Breaking Through

How smart partnerships overcame decades of resistance to modernize America’s busiest commuter railroad

By Elizabeth Moore

By Elizabeth Moore March 11, 2019 Train Terraces: Incubating Urbanism in Westbury, NY. Design proposal for ParkingPLUS, a design challenge from the Long Island Index, a project of the Rauch Foundation. Design submitted by Paul Lewis, Marc Tsurumaki and David J. Lewis of LTL Architects. Breaking Through: How smart partnerships overcame decades of resistance to modernize America’s busiest commuter railroad

Dear Reader, t is with great pleasure and pride that the Rauch Foundation has under- written this excellent case study by Elizabeth Moore that tells the long and complicated story of how the 3rd Track on the Long Island Rail Road finally came to be. This is a story that we hope will resonate with many other leaders around the country, as it reveals how a sustained, cross- I sector effort with business, philanthropy, education and research institutions, labor and numerous nonprofit organizations were combined with the power, leadership and determination of New York State’s governor Andrew Cuomo, to bring to fruition a project that was widely considered impossible. There were definitely substantial individual contributions: • New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who exercised the full range of his powers to make this happen, including and importantly listening to the concerns of the villages most impacted by the project. • Kevin Law, the President of Long Island’s major business group the Long Island Association and David Kapell, former mayor of Greenport and currently consultant to the Rauch Foundation, were a formidable team for developing strategy and organizing the on-the-ground work as well as providing day-to-day leadership. • The Long Island Index Advisory Committee who provided wise counsel for more than 15 years. • Our researchers: Ann Golob, Director of the LI Index project for over 12 years, for her leadership, creativity and quality control over the entire Index project; and our researchers the Regional Plan Association and HR&A Advisors, who compiled strong, substantive reports. • And finally, Dr. Bruce Stillman, President of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, who was active on the Advisory Committee for 15 years and was the person to suggest that the 3rd Track project deserved a case study which would document why the 3rd Track effort, out of all our other reports, led to real on-the-ground success. As for the role of the Rauch Foundation, this project involved our utilizing the power of a foundation to convene and to produce unbiased research. We also committed to funding this effort over many years, and this was a crucial factor for the effort. The report that follows is an excellent story of regional success for a region not known for its ability to collaborate. I hope that it will prove to be a useful model for others.

Nancy Rauch Douzinas President, Rauch Foundation

3 MIDDLESEX Long Island Rail Road and Key Track Improvement Projects Fishers NEW HAVEN Island

WESTCHESTER

FAIRFIELD

ROCKLAND East Orient Marion Greenport West Greenport Dering T Harbor Shelter Island ICU Shelter Island Heights ECT NN SHELTER CO RK Montauk YO Peconic NEW Southold ISLAND Springs North Haven Cutchogue EAST Napeague New Suffolk Sag Harbor HAMPTON Mattituck East Hampton BERGEN Laurel SOUTHOLD Noyack Northwest North Northville Harbor Amagansett Old Field Belle Terre Sound Baiting Shoreham Wading River Hollow Bridgehampton Y Setauket-East Setauket Beach Riverhead Aquebogue East Hampton K Asharoken Watermill E Port Jefferson East S R Miller Wainscott Stony Brook Rocky RIVERHEAD Jamesport R O Eatons Shoreham Lloyd Harbor Place North Sea Sagaponack E Y Port Jefferson Point Neck SMITHTOWN J Tuckahoe Stony Station W Centre Northport Mount Calverton Bayville Fort Nissequogue W E Huntington Brook Island Terryville Sinai Ridge Riverside SOUTHAMPTON E Salonga Kings Middle N Mill Neck Bay Centerport Head of University Hampton N GLEN Cove Flanders Lattingtown Cold Huntington the Harbor Island COVE Neck Park St. Selden Bays Shinnecock Spring Halesite Coram Northampton Hills nch James Centereach Southampton h Harbor ra East c Oyster Bay B East Northport BROOKHAVEN on NORTH n Matinecock Laurel rs Quogue a fe Commack Nesconset Lake Manorville r Glen Hollow ef Gordon Heights BRONX Sea B J Huntington SmithtownVillage HEMPSTEAD OYSTER ort Grove Yaphank Cliff y Head P of the Branch Farmingville Eastport Westhampton Manorhaven a Muttontown Station Lake B Roslyn BAY ch East r Bran Port Washington S Ronkonkoma nkoma Quogue e Harbor Upper Brookville HUNTINGTON Hauppauge onko Quioque t R Syosset U Moriches s Kings Point Flower N South Huntington Remsenburg-Speonk y West Medford Brookville F Islandia North Mastic Great Neck Hill O A Westhampton Beach NEW F Hills Old Dix Hills Bellport Moriches Roslyn East S Holtsville YORK Great Neck Thomaston Jericho O Brentwood Ronkonkoma Center Moriches West Westbury S Melville Hills L h Estates Manhasset Holbrook ranc Hampton A Deer Central Bohemia k B K Wheatley au Shirley n Branch North Hills Westbury North North ont Dunes ingto U Park Islip Patchogue M ash Manhasset Hills New Cassel Heights Bay Great East Brookhaven Mastic W North Herricks Baywood rt Bethpage River Sayville Blue Patchogue Po Hicksville North Babylon Shore Islip Beach New Hyde Park Point Salisbury East Bay Shore ine Garden City East Bayport n L Farmingdale Brightwaters East Islip QUEENS Mai LevittownNorth Oakdale Franklin Meadow Great Fire Massapequa West Elmont Square Hempstead Babylon River Island Massapequa Park Bay Shore Malverne Park West Hempstead Valley Oaks West Islip h West ISLIP Roosevelt ranc Stream Lakeview lon B East Babylon Baby Copiague South Valley Rockville Wantagh Massapequa Stream Centre Merrick Massapequa BABYLON Ocean Woodmere Hewlett Oceanside Saltaire Beach KINGS Harbor Gilgo-Oak Beach-Captree Inwood Baldwin Harbor Bellmore Island Barnum Park Lawrence Island HEMPSTEAD Harbor Atlantic Lido Beach Point Isle Beach Lookout LONG BEACH

N Track Improvements PEWopulation density (people / sq mi) YO RbKy census tract, during the 2013-2017 period East Side Access

s s 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Second Track e 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 l ,0 ,5 ,0 ,5 ,0 ,0 ,0 r 1 2 5 7 0 0 2 o - - - - 1 2 3 0 1 1 1 1 - - - 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 Third Track 5 5 ,0 ,5 ,0 0 0 0 1 2 5 ,5 ,0 ,0 7 0 0 1 2

0 10 20 Cartography by CUNY Center for Urban Research, 2019. Miles [ Data Sources: LIRR, U.S. Census Bureau, USGS, RPA.

