Source: Antonio Martínez López / Flickr
Whether by car, bus or subway, getting around in New York City is about to become a little more expensive.
The MTA Board approved the agency’s 2013 budget this morning, which included a set of mass transit, bridge and toll hikes across the metropolitan region.
Find out what the new rates are, and how the MTA’s budget is looking overall.
Source: wallyg via Flickr
Tomorrow, the board of the MTA will cast their votes on raising tolls on the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge to a whopping $15 – and local pols are fuming.
State Senator Marty Golden, Congressman Michael Grimm and Assemblywoman Nicole Malliotakis issued a joint statement to the board and its chairman, Joe Lhota, urging them to kill the proposal and grant Brooklynites and Staten Islanders a measure of economic relief.
The statement follows a letter sent by the trio on December 13. In it, they wrote:
This proposal will hit the pockets of all New Yorkers who traverse the Verrazano Bridge for the purposes of work, shopping, medical care, family visits, and more. It is just unacceptable that the most expensive bridge in the world, already at $13, has the potential to become more expensive.
… In these difficult economic times, the last thing New Yorkers need is the burden of additional travel expenses. The proposal now before the MTA will further strain the budgets of millions of New York’s families and cause a loss of revenue for countless businesses. This proposal is not only misguided, it is something New Yorkers are not willing to accept.
The current proposal calls for raising the toll $2, from $13 to $15. The increase would be $1.06 for those with E-Z Pass.
The three Republican legislators are not alone. Last month, Democratic Councilman Vincent Gentile stood before the board at its November 28 hearing and blasted the plan. He also demanded that the MTA extend the discount they give to Staten Island residents to Brooklyn residents as well.
Source: Rruss via Wikimedia Commons
Late Sunday afternoon, a man was found by the NYPD Harbor Unit in the waters below the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge. Except, unlike the recent and tragic stories of those who jumped the 228 feet, this man was found alive.
“He was in critical condition but alive,” U.S. Coast Guard spokesman Charles Rowe said to the Staten Island Advance.
The man was seen getting out of his car on and then jumping from the Upper Level section of the bridge. NYPD searched the waters for him, and pulled him out alive. He was taken to Staten Island University Hospital for care.
According to the Advance, there were eight suicide attempts since last December. Three of those were stopped.
The alarming numbers has caused the MTA to install signage which reads “Life is worth living,” along with suicide prevention telephones that connect to a suicide prevention service.
When a distraught man was threatening to jump from the ledge of the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge on July 23, it took the quick thinking and compassion of two police officers, who spoke the man’s native Cantonese, to talk him out of ending his life.
Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority Officer Eddie Fung and NYPD Officer Yi Huang were the two men responsible for preventing the suicide. The officers, along with the distraught man, were all born in Hong Kong.
Unfortunately, after the harrowing incident, the officers’ identities were mixed-up and officials were unable to determine which officer was to receive accolades for the heroic deed. Turns out, it was the help of both that saved a life.
During the four-hour ordeal, Fung started the conversation with the jumper, and after a few hours Huang took over.
“At the beginning he ignored me, he was not responding,” said Fung to the New York Daily News. “After an hour, he said he had family and financial problems. He loved his daughter very much, so I focused on her.”
After about 2 p.m., Huang got there.
You don’t realize how tiring it is,” Huang said of conversing at the top of his lungs. “I relieved Eddie.”
Earlier this month, Officer Huang was honored by the City Council with a ceremony.
“Today we honor Officer Yi Huang for going above and beyond the call of duty,” Councilman Vincent Gentile said to the Brooklyn Eagle. “Officer Huang reminds us all why the New York City Police Department truly is New York’s Finest.”
Perhaps Fung is next in line for a ceremony for his contributions as well.
Source: YouTube
Every major media outlet reported that it was Officer Yi Huang who talked a distraught man from the ledge of the Verrazano Bridge in his native Cantonese.
Only that isn’t the real story. Sure, Huang was there, but it was not Huang whose tight bond with the despondent man dramatically changed the course of the events.
Eddie Fung, an MTA Bridge and Tunnel officer, was the man responsible for talking the suicidal jumper down. He was one of the first to arrive on the scene.
Fung spent hours communicating with the jumper about their common birthplace, the future of their children and a host of other intimate stories. Huang arrived hours later.
When the nightmare came to an end, it was Fung who rode in the ambulance with the jumper to the hospital.
According to the Huffington Post, it is NYPD’s Public Information office that is to blame for the misnomer. The releases praised Huang without any credit given to Fung.
The good news is that some of the police officers who were also present during the rescue noted the inaccuracies and went personally to thank Hung for his hard work.
The better news is that, now, the right man has been named and thanked.
A distraught man was talked down from the ledge of the Verrazano Bridge earlier this week.
The hero cop who saved his life spoke to him in his native Cantonese and shared personal stories. The two formed a bond and eventually, the suicidal man changed his mind.
This video shows the amazing rescue and the graciousness of Officer Yi Huang.
Congrats are in order for the courageous cop and the team that saved a father and husband from certain death.
