Housing and Transportation Costs

This site offers some pretty nifty features (long load time though) that show housing and transportation costs as a percentage of income. Unsurprisingly, New York City's percentages are in the lowest category.

The Infrastructure Candidate

Take your pick:

The heart of Sen. Obama's spending program is his plan to spend $15 billion a year for 10 years on energy technology. It would be funded by revenue collected from a separate Obama proposal to cap greenhouse emissions through a system of trading pollution permits. Sen. Obama would auction those permits to producers of carbon dioxide, such as electric utilities, and figures the sales would yield about $100 billion a year. Most of that would go to consumers as rebates on utility bills, he said.

He also would fund an "infrastructure reinvestment bank" that would finance $60 billion in high-speed railways, improved energy grids and other projects over a decade. He would double spending on basic research, subsidize investment in high-speed Internet hook-ups, and offer $4,000 a year in tuition credits for students who later perform public services.

To "capture some of the nation's economic growth," he said in the interview, "and reinvest it in things we know have to be done like science, technology, research and fixing our energy policy, then that is actually going to spur productivity."

Sen. McCain argues for as little government spending as possible and paints his opponent as a liberal who would tax more, spend more and drive the country into deficit. He backs a cap-and-trade system that would be used to fund energy technology, but Mr. Holtz-Eakin said the scale would be far smaller than the Obama plan. And, Mr. Holtz-Eakin said, a "green technology fund is plain silly. Silicon Valley has piles of money devoted to clean technology."

Obama has a clear understanding of the issues and can move us forward. McCain doesn't understand what the internet is.

Hudson Yards Deal Inked

A joint venture of New York developer Related Cos. and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. has inked a deal to acquire the Hudson Yards, the largest undeveloped parcel of land in Manhattan.

The venture agreed to negotiate a 99-year lease to build atop an active rail yard on Manhattan's far west side. Over the term of the lease, the venture would pay slightly more than $1 billion in 2008 dollars, officials said. The deal comes despite a rapid slowdown in real estate development around the country, as the sluggish economy and the credit crunch weigh on the ability to finance construction.

Still, the pact is a coup for Related and its founder, Stephen M. Ross, who could end up presiding over a project that will take more than a decade to build and could generate substantial long-term profits. The Hudson Yards would include 13 buildings, including offices, apartments, hotels, shops and park space. There would be 12 million square feet of buildings, two million more than is planned for the rebuilt World Trade Center.

I'm glad this went through. It will no doubt take years and years before the land can be developed, but it will be great to actually utilize the space.

In another example of if you build it they will come, this should give more weight to extending the 7 train and building another tunnel connecting NY to NJ.

High Oil Prices are Good

High prices cause people to consume less oil. This means more of a push for renewable energy and less energy-intensive products and services:

Mass transit systems around the country are seeing standing-room-only crowds on bus lines where seats were once easy to come by. Parking lots at many bus and light rail stations are suddenly overflowing, with commuters in some towns risking a ticket or tow by parking on nearby grassy areas and in vacant lots.

“In almost every transit system I talk to, we’re seeing very high rates of growth the last few months,” said William W. Millar, president of the American Public Transportation Association.

“It’s very clear that a significant portion of the increase in transit use is directly caused by people who are looking for alternatives to paying $3.50 a gallon for gas.”

With any luck, higher prices will encourage investment in more infrastructure. Many people shun investment in public transportation because it is perceived to come with a steep price tag, and, because it serves the public, is something that a large majority of people have to agree to fund (or else their elected officials who make those decisions will soon find themselves out of work). Furthermore, with public transportation people have to give up a certain degree of control that comes with private transportation (i.e. you can buy the car you want and drive it to the exact location you want in privacy, comforts that you relinquish with public transportation). However, the cost of public transportation in both dollars and carbon footprint is vastly cheaper than the sum of private transportation, and it comes with so many related benefits.

Things are scarce. Being less wasteful and more efficient are good things. Let's hope voters and their elected officials seize the initiative and build some infrastructure.

Hudson Yards Bid Collapses

Tishman Speyer Properties LP's $1 billion offer to buy 26 acres known as Hudson Yards from the Metropolitan Transportation Authority collapsed, frustrating efforts to develop one of Manhattan's most underused tracts of land.

"Negotiations between the MTA and Tishman Speyer over the development of the rail yards on Manhattan's Far West Side reached an impasse,'' transit agency spokesman Jeremy Soffin said by e-mail late yesterday. The MTA considered the transaction unworkable after the developer proposed delaying payment until the city rezoned an adjacent parcel of rail yard to the west, he said.