4 MIDDLESEX Long Island Rail Road and Key Track Improvement Projects Fishers NEW HAVEN Island

WESTCHESTER

FAIRFIELD

ROCKLAND East Orient Marion Greenport West Greenport Dering T Harbor Shelter Island ICU Shelter Island Heights ECT NN SHELTER CO RK Montauk YO Peconic NEW Southold ISLAND Springs North Haven Cutchogue EAST Napeague New Suffolk Sag Harbor HAMPTON Mattituck East Hampton BERGEN Laurel SOUTHOLD Noyack Northwest North Northville Harbor Amagansett Old Field Belle Terre Sound Baiting Shoreham Wading River Hollow Bridgehampton Y Setauket-East Setauket Beach Riverhead Aquebogue East Hampton K Asharoken Watermill E Port Jefferson East S R Miller Wainscott Stony Brook Rocky RIVERHEAD Jamesport R O Eatons Shoreham Lloyd Harbor Place North Sea Sagaponack E Y Port Jefferson Point Neck SMITHTOWN J Tuckahoe Stony Station W Centre Northport Mount Calverton Bayville Fort Nissequogue W E Huntington Brook Island Terryville Sinai Ridge Riverside SOUTHAMPTON E Salonga Kings Middle N Mill Neck Bay Centerport Head of University Hampton N GLEN Cove Flanders Lattingtown Cold Huntington the Harbor Island COVE Neck Park St. Selden Bays Shinnecock Spring Halesite Coram Northampton Hills nch James Centereach Southampton h Harbor ra East c Oyster Bay B East Northport BROOKHAVEN on NORTH n Matinecock Laurel rs Quogue a fe Commack Nesconset Lake Manorville r Glen Hollow ef Gordon Heights BRONX Sea B J Huntington SmithtownVillage HEMPSTEAD OYSTER ort Grove Yaphank Cliff y Head P of the Branch Farmingville Eastport Westhampton Manorhaven a Muttontown Station Lake B Roslyn BAY ch East r Bran Port Washington S Ronkonkoma nkoma Quogue e Harbor Upper Brookville HUNTINGTON Hauppauge onko Quioque t R Syosset U Moriches s Kings Point Flower N South Huntington Remsenburg-Speonk y West Medford Brookville F Islandia North Mastic Great Neck Hill O A Westhampton Beach NEW F Hills Old Dix Hills Bellport Moriches Roslyn East S Holtsville YORK Great Neck Thomaston Jericho O Brentwood Ronkonkoma Center Moriches West Westbury S Melville Hills L h Estates Manhasset Holbrook ranc Hampton A Deer Central Bohemia k B K Wheatley au Shirley n Branch North Hills Westbury North North ont Dunes ingto U Park Islip Patchogue M ash Manhasset Hills New Cassel Heights Bay Great East Brookhaven Mastic W North Herricks Baywood rt Bethpage River Sayville Blue Patchogue Po Hicksville North Babylon Shore Islip Beach New Hyde Park Point Salisbury East Bay Shore ine Garden City East Bayport n L Farmingdale Brightwaters East Islip QUEENS Mai LevittownNorth Oakdale LIRR Train Stations (in bold) and Villages along the Third Track Franklin Meadow Great Fire Massapequa West Elmont Square Hempstead Babylon River Island Bay Shore Massapequa Park Roslyn Harbor Malverne Park Plandome Port Washington West Hempstead Plandome Flower Hill Brookville Oaks West Islip Muttontown Valley West ISLIP Heights Syosset Roosevelt nch ra ch Lakeview B an Munsey Park Roslyn Stream lon East Babylon Br by Copiague Great ton Ba ing Rockville Neck ash South Valley Wantagh Massapequa t W Roslyn Por Centre Estates Stream Merrick Massapequa BABYLON Ocean East Hills Hewlett Oceanside Woodmere Saltaire Beach Thomaston Manhasset KINGS Harbor Gilgo-Oak Beach-Captree Jericho Inwood Baldwin Harbor Bellmore Old Westbury Island Barnum

O Park Island North Hills y HEMPSTEAD s t Lawrence e r

Harbor B Point a Atlantic Lido Beach y Roslyn

Searingtown B Isle Heights r Beach Lookout Albertson a n ch HICKSVILLE LONG "

BEACH Lake Success New Cassel ches Bran Hicksville East oma Williston konk Manhasset Williston / Ron Hills Westbury son Park effer Port J Herricks "

Carle Place " WESTBURY

North New Mineola CARLE PLACE NPopulation density (people / sq mi) Track Improvements Salisbury E Hyde Park Garden W City YO Park R QUEENS " bKy census tract, during the 2013-2017 period MINEOLA East Side Access " MERILLON AVENUE East Garden New Hyde Park Levittown " City NEW HYDE PARK " s 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Second Track Hempstead Branch Garden City s 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 FLORAL PARK e 0 5 0 5 0 0 0 Stewart l , , , , , , , Manor r 1 2 5 7 0 0 2 Floral Park o - - - - 1 2 3 South East Meadow - - - Floral 0 1 1 1 1 Garden 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 Third Track Park City 5 5 ,0 ,5 ,0 0 0 0 South 1 2 5 ,5 ,0 ,0 7 0 0 1 2 Hempstead Franklin Uniondale Elmont Square North Wantagh h c n a West r B Hempstead d North a Bellmore te Cartography by CUNY Center for Urban Research, 2019. s p North Merrick 0 10 20 m e H Wantagh t s Miles Data Sources: LIRR, U.S. Census Bureau, USGS, RPA. e Roosevelt [ North W Lakeview South Rockville Valley Stream Centre Hempstead Baldwin