Source: Rruss via Wikimedia Commons
In what seems to be a continuous string of Verrazano Bridge suicides, another attempt was made Monday afternoon.
A Brooklyn man had four-hour standoff with officers as he threatened to jump. He had gotten out of his car on the Staten Island-bound upper level and clung to the bridge cable.
A Cantonese interpreter, Officer Yi Huang from the Fifth Precinct in Manhattan, was brought in to help communicate with the suicidal man.
The two slowly began to build a bond over the place of their birth, Taishan village in China, and several other commonalities.
The officer gathered that the man had “a tremendous amount of personal issues,” according to the New York Post.
The two then discussed their problems. The distraught man spoke of financial troubles and difficulty with his daughter. The officer responded by telling the man of his own home life and assuring him that attending his daughter’s wedding in the future is something he wouldn’t want to miss.
At 4:30 p.m. the man came off the ledge, to the relief of the officer and other rescuers on the scene. He was taken to Staten Island University Hospital North for evaluation.
The Staten Island-bound upper level was closed for the entire duration of the rescue and traffic in both directions was considerably backed up.
"Settle down, boys, or I swear I will pull this car over!"
Following our post yesterday about toll relief on the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge and the who-said-what-first sniping that’s popped up between State Senator Marty Golden, his Democratic opponent Andrew Gounardes, and Councilman Vincent Gentile (who, it appears, actually said it first), Republican Assemblywoman Nicole Malliotakis rang in today with her own bit of mischievousness.
“If the three of them could get along, maybe they can get a carpool discount,” she told Bensonhurst Bean.
Regardless of the discount, we would love to have a seat in that car, too. The exchanges would have to be better than whatever cruddy reality shows are coming out of Brooklyn these days (we’re looking at you, Brooklyn, 11223).
Jokes aside, Malliotakis also took issue with Gounardes’ assertion that “Golden is asleep at the wheel” when he failed to fight for Brooklyn drivers to be included as part of the three-bridge deal in Staten Island.
“We made sure when we did get that deal for the three bridges that it would also extend into Brooklyn,” Malliotakis said. “When he sent out this release saying that Staten Island is getting it and Brooklyn is not, he’s actually wrong.”
Under the deal, which Malliotakis and other legislators announced this month, the toll for enrolled E-Z Pass users with non-commercial plates shall be $4.75 per trip after three trips are completed within a calendar month at the Goethals Bridge, Outerbridge Crossing and/or the Bayonne Bridge. The change should take effect by September at the latest.
Golden, Gentile and Malliotakis were all among the local elected officials who asked the governor to extend the deal to Brooklynites after it was first announced for Staten Island.
All three, and Gounardes, are now demanding a similar deal for the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge.
Source: Ibagli via Wikimedia Commons
Drivers will get across the Verrazano Bridge faster after the MTA completes work on its overhaul of the upper level, which includes installing a high-occupancy vehicle lane for cars and buses.
The HOV lane is set to be built on the upper deck of the Verrazano Bridge. It is the first HOV lane across any of the MTA’s bridges and tunnels and will be complete sometime in 2017.
The lane will be used to lighten traffic loads for cars heading to Brooklyn in the morning and for cars heading to Staten Island during the evening rush hours, according to the New York Daily News.
Work on the HOV lane will begin next year. The bulk of the project relates to eliminating walkways and the center median for the HOV lane and replacing the upper-level deck. During construction, six lanes will be open on both levels for cars driving during rush-hour peak times. The approximate cost of the project is nearly $350 million.
Officials estimate that the new lane could save drivers 15 minutes between Staten Island and Brooklyn or lower Manhattan.
“This will be the first HOV lane across any of the MTA’s bridges and tunnels and will include a new ramp just off the Brooklyn approach that will directly connect to the Gowanus HOV lane. This means that the HOV lane on the Staten Island Expressway will stretch from Richmond Avenue just off the Goethals Bridge, across the Verrazano and onto the Gowanus HOV lane all the way to the Battery Tunnel, giving HOV drivers and buses a continuous HOV lane across two boroughs for the first time,” said Judie Glave, a spokesperson for New York City Bridges and Tunnels, according to the Home Reporter.
(via Bay Ridge Odyssey.)
Kaylie. Photo via Michael Saratovsky
The Space Shuttle Enterprise, which was last seen flying over the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge on the back of an airplane, has come back.
The shuttle is on its final leg of a journey from the Smithsonian Museum in Washington D.C. to the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum in New York.
The Enterprise has been parked at John F. Kennedy Airport since it arrived atop a modified Boeing 747 from Washington. On Sunday, the shuttle made its way across New York Harbor to Port Elizabeth, N.J. It passed under the Verrazano bridge along the way.
On June 5, the shuttle will travel up the Hudson River and complete its trip to the Intrepid Museum where it will finally be open to the public starting July 19.
Local reader Michael Saratovsky was with his young daughter Kaylie in Belle Harbor, NY and snapped these photos of the shuttle making it’s way across the waters.