It's too bad. We could really use that area developed.

Gas Tax Holiday

This is a senseless idea:

Hillary Rodham Clinton criticized Barack Obama on Monday for opposing proposals to suspend federal gas taxes this summer, a plan she and Republican John McCain have endorsed. Obama didn't take the bait. He ignored Clinton and focused on McCain.

...

Clinton said she would make up the lost revenue by imposing a "windfall profits tax" on oil companies.

"If we suspended it and made up the lost revenues, that's the best of both worlds," she said.

The federal revenue generated from the gas tax goes directly back into federal transportation programs that fund highway and mass transit infrastructure. It is foolish to take money out of that system to score political points. Furthermore, what's to prevent the oil companies from hiking their prices? Consumer demand for gasoline is inelastic in the short-term.

Even if she devised a way to funnel the recovered revenue back into federal highway program, Clinton's scheme would require a lot of effort and negotiation - good luck getting such a bill passed the obstructionist Republican minority, especially with their warm, fuzzy feelings for her.

However, these arguments ignore the greater issue at hand, which is funding our nation's infrastructure. Obama has called for investing in our greying infrastructure, while Clinton has been silent. Repealing the gas tax, even if only temporarily, will only encourage people to drive more at the expense of other, lower cost, environmental-friendlier, options.

Losing the Vehicle

Atrios comments.

The annual cost of owning a vehicle is over $6K, but I only pay ~$1K a year for access to public transportation. Then again, I probably make up the difference in the cost of living, but I still have access to much more. And of course there's the environmental boost.

Texas to Spend on Transmission Lines

Part and parcel with energy generation is the distribution of that energy to households and businesses. As renewable energy sources - such as wind and solar - come online, wires, pipes and more will have to be built to transmit that energy. Take Texas for example:

Texas likes getting energy from wind, but drawing that power from the middle of nowhere in West Texas to more populated regions is going to be expensive. Despite the hefty price tag, construction on new transmission lines should begin by the end of 2009.

The Public Utility Commission of Texas met today to discuss a report released last week by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), outlining the costs and possibilities for constructing the new lines. According to that report, the state could spend between $2.95 billion and $6.38 billion building new transmission lines.

Part of the problem is the sheer size of the state. Miles of wire and substations are required along the way. Another issue is the variability of wind power. It’s a complex issue and ERCOT looked at four different transmission strategies.

It's not going to be cheap, but it will be built. I'll also note the little jab about the understated costs of sprawl. Population density is a good thing.

Neglecting Our Tubes

This is bad:

Two hours north of New York City, a mile-long stream and a marsh the size of a football field have mysteriously formed along a country road. They are such a marvel that people come from miles around to drink the crystal-clear water, believing it is bubbling up from a hidden natural spring.

The truth is far less romantic: The water is coming from a cracked 70-year-old tunnel hundreds of feet below ground, scientists say.

The tunnel is leaking up to 36 million gallons a day as it carries drinking water from a reservoir to the big city. It is a powerful warning sign of a larger problem around the country: The infrastructure that delivers water to the nation's cities is badly aging and in need of repairs.

The Environmental Protection Agency says utilities will need to invest more than $277 billion over the next two decades on repairs and improvements to drinking water systems. Water industry engineers put the figure drastically higher, at about $480 billion.

Water utilities, largely managed by city governments, have never faced improvements of this magnitude before. And customers will have to bear the majority of the cost through rate increases, according to the American Water Works Association, an industry group.

Forget oil, water is our most important resource. Government and the media need to be all over this, yet it's an issue that doesn't even attract a bare minimum of attention.

Congestion Pricing Fails

Below is Bloomberg's statement:

“Today is a sad day for New Yorkers and a sad day for New York City. Not only won’t we see the realization of a plan that would have cut traffic, spurred our economy, reduced pollution and improved public health, we will also lose out on nearly $500 million annually for mass transit improvements and $354 million in immediate federal funds.

“I will be speaking with Secretary Peters and will express my thanks for her commitment to innovative solutions to real problems facing large cities today. I will also express my deep disappointment that, sadly, even Washington, which most Americans agree is completely dysfunctional, is more willing to try new approaches to longstanding problems than our elected officials in the State Assembly. It takes true leadership and courage to embrace new concepts and ideas and to be willing to try something. Unfortunately, both are lacking in the Assembly today.