5 Executive Summary

he Long Island Rail Road (LIRR), connecting suburbs and rural communities to the heart of New York City, is the busiest commuter railroad in the United States. With an annual budget of nearly $1.5 billion and annual ridership of almost 90 million, the LIRR serves, on the average weekday, more than 310,000 people. T Yet the railroad’s ability to serve the region’s riders has been hampered by a major weakness, one it doesn’t take an engineering degree to understand: Four LIRR branches converge on the rail road’s main line in western Nassau County, funneled onto just two tracks that now carry more than 250 trains each day. Meanwhile, the tracks are intersected by seven street-level crossings, causing traffic to build up as trains pass and posing a danger to pedestrians and motorists alike. The combination has meant chronic delays, limited service and the embarrassing fact that the main artery of the nation’s busiest commuter railroad can only send trains in one direction for most of rush hour. And it has left a long, tragic legacy of avoidable fatal accidents at those crossings.

A Legacy of Limbo For more than 70 years, experts urged the addition of a third track stretching alongside the other two between Floral Park and Hicksville, a seemingly simple 10-mile stretch of rail that would have outsized positive impact for commuters, drivers and communities along the way. And for just as long, political recalcitrance, local NIMBYism and a hefty price tag drove a series of political battles that kept the needed work from getting done. As the decades passed and memories of the details faded, an almost superstitious con- viction took hold: Don’t waste your time.

Yet today construction of a third track, officially known as the “LIRR Expansion Project from Floral Park to Hicksville,” is under way and scheduled for completion by the fall of 2022. How was this $2.6-billion package of projects finally set in motion?

A Foundation for Change It is often at the point of seemingly intractable political gridlock that change becomes possible. Enter the Rauch Foundation. A Long Island-based family foundation that focus- es on finding solutions to some of the most pressing problems of the region, Rauch was in a unique position to see the bigger picture and foster dispassionate dialogue to drive constructive and collaborative action. To reanimate the stalled third track project, the foundation sponsored deep, high-quality analysis that clearly illuminated the LIRR’s central importance to Long Island’s economic and demographic health and future. The Rauch Foundation acted as the connector, a supportive and respected mediator that could advance the priorities of pro-expansion advocates and address the legitimate concerns of local residents, whose lives would be ultimately improved by the project but would have to endure years of construction in the meantime. Further research commissioned by Rauch quantified the benefits a third track would provide to the region, including 14,000 new jobs and $5.6 billion in economic growth, not to mention higher property values for residents, safer roads and rails, and – of course – faster commutes with fewer delays.

6 From Vision to Elbow Grease But, ultimately, getting to yes required more than just numbers on a spreadsheet. It required a new regional coalition of committed Long Islanders who had studied the lessons of past failures, sized up the astonishing social cost of that missing stretch of track and convinced New York Governor Andrew Cuomo that a major investment in the railroad would repay itself many times over. It took a significant commitment by Gov. Cuo- mo, who reframed the problem as an opportunity, deployed a fast-track team to drive a design-build procurement process, prevailed upon engineers to keep re-drawing the plans until they no longer needed to take private homes, and won the support of mayors of the small towns and villages along the track through direct personal appeals and a generous package of benefits. It also took a well-funded coalition campaign to transform public perceptions of the project by ensuring its supporters were numerous, persuasive and vocal every time the issue came up. Navigating the complex local politics of Long Island was another major undertaking. The Rauch Foundation invested in a sustained, intensive multi-year campaign with the Long Island Association (LIA) to change thinking around the project among a diverse cross-section of business, nonprofit and governmental leaders. This locally driven approach and spirit of collaboration is what finally pushed the project across the finish line. Cuomo himself would redefine the solution, expanding it to include the costly grade crossing removals residents had long demanded.

The Right Track for Long Island This case study, “Breaking Through,” traces over a century of the LIRR’s contentious political history, from the farmlands of the late 19th century to the state capitol in 2019. Beginning as a humble travel corridor for Boston-bound commuters coming from Brook- lyn, before long the LIRR had established itself as the busiest commuter railway system in America. The report follows the vigorous resistance of new suburban homeowners against a plan to elevate the tracks after World War II, a challenge that only intensified after a deadly crossing accident that killed nine teenagers. It charts the 15 years of paralysis that resulted as federal, state, county and local governments struggled to disentangle the snarl of roads and rails that had come to be called “the Bottleneck of Long Island.” And finally, it chronicles the parochial tensions of the 2000s that at one point left the Third Track project politically dead. Having assessed the battles of the past, the Rauch Foundation was determined to avoid the same mistakes in the future. Working alongside Gov. Cuomo’s team, it joined with the LIA and Laborers Local 1298 to marshal a broad and vocal campaign of popular support, the “Right Track for Long Island Coalition,” which helped to deliver one of the most transformational political, social and economic achievements in Long Island (and New York) history. The success of the Third Track project proves that big change is possible. But it doesn’t happen overnight. It requires everyone – advocates, experts, elected officials, philanthropy and engaged citizens – to choose progress over partisanship and the status quo. The third track is a model of partnership and persistence, a shining example of how thought- ful research, engaged place-based philanthropy, respect for local concerns and cross- sector collaboration can realize a better, fairer and faster future for all aboard.

