.