Good morning. Today is Tuesday. Today, trains, planes and no cars (except in the daily update on the parking lot next door).
Question: How much would someone pay for a subway car from the 1960s that would likely need the help of cranes and trucks to get anywhere?
Answer: $235,700, excluding cranes and trucks.
That’s the winning bid in a city auction of subway car number 9075a “redbird” car that was retired in the early 2000s. Where it will go and how it will arrive remains a mystery, at least for now.
New York City identified the buyer as Jasmine Levett, representing a limited liability company, House 32, LLC Levett did not return phone calls or respond to emails seeking comment on what she did. think about the subway car, which ran on numbered lines from the early 1960s to 2003. But a document filed in California in 2020 says House 32’s business is selling artwork.
It was sold “as is” and “where.” The website for auction listed its condition as “good”, although cars like the number 9075 are often described with words like “rust” or “clack” as they approach life after passengers.
“People cherish these symbols of New York,” said Mitchell Moss, a professor of urban planning and policy at New York University. “They’re like a box chair at the old Yankee Stadium.”
As for the current number 9075, it has been located outside Queens Borough Hall for many years, on a stretch no longer than it is now, just over 51 feet. Queens County President Donovan Richards wanted it removed to re-imagine the building and grounds.
The auction site says buyers will have no more than 10 business days to ship it. But Anessa Hodgson – spokeswoman for Citywide Department of Administrative Services, the company that sells the city’s excess real estate – says the timing is somewhat flexible. She said: “It takes time to get the license for the devices to move it.
Bidding started at $6,500 last month and rose to $31,000 by July 15, the last day of the auction. Interest spiked in the morning, with bids hitting $79,900 just before noon. Levett’s bid came less than three hours later.
The selling price is 23,569,900% higher than the price of the red bird in the city. Yes, 23.57 million percent. The Metropolitan Transit Authority, the state agency that operates the subways, sold the number 9075 to the city for just $1 in the early 2000s, when one of Richards’ predecessors wanted it installed. located outside Queens Borough Hall.
“Buyers should call ‘Saturday Night Live’ Pete Davidson and Colin Jost,” Adrian Untermyer, a lawyer and shipping expert, said of the two stars. buy a decommissioned Staten Island Ferry boat in January. “At least they are kind spirits. They all look at a massive, rusty piece of transportation history and say, ‘I’m going to run into it.’
Weather
It was a mildly sunny day with temperatures nearing the mid-80s. At night watch for the possibility of showers and thunderstorms, with temperatures as low as 70 degrees.
PARKING OUTSIDE
Valid until August 15 (Hang Thuan Festival).
New York isn’t exactly known for its modern airports. In 2014, then-Vice President Joseph Biden compared landing in La Guardia to arriving in “some third world country”.
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates the airports, is spending $25 billion to rebuild, renovate and rehabilitate three major airports. I ask Patrick McGeehantransport and infrastructure writer for the Metro section, how is the work going.
What would we see if we flew to a certain vacation spot? Where is the renovation standing now, airport by airport?
It’s now startling for travelers flying into or out of La Guardia Airport as the rebuilding that has transformed the airport is a daily occurrence. It now houses two new main terminals that are modern, bright and filled with shops, restaurants and art. These stations were built from the ground up, with glass walls and high ceilings, to replace the three stations that have been the planet of New Yorkers for decades.
Most of the improvements at La Guardia are complete, except for some gates and elevated walkways that will connect them to Terminal C..
The next big development will come in the fall with the opening of a replacement for Terminal A at Newark Liberty International – the airport’s first brand new terminal in nearly 35 years.
At Kennedy International, several major projects are underway. One involves the construction of a large terminal to replace Terminals 1, 2 and 3. The Port Authority also plans to debunk the pasta bowl lines at JFK.
How bad are conditions at airports?
Each of the three has conditions you wouldn’t expect after flying into the nation’s largest city.
Visitors complain constantly about leaking ceilings, broken escalators, and even rats in train stations. A frequent traveler likens old La Guardia to a bus stop. Rick Cotton, executive director of the Port Authority, admitted that “La Guardia, parts of Newark and parts of JFK are just disgraceful.”
Why are the three airports so degraded? Why didn’t the Port Authority modernize them sooner?
Part of the problem stems from the way the agency manages airports. It acts as a landlord but leaves most of the maintenance of the terminals to the airlines and private companies that operate them.
Then, after the September 11 terrorist attacks that destroyed the World Trade Center, the Port Authority had to spend on rebuilding its campus in Lower Manhattan. It wasn’t until the memorial and museum there were surrounded by new office towers that the agency’s leaders really focused on repairing airports.
How has the pandemic affected work at the three airports?
Early on, the pandemic briefly halted airport renovation work, putting them behind schedule. But the sharp drop in air travel during the first two years of the pandemic has allowed construction crews more space to maneuver and make up for lost time.
The La Guardia terminals were completed on time. But Newark Liberty’s new Terminal A will open at least a few months later than originally planned.
Will all of this make airports run more smoothly? What about flight delays?
While the time that travelers spend inside the airport will be significantly more pleasant and comfortable, it probably won’t be much shorter. The airspace around New York City remains one of the most congested in the world. With so many planes trying to get in and out of three airports a few miles from Midtown Manhattan, delays will still be common. No runways have been added and no new runways are planned.
But the new configuration of terminals and gates – they are further apart – freed up space for planes to circulate as they arrived and departed on the runway. That can help shorten trips and reduce delays, but only a little.
Dear Diary:
In 1964, my parents allowed me and my cousin to go to the World’s Fair in New York and spend the night at our grandmother’s apartment. She was not there.
We are three girls: 16, 14 and 12. We swing our legs in the Fountain of the Sun, discover what we would look like with different colored hair at Clairol’s stall, and eat our waffles. Belgium.
The highest point was sitting on our grandmother’s deck and staring at the lights of the city while trying to smoke a few cigars we found in the apartment. We all wore baseball caps backwards.
– Caroline Heald
Illustrated by Agnes Lee. Send submissions here and Read more Metropolitan Diary here.
So glad we can get together here. See you tomorrow. – JB
PS This is for today Small crosswords and Spell Bee. You can find all our quizzes here.
Melissa Guerrero and Ed Shanahan contributed to New York Today. You can reach the team at [email protected].