7 Table of Contents

Introduction... 9 I. I. Missed Opportunities: 1910-1965 1. The Pennsy... 10 2. Newsday v. Moses... 12 3. Sore Spots... 16 II.II. The “Bottleneck of Long Island:” 1966-2000 4. Ronan’s Grand Design... 18 5. The Accident... 25 III.III. Long Island at Risk: 2000-2015 6. Building Coalitions... 32 7. Main Line Corridor Improvements... 34 8. “At Least He Got It Done”... 41 9. Losing the Battle... 44 10. Third Rail or Fast Track?... 47 IV.IV. An Unprecedented Level of Outreach: December 2015 - July 2017 11. Reception at the Capitol... 52 12. A Very Busy Holiday Season... 53 13. LIRR Expansion Project from Floral Park to Hicksville... 57 14. The Right Track... 60 15. “A Lot of Coffee and a Lot of Beer”... 62 16. A Moving Target... 66 17. Brinkmanship... 69 18. There’s a Lesson in All of This... 75 V.V. Getting It Done 19. Bespoke Contracting... 76 20. Billions upon Billions... 77 21. The Work Begins... 78

VI.VI. Conclusions... 82

VII.VII. Map of Number of Tracks on LIRR Train Lines... 91

VIII.VII. Endnotes... 92

8 Introduction

ow did the Long Island Rail Road succeed in winning approval and funding for its “LIRR Expansion Project from Floral Park to Hicksville” in 2017 after so many previous attempts, and so many similarly complex infrastructure projects, had failed in the region? H The need for a third track on the railroad’s Main Line was apparent at least as far back as the 1940s as essential to relieving congestion, and improving the on-time performance of the nation’s busiest commuter railroad. Four branch lines converge on this one 10-mile corridor, funnelling more than 40 percent of the railroad’s riders onto a single pair of tracks, monopolizing them with inbound traffic in the morning and outbound trains in the evening. That pair of tracks is intersected by seven grade-level crossings that should have been eliminated early in the last century. The combination leaves almost no room in the system for reverse-peak commuters, and no way to prevent a single accident or ordinary snowfall from triggering a cascade of delays that can quickly become a regional emergency. But for decades, calls to modernize this segment of the line went unheeded, first because the railroad’s private owners had little incentive, later because Robert Moses steered transportation money to highways, and finally because the work called for costly and potentially ruinous disruption and takings of suburban homes and businesses that had multiplied in close proximity to the railroad. These dynamics came to a head in 2005 after the Metropolitan Transportation Au- thority finally dedicated funding to push the project through, only to fold its plans a few years later after running into opposition from citizens along the track that was extraordinary in its scale, intensity and bitterness. Just a decade later, a coalition representing a broad cross section of the region’s civic, labor and business interests persuaded Cuomo to make another attempt, and now construction is under way at a rapid pace. How did that happen? Veterans of Long Island’s fractious politics who witnessed it up close say the successful campaign and its disastrous predecessor provide valuable lessons for anyone seeking regional infrastructure solutions that - at first - seem to conflict with neighborhood preferences.

LIRR, Carle Place, 1951

Photo by Harvey Weber. Courtesy of the Queens Borough Public Library, Archives, Ron Ziel Collec- tion

9 99 PART I Missed Opportunities: 1910-1965

1. The “Pennsy” lated areas to the east, with entire communities, such as Williston Park, built by The stretch of track that has been the developers, who sometimes built their focus of so many decades of political own train stations if the LIRR would travail is the same strip of land that agree to stop at them.2 3 formed the main line of the Long Island Rail Road chartered in 1834. Adding a third track to the Main Line First incorporated as a daily service for would still have been relatively inex- Boston-bound travelers, who rode it pensive when most of it passed through from Brooklyn to Greenport to catch a farm fields, as in this photo (right) of ferry to Connecticut, the Long Island New Hyde Park in 1918. Rail Road was routed along the most But the railroad was then pouring direct route to that destination, a right money into a range of upgrades to meet of way averaging 66 feet wide straight the surging commuter demand: adding down the empty center of the Island, second tracks and trains, raising and where land was cheap and the grade lowering lines in Queens and Brooklyn, level. and extending electrification. Then the The LIRR was driven to bankruptcy Depression struck. Railroad passenger after new rail lines were laid revenues plunged on the LIRR as they in Connecticut, wiping out did nationwide, and new subways, pri- most Greenport ferry busi- vate bus lines and autos drew millions ness. But when the Penn- more away each year. The LIRR became sylvania Rail Road (PRR) notorious for crowded, dirty, unheated 4 acquired the LIRR and opened and antiquated cars and poor service. 5 direct service to Penn Station As time passed, critics contended that in 1910, ridership exploded, the PRR was using the LIRR as a dump- reaching nearly 119 million in ing ground for hand-me-down trains 1929, and sending 54 million and draining its revenues to benefit the 6 7 commuters to Penn Station in balance sheet in Philadelphia. 1930. The LIRR had quickly estab- Some historians charged purposeful lished itself as the nation’s busiest neglect, saying the denizens of Long Is- (T) Metropolitan 1 Transportation commuter railroad. land’s Gold Coast bought enough stock Authority At the beginning, much of its traffic was in the Pennsylvania Rail Road to see to in the booming boroughs of Brooklyn it that North Shore branches remained and Queens, but the LIRR worked to dilapidated, so as to deter suburban make new customers by promoting rap- growth.8 But the LIRR was from the start id residential development of unpopu- a uniquely problematic asset among

10 New Hyde Park grade crossing, looking east, 1918. The third track on the left may be a freight spur. NY Public Service Commission photo. Courtesy of the Queens Borough Public Library, Archives, William J. Rugen Collection

American railroads, because it never car- amendment, ratified by the voters two ried much freight.9 After 1934, it logged years later, establishing a $300 million an unbroken series of annual deficits, fund to help pay for grade crossing but the state refused repeated requests to projects statewide. The railroads were to raise its fares. pick up half the cost of the work. A universal public concern across New By the time Smith left office in 1929, 200 York State at that time was the safety crossings had been eliminated.10 But a hazard posed by hundreds of grade decade later, the LIRR had tackled less crossings, like the one in the photo taken than half the work the state Public Ser- at New Hyde Park, where rails and road vice Commission had ordered, lagging directly intersected. Separating the flow most other railroads in the state.11 As a of cars from trains is one of the costli- result, Long Island communities had yet est kinds of road projects, but was also to receive their fair share of the fund. But understood to be essential for smooth the LIRR protested that it should not be traffic flow and efficient train service as required to spend millions it didn’t have the state’s population density increased. to build overpasses and underpasses In 1924, New York Gov. Al Smith pushed that mainly benefited the cars and buses through legislation for a constitutional competing for its business.12

