OurView
Care to lead?

 

Thomas Paine didn’t have the Tappan Zee Bridge in mind when he said, “Lead, follow or get out of the way.”

But the statement by the former Hudson Valley resident says a lot to the current state of affairs in regard to the superstructure.

Not everyone may be on the same page when it comes to options for the aptly nicknamed Trap and Zzzz and the adjoining I-287 parking lot, but all can agree that someone must lead the charge for getting the project off the drawing board.

And therein lies the problem.

No one wants to spearhead the multibillion-dollar endeavor.

Why?

Politics, of course.

Courage is lacking as usual.

Last week, these newspapers brought this and other issues concerning the bridge to the fore by hosting a roundtable seeking to elicit comments at the very least. Consensus was not even a thought.

Those who attended were: Marsha Gordon, president, The Business Council of Westchester, co-chair, Tappan Zee Bridge/I287 Futures Task Force; Robert Weinberg, partner and president, Robert Martin Co.; Ellen Lynch, president and CEO of the Yonkers Industrial Development Agency; Maureen Morgan, board member and past president, Federated Conservationists of Westchester County; Mary Ann Crotty, director of transportation, Pattern for Progress; P. Gilbert Mercurio, CEO of the Westchester County Board of Realtors; Ross J. Pepe, president, Construction Industry Council and Building Contractors Association; John McCarthy, principal, McCarthy Associates; Robert J. Goldstein, general counsel/director of enforcement programs, Riverkeeper Inc.

It was a meaty 90 minutes of give and take. Rail vs. bus. Regional vs. national issue. The reality of having to pay what will inevitably be a large chunk of change, considering the $15 billion price tag will only go up as time passes. Weinberg posed the question about the bottom line: If you borrow just $1 billion at 5 percent that works out to $50 million a year in interest. To offset that you need to include a commuter rail option that comes with the promise of a huge ridership to help defray costs.

Leadership in Albany – Joe Bruno and Sheldon Silver are you listening? – need to commit to the project, which has been languishing since Gov. Malcolm Wilson’s administration.

The likelihood as to when this will get off the proverbial dime is anyone’s guess.

Will new Gov. David Paterson, an uncertain and unproven variable in the top post, be in favor of any bridge project at the moment? He is now being inundated by dozens of lawmakers and lobbyists trying to curry favor for their pet projects.

More noise has to be generated by businesses and municipal officials at both ends and all points inbetween of the I-287 corridor.

And remember, even in dancing someone has to lead. And there will be a lot of dancing around as this agonizingly slow-moving problem comes closer to resolution.

But, be sure, we will be doing our best on these pages to prod lawmakers into action. And if we have to, we’ll keep asking businesses as to why they are so apathetic as opposed to their counterparts on Long Island who march efficiently each year to the Capitol to have their demands heard and acted upon.

One thing that would help is if this region acted with one voice instead of disjointed counties containing dysfunctional, selfish governmental and private entities with their own self-centered motives that do nothing more than create a self-destructive environment with a faltering infrastructure that will send businesses to other states and lead us to the teetering economy that now blankets the northern portion of this state.

United we stand, divided we sink.

 

Reader Comments     Please add your Comments

Westchester TalkBack Name: Email Address: Add your Question or Comment: Issue important to you:   create form