To The Editor:
You reported that one of the attendees at September’s transportation workshop, sponsored by the New York Metropolitan Transportation Council (NYMTC), attributed the low attendance to poor publicity.
That is not the reason. People are just tired of this ineffectual organization that wastes taxpayer money whose sole purpose is to give the illusion of public input into the transportation funding process.
In 2005, NYMTC concluded its Southern Brooklyn Transportation Investment Study, a comprehensive look at transportation issues and solutions facing this area during the next 25 years. The entire three-year study reached only two conclusions: (1) traffic in Southern Brooklyn will get increasingly worse and (2) new ferry services would be uneconomical to operate. That was it.
There were no recommendations for subway, bus, rail, highways, or goods movement, although all these subjects were painstakingly studied. The reason for this is that the agencies in charge, the MTA and NYC Department of Transportation refused to give their blessings to any of NYMTC’s preliminary recommendations that did cover these subjects.
Many of these preliminary recommendations originated with members of the communities and NYMTC was not willing to go to bat with these agencies to fight for them because they control NYMTC’s funding.
Several hundred community participants attended the early meetings for this study, but this number dwindled down to a number you could count with the fingers on one hand once it became evident that the study was nothing but a huge waste of time and money.
Now, NYMTC reverses the conclusion of its study stating that traffic in Brooklyn during the next 25 years will not be that bad after all. So what changed? Also, the City announced last year that new ferry services have or will begin shortly with two-year federal grants despite NYMTC’s negative conclusion regarding new ferry services.
So, perhaps others, like myself, who knew about the meeting for this workshop in advance, chose not to attend because we have been down this road before and will not be fooled again.
Allan Rosen
Manhattan Beach