11 Part I: Missed Opportunities: 1910–1965

Percent Done or TotalWork Under In 1939, Public Railroad Work Done Ordered Contract Service Com- mission data N.Y. Central...... $33,200,316 $64,795,566 51.2 showed the Erie...... 11,757,260 17,189,327 68.4 LIRR had done Del & Hudson...... 9,139,056 10,653,056 85.8 just under D. L. & W...... 6,088,181 7,414,973 82.1 half the grade Lehigh Valley...... 3,413,511 5,534,106 61.7 crossing work Long Island 9,770,334 19,619,334 49.8 ordered, lagging Pennsylvania...... 3,906,610 5,724,645 68.2 most other N. Y. O. & W. . . . . 927,501 1,112,701 83.4 railroads in the Baltimore & Ohio.. 1,037,860 2,031,779 51.1 state. Boston & Maine 936,205 1,021,605 91.6 New Haven...... 678,005 950,505 71.3 Source: NY Times N.Y. Chicago & St. Louis...... 237,930 787,830 30.2

To speed the pace of the crossing work, courthouse; the toddler’s body laid in an and despite the PSC’s objection to re- upstairs bedroom of the grief-shrouded warding railroads that had shirked their home; neighbors gathering downstairs, obligations, an amendment approved at murmuring they had long expected a New York’s 1938 Constitutional Con- death at that crossing.15 vention shifted responsibility for grade For the new Long Island tabloid News- crossing eliminations, and at least 85 per- day, which had begun publishing two 13 14 cent of the cost, to the state. weeks earlier, little Virginia’s death was one of the new staff’s first spot-news tragedies, and grade crossing elimina- 2. Newsday v. Moses tions became one of the first causes for which Newsday would spend ink by the That was where things stood one Sep- barrel. But the editorial page vowed to tember evening in 1940, when curly- make the LIRR’s other needs a core mis- haired 2-year-old Virginia Lanzilotta of sion, especially the need for more trains, Westbury, apparently looking for her and more express trains,16 a promise it mother, wandered out of the family’s kept.17 Pressed that day by Newsday for backyard and onto the Long Island Rail a comment on Virginia’s death and a Road crossing at Urban Avenue, where response to its litany of commuter com- she was killed by an eastbound express plaints, LIRR superintendent, Charles train. E. Adams, protested that the LIRR was Witnesses described a heart-rending running a deficit of $2 million a year. scene: Virginia’s 16-year-old brother Because the railroad had the right of way rushing over to scoop up her small it was not at fault in the accident, and body; the anguished cries of her moth- anyway, Adams said, grade crossings er and shouts of the trainmen waking were almost entirely the state’s responsi- her father, a night janitor at the Mineola bility now.18

12 Part I: Missed Opportunities: 1910–1965

till, the coverage got results: Within ten the legislation for the grade-crossing S several weeks, Nassau officials fund as an aide to Smith,22 and he’d had put together a new $3.2-million list written the revision, too.23 Now he of dangerous crossings that they want- was pushing a plan to divert some $60 ed New York to add to its priority list. million from it for the state parkway Among them were seven crossings in network he’d been assembling for more Mineola: Main Street; Second Street; two than a decade. at Willis Avenue; Roslyn Road; Third Moses had been lavishing parks and Street; and Old Country Road, also parkways upon Long Island (a source known as Herricks Road. The combined of power and patronage for its politi- cost: $800,000. A separate group of cross- cal class24) for years now, but orienting ings were already due to be removed around mass transit infrastructure and in New Hyde Park. That December, the regional commerce ran counter to his state Public Service Commission put the firmly held vision. As a long strip of land entire $3.2 million slate of Nassau proj- fringed with beaches that dead-ended in 19 20 21 ects on its “must” list for removal. the Atlantic, Long Island “is not a com- But something else had been going on mercial community,” he had told real es- during this period that would upend tate groups in 1927, but rather “a natural those plans: Robert Moses had decided recreational community, the inevitable to tap the grade-crossing fund for his playground for millions of people in the parkways. metropolitan section.”25 Now entering the height of his fame and Moses would need a constitutional the prime of his power as the unelected amendment to divert the grade-cross- official shaping the face of modern New ing fund from its statutory purpose. He York, Moses held a royal flush of job would spend the money to extend the titles, as chairman of the new Triborough Northern State Parkway into Suffolk Bridge and Tunnel Authority and the County, to add to the Bronx River and state parks council, city parks commis- Cross County parkways, as well as for sioner, and president of the Long Island parkways in Erie and Monroe counties. State Park Commission. Moses had writ- His proposal went before voters in 1941.

The 1940 death of little Virginia Lanzilotta, shown here as an infant, at Westbury’s Urban Avenue was the first LIRR fatality covered by Newsday, and prompted the paper to do intensive reporting on grade crossings and to push for improvements. Photo courtesy Salvatore Lanzilotta

13 Part I: Missed Opportunities: 1910–1965

Moses denounced as “sheer bunk” the parks officials and their families for a idea that his measure would sabotage visit to Jones Beach, where they enjoyed the elimination of danger spots on Long a buffet lunch, supper, water show and Island, blaming the Long Island Rail fireworks display as his guests at Zach’s Road for the lack of progress on the Bay Stadium. At that council meeting, crossings, adding it was moving so slow- Moses formed a committee, headed by ly the money wouldn’t be needed any the just-appointed director of the state time soon.26 parks council, “to enlighten the public on the referendum.” Moses’ happy His choice of parkway projects seemed appointee, James Evans of Albany, engineered to win support in Republican explained to reporters that there was no areas, but on Long Island, a broad array longer such urgency about grade cross- of civic, business and policy groups ing elimination. were united against diverting the crossing funds. The Long Island Association “The greatest menace today are bottle- was opposed.27 So was the Association neck highways,” Moses’ man asserted. of Long Island Commuters28 and the “So many grade crossings have been Citizens Public Expenditure Survey.29 eliminated in the state that the hazard is 32 The Long Island Real Estate Board con- no longer of primary concern.” demned it, as did the Nassau Taxpayers It was a quintessential Moses maneu- 30 League. A member of the Nassau Board ver.33 Newsday tried to drive home what of Supervisors said the crossings fund was at stake a few days before the vote was of “extreme importance” to Long with a full-page spread listing a “Roll of 31 Island. the Dead” of various crossing accidents But none of them had Moses’ powers over the previous six years, complete 34 of media persuasion, nor the resourc- with grisly photos of the wrecks. es he could command. As chairman of But Moses’ referendum was approved in the Long Island Parkway Commission, a Republican sweep, a measure, observ- Moses convened a meeting of the state ers said, of both the party’s strength and parks council on Long Island in late July the parkways’ popularity.35 - to which he brought down 200 upstate Eight days later, a light truck carrying seven construction workers on their way Moses denounced as “sheer home from work drove onto Mineola’s Old Country/Herricks Road crossing bunk” the idea that his measure in the gathering darkness, directly into the path of a New York-bound steam would sabotage the elimination express. of danger spots on Long Island, The truck blew apart with the force of the impact. Six of its occupants were blaming the Long Island Rail killed instantly; the seventh was carried moaning to Meadowbrook Hospital, Road for the lack of progress where he died the next morning. A on the crossings. crowd of 2,000 milled about, gawking at the uncovered bodies. The watchman stationed at that crossing, who had been

