Court Square "civic" forming

From DNA Info:

Court Square, a longtime hub for office workers that's grown increasingly residential over the last few years, is getting its own civic organization dedicated to shaping future development.

The Court Square Civic Association will hold its first public meeting Sept. 29 at 7 p.m. at MoMA PS1. It will feature a panel discussion with City Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer, Penny Lee of the Department of City Planning and Paul Januszewski of the local developer Rockrose.

You all always have developers at your civic meetings, right? Say no more. ROFLMFAO!!!

All aboard the B.S. Express!

Background info: I was contacting politicians in order to get the QM22 service reinstated since the MTA cut the service and although a private company TransportAzumah assumed the service as well as the X90 which Penny Lee rode to work.

Since we are about 50 people and I decided to try to work with Congresswoman Maloney's office in order to get the bus back I thought that since the X90 and the QM22's service area is in the same congressional district and that the X90 riders have 620 riders compared to the QM22's 50 that it would be a good idea to help each other out in getting our buses back. Federal elected officials could do things such as adding a rider to Federal Legislation to mandate the MTA Bus Company to operate the buses without any Federal money spent since the MTA Bus Company is wholly subsidized by the City of New York. As a precedent to doing such Congressman Molinari from Staten Island mandated the MTA to institute one way tolls on the Verrazano Bridge with no Federal money spent on implementing such. Penny Lee started questioning my ideas and my knowledge of the situation.

As proof that the City of New York subsidizes the MTA Bus Company one could view Table 4 of the attached PDF document which shows a mid year forecast of 216.7 million dollars that the City of New York is supposed to pay.

Email exchange with Penny Lee:

Penny Lee: Hi, what do you mean when you say that the MTA bus company is wholly subsidized by the City of New York? Are you saying the city, not the MTA pays the difference between the operating costs and the fare box revenues?

Me: Yes, that is what I meant.

Penny Lee: Thanks. But the city is out of the bus business, so how would it run
just these two busses?

Me: The rider (edit: if a rider would be added, such rider) would mandate the MTA Bus Company to operate the service; (edit: the MTA Bus Company is) the agency that took over the Private Lines. But the City of New York (edit: only) SUBSIDIZES the MTA Bus Company and that is all the City of New York does with the MTA Bus Company.

Penny Lee: The x90 was never an MTA Bus Company bus. It was always a NYCT bus. I
want these busses to run as much as you do, but I also don't want Carolyn out on a limb.

Me: (edit: in the case where I have to collaborate with the X90 riders and work with Federal elected officials) There is no other way to do it because NYCT's money comes from the MTA and they have financial problems. MTA Bus Company has money from the City. If this goes through, the X90 would be an MTA Bus Company route, there is not really another way that I know about where this could go through (edit: without using state or MTA money to get the service reinstated, the X90 riders could have worked with state elected officials to do the same thing, but Astoria and the Upper East Side where the X90 runs is in the same congressional district and not in any state or city district together and the QM22 in Astoria and Jackson Heights folks need any help that they could get).

Penny Lee: Unfortunately I don't see this working at all. Did Carolyn's office tell you they'd do it?

Me: Why do you say that, this seems very simple, look at what Congressman Molinari did in Staten Island with regards to one way tolls on the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge; and not to insult anybody, you are the only one that seems dazed and confused about this. Is there anything specific that you want me to address, or since you work for City Planning, is there something wrong with doing such that I do not know about.

Penny Lee: You're pretty rude, and it's not simple from a public policy point of view. I work on these issues for a living, including working with Carolyn's office. That's why I asked you if you had a commitment from her to submit the bill. It's my understanding that you don't.

Me: I am not trying to be rude and I do not have any commitments because I just started this a few days ago,(edit: I cannot go to elected officials office as a one man army, I need to get people together and once I get people together, then I would start pressuring elected officials because there is strength in numbers), then if you do this for a living, I am sure you know that this takes a lot of work and I have only started to take baby steps. From my work in the Azumah lawsuit, even people who work for the City of New York have no understanding of what is to be done and policies. I am not saying that you don't, but there are a lot of things that go on that many, including myself and you do not know. (edit: Question, how was Congressman Molinari able to get one way tolls instituted at the MTA's expense using the same technique that I would like to see the X90 and QM22 get reinstated by?)

Penny Lee: I wish you luck. All I know is that I won't help you on this particular effort to restart the X90.

Note: After this exchange and other nasty exchanges with X90 riders I stopped working with them since I felt that it was a waste of my time.

Here are some more rave reviews about X90 riders, the people that Penny Lee rides with to and from work.

http://www.nyctransitforums.com/forums/showpost.php?p=363583&postcount=152

http://www.nyctransitforums.com/forums/showpost.php?p=363590&postcount=157

http://www.nyctransitforums.com/forums/showpost.php?p=363590&postcount=159

http://www.nyctransitforums.com/forums/showpost.php?p=365705&postcount=264

http://www.nyctransitforums.com/forums/showpost.php?p=366001&postcount=277

http://www.nyctransitforums.com/forums/showpost.php?p=366230&postcount=283

http://www.nyctransitforums.com/forums/showpost.php?p=366734&postcount=300

Here is some MTA Bus Company information (more proof of the City wholly subsidizing the MTA Bus Company)

http://www.nyctransitforums.com/forums/showpost.php?p=365701&postcount=262 - anonymous