Checking In With Janno Lieber, The Official MTA Chair And CEO

Plus: The mayor supports the Pete Davidson-Colin Jost ferry club [FORWARD TO A FRIEND]( [VIEW IN BROWSER]( [DONATE]( [WNYC Politics Brief] Checking In With Janno Lieber, The No-Longer 'Acting' MTA Chair Plus: Last year saw the most subway assaults since 1997. The MTA wants its workers to focus more on transit, less on homeless outreach. And Eric Adams supports Pete Davidson and Colin Jost turning an old Staten Island Ferry boat into a club. By James Ramsay --------------------------------------------------------------- 🚆 --------------------------------------------------------------- [MTA Chair Janno Lieber stands at a construction site] Mary Altaffer/AP John "Janno" Lieber, the chair and CEO of the MTA, was [officially confirmed]( by the State Senate last week, after running the transit agency in the capacity of acting chair since last summer. Prior to his promotion, Lieber led the capital construction side of the agency, where he oversaw the L train tunnel repairs and the effort to bring LIRR service to Grand Central Terminal, among other projects. Today, he leads a subway system that's still seeing ridership numbers hover around half of their pre-pandemic levels, with commuter rail numbers closer to a third of what they were prior to the coronavirus outbreak. He's also managing the trains and buses at a time where a spike in certain crimes, along with a perception of high crime that's been driven by high-profile tragedies, is hindering a return to normalcy. [He spoke this morning with WNYC's Brian Lehrer]( for the first time in his capacity as the confirmed head of the MTA. Below are highlights from their conversation. On the continued problem of less-than-universal mask-wearing on the trains and buses: JL: We’re back up to a pretty high level — 97% mask compliance, according to our most recent survey. Listen, I ride a lot, it’s no secret that there’s frequently one person — it gets a little worse later at night — who is not wearing a mask. But the [overwhelming evidence]( is that mass transit has never been a vector of transmittal of COVID, and our riders … are expressing that it’s safe and it’s a good idea to ride mass transit. In response to a rider who said, "I’ve seen more homeless, aggressive homeless people, on the subway when I take my kids to school every morning. Sometimes they come up to you and it feels aggressive and dangerous. What steps are being taken towards a solution?" JL: They’re not adding to the number [of cops], but they’re moving police officers onto platforms and onto trains. A big step forward. Yesterday, having officers on platforms enabled a rider at Times Square to step off a train, tell an officer that he thought someone on the train had a gun, and the cops intervened and they arrested someone with a loaded 9 millimeter pistol. For mental health services, the state and the city said they’re going to bring more mental health professionals into the subways to reach people with mental health issues who are using the system as a hotel, or have nowhere else to go — to get them out of the system. That has not unfolded fully yet, but the commitment from the governor and the mayor is there. What you’re describing does need to change. On the call for barriers to prevent people from accidentally falling on tracks or being pushed on: JL: The MTA, long before [the Michelle Go incident]( had been studying this, because it’s a real idea. We looked at every station, we have a 3,000 page report analyzing the engineering at every station, and there are serious challenges to installing platform doors. We have three different subway systems that were combined historically, with different cars all over the system with doors in different places. Platforms in many places can’t support the additional load. And access for wheelchairs, because of platform width, is an issue. That said, we found 40 to 100 stations where platform doors are possible, and we’re now going to the next step to study how that can be done. On the importance of congestion pricing for the long-term financing of the MTA: JL: We need it — the money has been assigned to the capital program, which is what we use to buy new cars, create new lines, and so on. But it’s a good policy for a lot of reasons. We need vehicles in the central business district to be able to get around — buses, emergency vehicles, paratransit vehicles for people with disabilities. They can’t move around now because of congestion. We also need to deal with air quality, because of the impact on climate change. We’re on schedule to get the federally-required environmental review done by the end of 2022, and then we’ll be building it out and starting to charge tolls in 2023. --------------------------------------------------------------- 🚆 --------------------------------------------------------------- One Of NYC's First Substations That Helped Power The Original Subway Is Being Demolished [the exterior of the 1904-built substation on West 96th Street] Jen Chung/Gothamist A once-striking architectural example of form and function, the circa-1904 substation on West 96th Street, also known as Substation No. 14, will soon be torn down. This long-abandoned limestone structure was one of eight original substations that helped power the city's first subway line (the IRT Broadway line) before the