Acknowledgments

I am grateful to so many people for their insight into transportation, planning, public policy, community organizing, megaprojects, construction, research, and politics. Hunter College’s Bill Milczarski and the New School’s Lisa Servon provided me with years of guidance, encouragement, and support. Academics from the New School, Hunter College, and the City College of who helped me place this saga into a broader context include Arielle Goldberg, Owen Gut- freund, David Howell, Erica Kohl-Arenas, Rick McGahey, Rachel Meltzer, Buz Paaswell, Jeff Smith, and Joseph Viteritti. My research was like putting together a giant puzzle, and I appreciate more than a hundred people who gave me their pieces, especially Janine Bauer, Peter Derrick, Naomi Klein, Tom Madison, Janet Mainiero, Maureen Morgan, Rich Peters, and Jeff Zupan. I had the great fortune to interview U.S. Department of Transportation secretary Raymond LaHood and New York governors , , and . They helped me understand the polit- ical dynamics in the White House and Albany’s executive mansion. Agency heads and governors’ aides offered me invaluable insight into the pressures faced by the men and women responsible for improving New York’s extraordinarily complex transportation system. I would like to thank a dozen of them: John Cahill, Virgil Conway, Tim Gilchrist, Maryanne Gridley, Stanley Kramer, Carrie Laney, Charles Lattuca, Steve Morgan, Richard Ravitch, Elliot Sander, John Shafer, and Lou Tomson. I sincerely appreciate all the devoted civic advocates and hard-working officials who told me their stories and shared their insight, including Tom Abinanti, Michael Anderson, Bill Aston, David Aukland, Jamey Barbas, Jim Barry, Al Bauman, Jerry Bogacz, Ben Brubeck, Ed Buroughs, Chris Calvert, David Carlucci, Patty Chemka, Greg Clary, Robert Conway, Dan Coots, Larry

xiii xiv • Acknowledgments

DeCosmo, Gary Dellaverson, Bob Dennison, Leonard DePrima, Peter Derrick, Todd Discala, Duane Dodds, Larry Dwyer, Judith Enck, Dan Evans, Jerry Fai- ella, Peter Feroe, Drew Fixell, Nicole Gelinas, Patrick Gerdin, Orrin Getz, Keith Giles, Dan Graves, Dan Greenbaum, Tony Gregory, George Haikalis, Tom Harknett, Jim Hartwick, Terry Hekker, Mark Herbst, Steve Herrmann, Sandy Hornick, Marty Huss, Peter Iwanowicz, Tony Japha, Irwin Kessman, Marlene Kleiner, Elyse Knight, Charles Komanoff, Jay Krantz, Mark Kulewicz, Floyd Lapp, Maria Lehman, Goodie Lelash, Edmund J. McMahon, Angel Medina, Peter Melewski, Richard Newhouse, Ted Orosz, Thomas Parody, James Par- sons, Joe Pasanello, George Paschalis, Ross Pepe, Howard Permut, Henry Peyre­ brune, Michael Replogle, Sarah Rios, Marty Robins, Lou Rossi, David Rubin, Khurram Saeed, Ernie Salerno, Al Samuels, Alex Saunders, Sy Schulman, Tom Schulze, Jean Shanahan, Kate Slevin, Alison Spear, Heather Sporn, Brian Ster- man, Neil Trenk, Jim Tripp, Wayne Ugolik, Scott Vanderhoef, Elisa Van Der Linde, Veronica Vanterpool, Chris Waite, Alan Warde, Darrell Waters, Robert Weinberg, Michael Weinman, Bill Wheeler, James Yarmus, and Robert Zerrillo. I am grateful to many creative people who helped me transform the planning and politics across a river into a published book, including Daryl Brower, Mari- lyn Campbell, Sarah Clarehart, Jeremy Grainger, Andrew Katz, Peter Micku- las, Amy Sutnick Plotch, Michael Roney, Willa Speiser, Marlie Wasserman, and Pilar Wyman. I would also like to offer a special acknowledgment to many key officials who shared information yet wish to remain anonymous. To protect their confiden- tiality, I have not included the location and dates of my interviews with them. Finally, I owe a very special thanks to my anonymous friend in the governor’s office and my two favorite transportation consultants.