“If that wasn’t shameful enough, it takes a special type of cowardice for elected officials to refuse to stand up and vote their conscience– on an issue that has been debated, and amended significantly to resolve many outstanding issues, for more than a year. Every New Yorker has a right to know if the person they send to Albany was for or against better transit and cleaner air. People know where I stood, and where members of the City Council stood. They deserved at least that from Albany.

“The idea for congestion pricing didn’t start in our Administration and it won’t end today. The $354 million we would have received from Washington tomorrow will go to another city in another state. But the problems congestion pricing could have helped solve are only going to get worse. And too many people from more than 170 environmental, labor, public health and business organizations recognize the merits of congestion pricing and hopefully someday, we will have more leaders in the Legislature who recognize it too.

“We will continue to push forward on the other 126 proposals in PlaNYC that will reduce our carbon footprint and green our City. We will move forward on proposals to plant 1 million trees, introduce hybrid taxis and install green roofs on City buildings. Congestion pricing is just one part of our ambitious agenda.

“I want to thank everyone who has worked tirelessly for congestion pricing and I want to acknowledge the courage and leadership that our partners in the City Council, Speaker Quinn, Governor Paterson, former Governor Spitzer, Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno, Assembly Minority Leader Jim Tedisco and some in the Legislature have shown by working together to convince their colleagues to support congestion pricing. Together, we will continue to work to build a greener, greater New York City.”

Expected, but still disappointing.

More Tunnels for New York City

The NYT has an article on a proposal for new tunnels running under the Hudson river to connect NY and NJ. Money excerpt:

The ARC tunnels are part of a larger tableau of civil projects that include the construction of the Second Avenue subway and the East Side Access project that will bring L.I.R.R. trains to a station adjacent to Grand Central Terminal. Some pundits have compared these days of large-scale projects to when master builders like Robert Moses reshaped New York’s landscape with aplomb.

But many of these projects were designed decades ago, when New York’s existing bridges, tunnels and rail lines had already reached capacity. In that light, many transportation officials view the ARC project as an urgent necessity, not unlike the first tunnels that were designed so riders could avoid crossing the Hudson by ferry.

“We’re still living off the past in many ways, and we have to think big again,” said Rae Zimmerman, the director of the Institute for Civil Infrastructure Systems at New York University. “But we also really have to keep up the level of service because these big projects can take 20 to 30 years to build.”

As more people want to move into an already dense urban space we need to build transportation systems so they can properly commute. Several of the city's subway lines are approaching full capacity and if there was an easier commute from elsewhere, it's a safe bet that people might decide to live in an area of NJ with good rail access.

Manhattan's Congestion Pricing Stalled

Mayor Bloomberg's congestion pricing plan passed a City Council vote a couple days ago, but now has to make it past the state government in Albany before it can be signed into law. As of now, things don't look good:

The plan to charge drivers $8 to enter Manhattan below 60th Street met with stiff resistance from Democrats in the State Assembly on Wednesday night, suggesting that Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg has a difficult path ahead of him to persuade lawmakers to pass the initiative.

Assembly Democrats, who were weighing in on the proposal for the first time since the City Council handed the mayor a major victory by approving it on Monday night, appeared to be leaning heavily against the plan.

I think congestion pricing is a wonderful idea (up there in awesomeness with salt water taffy). The funds collected from charging drivers will be used to maintain and build out new mass transit. First will be buses, which are easy to deploy, and then eventually new subway lines can be built.

Congestion pricing is an investment in mass transit, which comes at both a lower financial and carbon cost than automobiles. Mass transit also implies a certain level of population density, which comes with other benefits such as reduced sprawl.

Here's hoping the plan passes!

Infrastructure Definition

According to the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, infrastructure can be defined as:

1. the basic underlying framework or features of a system or organization.
2. the fundamental facilities and systems serving a country, city, or area, as transportation and communications systems, power plants, and schools.
3. the military installations of a country.
   

For the purposes of this blog I would like to focus on the second definition, as the first is too broad while the third is too specific and a little off topic. Even after cutting those two out, the second definition is still really huge! It is, however, concise and to the point. I plan on using most of the posts on this blog to discuss:

• Transportation
• Communications
• Energy & Utilities
• Public Institutions
  

This represents an enormous range of topics. Have I bit off more than I can chew? Probably, so any contributions in the form of discussion or links to interesting things are much appreciated!

As an aside, I live in New York City, so don't be surprised if several posts are devoted to New York.

Hello!

This blog is dedicated to infrastructure.

More coming soon!