14 Part I: Missed Opportunities: 1910–1965

Reproduced© Newsday with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 15 Part I: Missed Opportunities: 1910–1965

working an involuntary overtime shift, 3. Sore Spots was charged with second-degree man- Newsday continued its campaign for slaughter for failing to lower the gates. more trains, more express trains, and He said, “I wish I could commit suicide.” 38 36 more double-decker trains. Penn Station was “employed to capacity” at That crash showed why the Mineola rush hour, the LIRR protested in 1941;39 crossing projects were indeed “of pri- and its Main Line was still electrified mary concern.” But because of Moses’ only as far as Mineola. After World War political victory, doing that work any II, the ramshackle railroad’s financial time soon had become “practically im- woes multiplied as commuters fled into possible,” the Nassau county attorney automobiles. A 1947 blizzard led to the 37 told Newsday that day. deaths of several passengers stranded It would take more than half a century on trains; a catastrophic collision in 1950 and another catastrophic wreck before killed 79 people, and another killed 32 that Herricks Road crossing would be the next year. The LIRR entered five fixed. The Urban Avenue crossing where years of bankruptcy protection. little Virginia died is part of the “Long It was then that the Nassau County Island Rail Road Expansion Project.” Transit Commission, formed to study the Construction is under way on that cross- LIRR’s problems, highlighted the need ing now, almost 80 years after her death. for an express track on the Main Line as one of seven categories of “inadequacies requiring immediate relief” in January 1949.40 But adding a track had just become a whole lot more complicated: Powered by the G.I Bill, Long Island’s postwar suburban boom was pouring families into all that farmland along the Main Line. The only pre-war home adjoining the tracks on Albertson Place in Mineola, for instance, dates to 1937. Next to it is a row of 26 tidy Cape Cod-style homes built in 1946, and another line of 20 homes built in 1950.41 On these two blocks alone, that was 46 new residential households for which any track work to come would be, Mineola’s deadly Herricks Road crossing in 1939, two years quite literally, in their backyard. before its first major accident. On the right is the hut for When the LIRR emerged from its bank- watchmen tasked with lowering the gates. In the pasture ruptcy, the state legislature approved a behind it is a sign offering 7 acres zoned commercial/ 12-year, $65-million rehabilitation plan industrial. © Estate of Frederick J. Weber. Courtesy of the Queens Borough Public Library Archives, Frederick J. Weber Photographs that exempted it from several taxes and debt repayment and allowed it six fare increases by 1966. (Fares tripled in those

16 Part I: Missed Opportunities: 1910–1965

20 years after the war, while ridership dropped by 36 percent.42) That $65 million helped refurbish and replace rolling stock, but it wasn’t enough to do more, and was peanuts next to the sums being spent to cater to the automobile, at a time when the LIRR had been recog- January 7, 1949 © Newsday nized as the busiest commuting railroad 43 pre-eminent pile-driver for suburban in the world. sprawl in the six decades to follow. Moses was presiding over toll revenues “It becomes imperative to use the rail- from the Triborough Bridge and Tun- road more intensively in order to assist nel Authority that gave him borrowing 44 in the growing traffic problems of the power of almost $500 million. He Island,” the Nassau County Planning himself had argued the LIRR’s best hope Commission pleaded in 1963, urging was as part of a “Long Island Transit 45 investment in major improvements, Authority. But he refused to divert including removing grade crossings and Triborough’s money to shore up deteri- adding a third or even a fourth track on orating mass transit, despite the pleas of the Main Line.47 the Regional Plan Association and other leaders for balanced investments in But Moses assured Congress: “There is infrastructure. little need for an expansion of railroad commuter facilities in the New York met- “Bailing out busted, lazy and backward ropolitan area.”48 private enterprises is (not) the business of government,” Moses said.46 Instead, So the missing third track between Floral he convinced the Port Authority to com- Park and Hicksville, an inadequacy that bine its borrowing power with that of experts had agreed required “immediate his own agency to launch a vast 10-year relief,” was left unbuilt during the great- bridge-and-highway building program, est transportation building boom in New chasing the 90-percent federal match that York’s history. began flowing in 1956 for the Federal Interstate Highway System. The Nassau County Planning In the decade between 1955 and 1965, while the LIRR spent the state’s $65 Commission pleaded in 1963, million subsidy upgrading its most run- down stations and equipment, Moses’ urging investment in major Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority improvements, including re- was pouring $755 million into building the Throgs Neck and Verrazzano moving grade crossings and bridges, the Clearview Expressway and extensions of the Cross Bronx, Sheridan adding a third or even a fourth and Bruckner, and much more. And then track on the Main Line. there was the Long Island Expressway, begun in 1955, which would prove the

