Some transit advocates say expanded ferry service is not a good use of the city’s limited resources (Capital).
The intercity bus business is booming, but there’s little appetite for adding infrastructure to support it (City Lab).
A young German is on the Lower East Side, volunteering at Project Ezra, the non-profit that provides services to the elderly (The Jewish Week).
Getting to know Zephyr Benson, the director of the new film, “Straight Outta Tompkins.” (Indie Wire)
Extra Butter’s Reebok collab draws inspiration from the Halal Guys (Complex).
“The intercity bus business is booming” –just another reason why SPURA should have a bus terminal right next to the bridge – they get on and get out of the city asap.
Why waste very valuable real estate space on a huge bus station? The Chinatown bus operators would certainly not agree to use such a place as they much prefer the freedom ( and lack of fees) out on the streets.
Meanwhile, not to worry, gentrification will take care of all these awful illegal bus companies within a few years. What high-end businesses or luxury condo buildings will put up with hoards of bus passengers and polluting buses right outside their doors? The pressure will really be on the local politicians to then rid the area of this bus scourge!
Every bit of real estate on Manhattan is very valuable, so that shouldn’t stop a thing. This is the biggest open space on the island, so it’s even more the right place. And of course, bus operators will not like it, but they need to required to get off our streets and what better way than to give them a place just yards from the bridge. This will cut down on cars and get passengers off the island asap.
And thinking that gentrification will fix the problem is beyond naive. but even if it does happen, it will not be in a few years, but a few decades. The point of a bus station is to get the hoards of riders in-doors and off our sidewalks. We need to stop buses from idling under our windows and circling our blocks, which will cut down on pollution more than anything else.
Clearly, you have more faith in local politicians than I do, they feel no pressure here, but all any gentrification will do is move the bus stops around to different locations and spread the annoyance around to everyone. It’s whack-a-mole and will never end if we don’t have a solution.
How truly naive you are about the bus situation!
First of all, there seems to be no interest from the City or anyone else, in building a bus terminal near Essex Crossing.
Second, good luck with your authoritative statement that ‘bus operators need to be required to get off our streets.’ Just because you want it, it should happen?
There would need to be legislation to force bus operators to use a new terminal. Do you really think that would happen given the politics of Chinatown? Even with legislation, the Chinese bus owners would likely flaunt the law, just as they have been doing for years. The 2012 bus legislation requited intercity bus companies to operate only with permits. At this point only about 22 companies have permits out of 100 separate companies in this area. The bus owners have realized that it makes much more sense to stay under the radar by not even applying for permits. The City is neither watching nor enforcing.
finally, we won’t have to wait decades for gentrification. the area will likely be completely changed within 5 years.
Why not add an airport as well? There is no logic for a bus station in this location at all. Have you ever seen buses riding into Port Authority? Lines of buses, where would these go down here? Lining up on our streets? You must own a bus company.
Hey, all I’m saying is that there’s a big problem with buses in this area. There are tons of people who want to take the buses. And there are tons of people who live in the area being driven crazy with the clogged sidewalks, idling buses, and dangerous driving. Port Auth’ is overcrowded and could use another site to share the growth in ridership.
All I did was put forth a possible solution, because praying for gentrification didn’t seem plausible. One can say what they think things will be like in 5 years, but that doesn’t make it a fact. But it is a fact that there is more available land at SPURA now than there has been in decades. If we don’t use that area for some infrastructure, it would be a waste. If all you want is luxury condos for the rich, then have at it. But even if only 20% of SPURA is affordable, it will still add a great deal to the already over-burdened demand for buses in the area.
People can be snarky about airports, or negative about passing a law to get buses off the streets, but neither seems very helpful. Sorry if you didn’t like my attempt to be neither, but I feel more sorry for you both. I’m just happy that the current bus situation isn’t happening under my window.