Stephen Nessen

1 week ago | gothamist.com | Stephen Nessen

The Port Authority finally broke ground on its new $10 billion Midtown bus terminal Thursday, a decades-in-the-making project to transform one of New York’s most antiquated and heavily used transit hubs into a modern station. The new facility will replace the decrepit 74-year-old terminal on 42nd Street, which struggles to accommodate its 200,000 daily riders, much less the type of modern buses that require electric charging stations.

1 week ago | gothamist.com | Stephen Nessen

The MTA board approved a $65 billion five-year construction plan on Wednesday that aims to rescue New York City’s mass transit infrastructure from the brink of collapse. The MTA passed the plan at a board meeting thanks to Gov. Kathy Hochul’s budget, which includes an increase to the payroll mobility tax. That tax hike on large businesses is expected to bring in $1.4 billion a year, which will be used to finance upgrades to the transit systems.

1 week ago | gothamist.com | Stephen Nessen

A Manhattan federal judge on Wednesday wrote that the Trump administration cannot force the MTA to shut down its congestion pricing tolls — at least for now. In a 109-page opinion, U.S. District Judge Lewis Liman granted the MTA a preliminary injunction in the transit agency’s lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Transportation over the feds’ order to kill the program, which has since Jan. 5 imposed a $9 daytime fee on drivers who enter Manhattan south of 60th Street.

1 week ago | gothamist.com | Stephen Nessen

A Manhattan federal judge on Tuesday barred the U.S. Department of Transportation from retaliating against the MTA over the agency’s decision to continue charging its congestion pricing tolls despite a federal directive to shut down the program. U.S. District Judge Lewis Liman issued a temporary restraining order that, at least for now, neutralizes much of the Trump administration's leverage in its effort to end the tolls, which have since Jan.

1 week ago | gothamist.com | Stephen Nessen

George Floyd’s brother, Brooklyn resident Terrence Floyd, reflected Sunday on his older brother’s murder by a Minneapolis police officer five years ago — and expressed disappointment about how much has since changed in terms of racial progress. “ Some change is better than no change. Some movement is better than no movement,” Terrence said at a small gathering of activists in Crown Heights. “But five years later I'm like, come on, we should have been moving faster than this.