17 PART II

The “Bottleneck of Long Island:” 1966-2000

4. Ronan’s Grand Design ternalized rage and frustration due to the uncertainty of disrupted schedules.” 49 By the time the LIRR emerged from its Walter Schlager, who served as president trusteeship in 1966, Gov. Nelson Rocke- of the railroad from 1969 to 1976, felt feller had reluctantly agreed its survival a similar frustration, recalls one of his depended on a state takeover - and that successors in the job: how hard it was at least some of the needed funds should to keep his trains running on time when come from the auto tolls that Moses had hundreds of trains on multiple branches so zealously hoarded. had to be funneled onto just two tracks, Moses’ ambitious 10-year highway and one stalled morning train could ruin building program was completed, and the whole day’s schedule. his power was on the wane. Regrets "The Long Island Rail Road is the most were starting to set in about the price difficult operating agency within the being paid by communities for the ag- MTA family, I can tell you that from gressive highway projects and the decay personal experience," said former MTA that had been imposed on transit. A new chairman Thomas Prendergast, who ran Metropolitan Commuter Transportation both the LIRR and the much larger NYC © Metropolitan Authority was formed to take over the Transit. Prendergast remembers Schlager Transportation LIRR; it would merge with complaining about the same thing: “The Authority the Triborough Bridge fact that you have seven branches feed- and Tunnel Author- ing a main line, where you've got to insert ity, to become the these trains into specific time slots, is far Metropolitan more demanding...There's not much that Transportation it takes to tip the apple cart." Authority, and it would be chaired But for the first years under the MTA, by the governor’s Ronan’s most urgent priority was estab- most trusted aide, lishing a minimal state of good repair, William Ronan, replacing decrepit rail cars and failing starting in 1968. signals, recalls Mitch Pally, a longtime former MTA board member who served By the mid-1960s the as staff to the state Senate’s transportation LIRR’s on-time record was committee in the 1970s. so poor that the chairman of the Nas- sau County Mental Health Board would Vowing to make up for decades of “do- announce the discovery of a “commuter nothingism,” the governor’s picked syndrome,” which he defined as “a mild man lost no time mapping the scope state of chronic stress resulting from in- of the new authority’s ambitions with

18 © Newsday a “Program for Action” that included were promises the railroad could not a subway line on the Long Island Ex- keep, which only added to the general pressway, and extensive modernization cynicism.51 Eventually these expenditures of the LIRR, including rail links to the would result in more trains and better East Side, Kennedy Airport and Lower service. but the introduction of the new Manhattan. M1 cars was met with a spate of delays and cancellations in 1969 as engineers Already, the state had purchased 270 struggled to master the new equipment.52 new, 100-mph M1 electric rail cars for the LIRR that the MTA intended to “serve as a prototype for a new level of fast, comfortable and attractive service.” New high-level platforms would be By the mid-1960s...the Nassau built to reach them, and electrification would be extended as far as Huntington. County Mental Health Board The commute from Great Neck to Man- would announce the discovery hattan would be cut from 28 minutes to 16, Ronan promised. From Hicksville, of a “commuter syndrome,”... from 47 minutes to 22. “a mild state of chronic stress “Nobody on Long Island seems to believe it, ” Ronan lamented in a joint resulting from internalized rage legislativeReproduced with committee permission of the copyrighthearing owner. at FurtherHofstra reproduction prohibited without permission. University in January 1968, confronting and frustration due to the uncer- 50 stony-faced local officials. tainty of disrupted schedules.” Ronan was passionate about improving the commuters’ experience, but he was an academic by training, and these

19 Part II: “The Bottleneck of Long Island:” 1966–2000

“MTA Mini-Maids” were deployed for about five years after the MTA’s formation to build morale and boost the railroad’s image with the public. © Hank Boerner

But the immediate reason for Ronan’s third track,” said Andrew Sparberg, a cool reception in 1968 was the MTA’s manager at the LIRR from 1982 to 2007 modernization program, which also in- and author of From A Nickel To A Token, a cluded plans for elevating the rails for a history of the MTA. series of grade-crossing eliminations the But it was the elevation of the tracks railroad considered critical to improving that drew bipartisan ire from residents speeds and improving vehicle traffic of Mineola, Williston Park and East flow and safety. Though news coverage Williston. Local officials had mount- of those hearings does not mention a ed strenuous opposition to what they third track, it was likely part of the plan. feared would either be a “Chinese Wall” “The railroad’s position when I was cutting their communities in two or, if there was, yes, we’d love to eliminate tracks rose only at crossings, a “night- the grade crossings, they’re a major marish Salvador Dali landscape.” headache for the MTA, but we’re not “Hazards will be removed, true,” North going to do it unless we can build a Hempstead’s then-supervisor, Sol

20 Part II: “The Bottleneck of Long Island:” 1966–2000

Wachtler, said in a speech for a legis- ineola was determined to fight lative hearing, “but the seeds of new M for its vision of its own poten- ghettos will be planted.” 53 tial - and for property values. This was, Wachtler’s argument was precisely after all, the county seat of Nassau, the one voiced by Robert Moses three home to some of the most affluent zip decades earlier, when he had pushed the codes in the nation. But there also was LIRR to remove 21 grade crossings in pressure to act from the county itself, Brooklyn and Queens: When the rail- whose workers were trapped daily road agreed to elevate the tracks, Moses behind crossing gates that were down called that approach “ridiculous” and ¾ of every rush hour, leaving lines of contended he knew the LIRR was “bluff- northbound traffic snaking around the ing,” because, he told the New York corner along the east-west artery of Old Times, everyone knew that elevating the Country Road. tracks, while cheaper, would “destroy “At 5 p.m., Mineola was gridlocked,” the neighborhood.”54 said John Spellman, who served three The village of Mineola wanted its tracks decades as Mineola village attorney. depressed in an open cut, below grade, The Nassau County Planning Com- the approach similar to that taken in the mission developed its own plan that, pleasant North Shore downtowns of like the one Moses pushed through Great Neck and Manhasset. on the LIRR’s Atlantic Avenue branch,

Great Neck, left, and Manhasset, right, have tracks depressed below grade level. ©Kevin Wong, RRPictureArchives.net ©John Levai, RRPictureArchives.net

