Publisher's Letter
Motorhead Mayor

An optimist might believe that "reinventing government" from a transportation angle would mean a new policy stressing co-effectiveness, fairness and pragmatism. It would improve the quality of life while increasing travel options for New York City residents. A less cheery interpretation might see "reinventing" as a rhetorical smokescreen for the delivery of traditional political goods to car-dependent constituencies; in Queens, southern Brooklyn and Staten Island.

So far, all the evidence buoys the latter view. It was shown in sharpest relief in Giuliani's revival of Staten Island ferry car access in March, running over the better instincts of Transportation Commissioner Lee Sander in the process. But the problem runs deeper than a symbolic hand-out to Staten Island. The Administration's proposed contributions to the Transit Authority's operating and capital budgets are the lowest in recent history, while spending on road and street work continues to climb. The City DOT is helping the State widen the Staten Island Expressway so that even more cars and trucks will be dumped into gridlocked west Brooklyn. Pro-pedestrian and bicycling projects are being starved for funds. The NYPD maintains a deaf ear to pleas to control deadly traffic chaos. And even though he found the money for a new car-friendly Whitehall ferry terminal and will cough up for expensive new car-carrying boats, Giuliani can't find the money to get the 42nd Street light rail project moving

But the worst transgression of the "reinventing" message is the Mayor's refusal to scissor the City-owned cars assigned to thousands of NYC employees. As we daily confront new figures for proposed layoffs, has City

Hall asked how many jobs could be saved if the City cut back on its cars and drivers? Shouldn't government decision makers experience transportation in New York the same way most other people do?

Mayor Giuliani and his transportation policy are classic sufferers of elitist "windshield perspective." We think you should call or write and ask him how reinforcing car dependence, tossing transit aside and using taxpayer dollars to underwrite gratuitous public sector driving adds up to anything more than dead-end business as usual.

-Jon Orcutt, Executive Director, Transportation Alternatives

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