Results tagged “representativecarolynmaloney”

The city's medical examiner's office classified that a woman's death was due to dust from the World Trade Center wreckage dust. Staten Island resident Felicia Dunn-Jones, a lawyer for the U.S. Department of Education with a husband and two children, was covered in dust on September 11, 2001 from the first collapse. She later developed sarcoidosis and died on February 10, 2002. Chief Medical Examiner Charles Hirsch wrote in a letter, "It is likely, with certainty beyond a reasonable doubt, that exposure to WTC dust was harmful to [Ms. Dunn-Jones] ... and that exposure to World Trade Center Dust on 9/11/01 was contributory to her death. The manner of death will be changed from natural to homicide."

It's been 33 years since the last Second Avenue Subway groundbreaking, so it's high time for new generations of straphangers to revel in the hope of a new subway line. We also expect the public -- especially the Upper East Side-residing public -- to become jaded with construction delays, traffic issues, and noise. Here's the press release from the MTA:

Tomorrow morning's historic groundbreaking ceremony for the Second Avenue Subway can be seen by all New Yorkers live on NY1, beginning at 10:30 a.m. The groundbreaking ceremony will take place in one of the subway tunnels built under Second Ave. in the 1970s but never used. Due to the limited capacity of the tunnel, the MTA arranged for the live broadcast with NY1 and will open its board room at 347 Madison Avenue for members of the public to join MTA staff for a public viewing and celebration.

Continue reading "Second Avenue Subway Groundbreaking Day!"

Family members protested at Ground Zero, asking that Mayor Bloomberg involve the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC) in the renewed search for remains from September 11, 2001. Local politicians like Representative Carolyn Maloney and City Councilman Alan Gerson support the families, but Mayor Bloomberg feels it's the "city's responsibility. We're not going to walk away from our responsibility and let somebody else bear the pressure of the work." The families argue that in spite of the new search plans, the search needs more supervision and oversight.

After temporarily restricting airspace over the East River just after a small plane crashed into an East 72nd Street Building - and the restrictions were lifted shortly after the situation was under control - the Federal Aviation Admistration has decided to exlude all fixed wing aircraft from the East River corridor, excluding helicopters and seaplans. Airplane pilots must now get permission from air traffic control. Various politicians, from Governor Pataki to Senators Schumer and Clinton, asked for the FAA to restrict airspace, while Mayor Bloomberg thought that as long as the FAA thought the rules worked, so be it. The Mayor's office now says, “The mayor said he believes this decision should be left to the experts at the F.A.A., and he appreciates that they have acted swiftly."

The Federal Transit Administration has approved the first part of the Second Avenue subway, and the Post reports that it means the MTA can start using $1.3 billion (of the $5 billion it'll take to create the 63rd to 96th Streets part; $13 billion for an entire East Harlem to downtown Manhattan) for design and engineering. The quote the Post has from Representative Carolyn Maloney is "The wheels are turning on the Second Avenue subway project, that's for sure. This is another sign of the progress we're making," but Gothamist has to say the wheels are very, very slow - public hearings for the Second Avenue subway began back in 2003 (okay, we're impatient). We really doubt the 63rd-96th Street part will be done by 2012, as hoped, but what's cool is that the Q train will be connected to what we think may be the T line at 72nd, 86th and 96th Streets. In the end, the Second Avenue subway will be a good, if semi-Quoixotic experience - it'll make things like the 4/5 construction issues easier to bear, even if we'll be wearing orthopedic shoes by the time it's ready.