modern power grid was put in place. In 1990, Substation No. 14 was finally taken offline. All eight of these substations, which featured Beaux-Arts facades that allowed them to blend into the surrounding architecture, went up during the nationwide City Beautiful movement, which came with the message that cities "should aspire to aesthetic value for their residents." According to the [New York Preservation Archive Project,]( the movement also "promoted the idea that beautifying the city is beneficial [and] spurred the creation of the Municipal Art Society in New York City." Once the substation is demolished, it's set to be replaced by a 23-story residential building, 40% of which will be dedicated to affordable units for seniors. — [Reporting by Jen Carlson]( --------------------------------------------------------------- 🚆 --------------------------------------------------------------- Here's What Else Is Happening The NYPD reported more subway assaults in 2021 than in any year since 1997. Last year saw 461 felony assaults in the subway system and eight homicides, the highest numbers seen since the police department started tracking this data. Mayor Eric Adams said the first day he took office that cops currently on desk duty would be reassigned to subway patrols. ([New York Post]( The MTA is asking other New York City agencies to step up and help with homeless outreach. "The amount of time and effort MTA staff puts into this issue far outweighs the efforts that they’re putting into transit at the moment, and that to me is a big red flag," MTA Chief Customer Officer Sarah Meyer said yesterday. While the transit agency is calling for more help, advocates for homeless New Yorkers say the MTA can do its part by doing things like opening public restrooms in subway stations so that the system doesn't feel as inhospitable to homeless riders. ([AM New York]( An attack on a subway operator in her cab earlier this month highlights some of the safety flaws putting workers at risk. Ty Jeter was working on a 6 train in the Bronx one night when a man at the Buhre Avenue station in the Bronx kicked in the door of her operator's cab, and when she went to call for help, she realized her intercom was broken. The MTA said that trains aren't allowed to leave the terminal if the P.A. isn't working, but the transit workers' union contends that faulty intercoms are a frequent problem. ([THE CITY]( Gov. Kathy Hochul's budget proposal includes key measures to ensure that drivers don't evade congestion pricing tolls. Her budget blueprint, which needs to be approved by the legislature, includes an amendment banning vehicle owners from obscuring their license plates. She also wants to make it a misdemeanor to falsely claim an exemption from the tolling program by lying about transporting a person with a disability. The tolling program, which was passed by the legislature in 2019, is expected to actually get up and running in 2023. ([Gothamist]( The full implementation of the OMNY tap-and-go pay system is 15 months behind schedule. All subway stations and buses have had OMNY readers in effect since January of 2021, but the MTA said that Metro-North and the Long Island Rail Road won't have the new payment system fully in place until the end of next year. The agency also said that subway riders who rely on autogates to enter the system, such as wheelchair users, are expected to be able to use OMNY starting November 1st. ([Gothamist]( --------------------------------------------------------------- 🚆 --------------------------------------------------------------- And Finally: The Guys Who Bought The Boat Have The Mayor's Blessing [Pete Davidson and Colin Jost on the SNL set] SNL/NBC Saturday Night Live stars Pete Davidson and Colin Jost, who recently purchased a decommissioned Staten Island Ferry boat for $280,100 at auction, already have one high-profile patron for their planned on-board "live entertainment space": noted clubber and New York City Mayor Eric Adams. "Pete, @ColinJost: I love this idea," Adams [tweeted]( last week. "What a great way to give an NYC icon a second life. Let us know how we can help and we’ll be there for the maiden voyage." Turning the nearly 60-year-old John F. Kennedy into a working venue won't be easy — the vessel was removed from service in August of 2021, and was listed as being in "poor" condition because of mechanical issues. For now, the boat will be towed to a local shipyard while Davidson, Jost, and a third partner seek a permanent location for it and figure out the upgrades it'll need. If and when they're ready to open for business, it at least appears that City Hall won't be standing in their way. — [Reporting by Ben Yakas]( --------------------------------------------------------------- 🚆 --------------------------------------------------------------- Support WNYC + Gothamist Make a donation to support local, independent journalism. Your contributions are our largest source of funding and pays for essential election coverage and more. [DONATE]( [Facebook]( [Facebook]( [Twitter]( [Twitter]( [Instagram]( [Instagram]( [WNYC]( [WQXR]( [NJPR]( [GOTHAMIST]( [WNYC STUDIOS]( [THE GREENE SPACE]( Copyright © New York Public Radio. 160 Varick Street, New York, NY 10013 All rights reserved. [Terms of Use.]( Want to change how you receive these emails? 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