21 Part II: “The Bottleneck of Long Island:” 1966–2000

The LIRR track area near 2nd St. and Willis Ave. in Mineola, an area that village officials wanted the state to put below grade and cover with a tree-lined mall. “The railroad used it for storage, and just about anything could turn up there,” noted photographer Tom Beckett, who took this shot in November 1987. ©Tom Beckett, RRPictureArchives.net

involved running the tracks through as elevating them, making their proposal a tunnel. Nassau’s vision called for a a non-starter that was only delaying the transportation center on top, and a new much-needed LIRR improvements. downtown Mineola “business center” “Don’t hold us up,” he begged. “...I urge with broad, tree-shaded walkways and that we emphasize the grand design - 55 a central mall. Mineola might then be the major measures - for the conditions as gracious a downtown as Garden City, of our time and the prospects for the that Mecca for white-gloved shoppers future demand it.” 57 next door. But Long Islanders had begun to grow Nassau’s proposal didn’t have the cool to “grand designs,” after watching village’s support and didn’t go far, urban renewal schemes replace hu- Spellman said. But everyone agreed man-scaled neighborhoods, and Moses’ that Mineola residents did not want to men casually eradicate so many homes look like Floral Park just up the road, for his parkways, expressways and which had fought its own losing battle bridges. in the 1930s for below-grade crossings Village officials filed thousands of -sig like Great Neck’s, before acceding to the natures with the state’s Public Service construction of elevated tracks in 1960.56 Commission, which tabled the elevation New Hyde Park officials say their vil- plan after a contentious hearing. Mine- lage also rejected elevated tracks at that ola’s most powerful hometown ally, 7th time. District Sen. John D. Caemmerer of East A frustrated Ronan warned the local Williston, filed five bills to block Ronan’s officials that depressing the tracks effort. In May 1968, Caemmerer’s legisla- would cost three or four times as much tion rescinded the $14 million appropria-

22 Part II: “The Bottleneck of Long Island:” 1966–2000

Long Islanders had begun to grow cool to “grand designs,” tion to eliminate grade crossings.58 “...If the state does not wish to spend the after watching urban renewal money to do the elimination properly by schemes replace human-scaled means of a depression, then don’t eliminate at all,” Caemmerer said.59 neighborhoods. So the LIRR focused instead on elevating the tracks along the Babylon branch over the next few years. 60 It was a discouraging time to be a rail- hubs through the center of the Island. roader. Between 1950 and 1970, a period But public support was weak: statewide when the Nassau-Suffolk population transportation bonds failed in 1971 and grew by 269 percent, LIRR ridership 1973. In 1973, the strike drove LIRR rider- dropped by 14 percent. ship to its lowest point since World War I, at 57 million. Things were just as bad Labor tensions had reached a slow boil, in the city subways. Ronan was getting erupting periodically in strikes, the death threats, and traveled with a body- worst of which, in the winter of 1972-73, guard. would shut down the railroad for seven weeks and drive yet more commuters In 1975, State Sen. Caemmerer asked to to swear off the railroad. In 1973, Long meet again with state transportation offi- Island planners urged the state to take cials to reopen the subject of those grade on a comprehensive overhaul of the crossings, a project he said “has been LIRR into a speedy express line that on the books for 20, 25 years.” But he would link a series of transportation seemed to have changed his view. Local

Grade crossing, Mineola, November 1975. ©Tim Darnell, RRPictureArchives.net

23 Part II: “The Bottleneck of Long Island:” 1966–2000

firemen had complained to him about By 1981, finances had improved. The long delays getting to emergencies, MTA’s chairman, Richard Ravitch, wrote caught in lanes of traffic at the cross- a letter to the governor, lawmakers and ings. The seven miles of track running the mayor of New York urging “that through his district now contained the prompt action be taken to meet the in- last stretch of track running through a creasingly desperate situation of public densely populated section of Nassau transit in New York: first, by immedi- that was not elevated, he told Newsday.61 ately enacting the MTA’s capital legisla- Caemmerer seemed to be hinting he tion; and second, by adopting a subsidy was ready to broker a deal. But the topic program to alleviate the impact on the was moot; there was no money, the state fare of MTA’s spiraling deficit.” said. The economy was in the tank and Lawmakers duly gave the MTA power New York City was insolvent. The fiscal to issue bonds, and its capital program crisis forced the shutdown of the Second was born. And funding to study a third Avenue. Subway project as well as the track for the Main Line was one of the half-drilled tunnel that was to connect items included in the first capital pro- the LIRR with Manhattan’s East Side, gram in 1981. But the MTA’s priority, at and most other big-ticket projects. first, was to resume bringing the system “Funding undoubtedly will reflect the into a state of good repair. impact of an austere economic period,” “Expansion projects took a back seat the state’s transportation commissioner for the most part,” Pally said. “Until said in 1976.62 the accident. “

Rush hour at New Hyde Park, June 1986. Both trains are headed east: one for Oyster Bay, the other Hicksville. ©Tom Beckett, RRPictureArchives.net

24 Part II: “The Bottleneck of Long Island:” 1966–2000

5. The Accident She was a passenger in a van carrying the teenagers home from a party on Sen. John Caemmerer died of cancer the early morning hours of March 14. in February 1982, having risen to chair The van had threaded its way around a the Senate’s transportation committee lowered barrier to cross the tracks. An without being able to broker a way to oncoming train, cruising at 65 miles an eliminate Mineola’s grade crossings that hour, slammed on the brakes, but the the community would accept. force of the impact hurled the van 150 “It would be easier to eliminate Mineo- yards. Thrown from the wreckage, in la,” MTA board member Robert Wald- critical condition with a fractured skull bauer later lamented.63 and multiple leg injuries, Kathleen Caem- merer was the sole survivor. Five weeks after Caemmerer died, his 17-year-old daughter Kathleen barely This was personal: everybody knew survived a wreck at the Herricks Road these kids, or their parents, or knew crossing in Mineola, a train-car collision someone who knew them, or had been that claimed the lives of nine of her among the shaken volunteer ambu- friends. lance crews called to the scene. Shock

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Part II: “The Bottleneck of Long Island:” 1966–2000

This was personal: everybody knew these kids, too soon. The Mineola-Carle Place area, where so many roads and rail lines or their parents, or knew converged, “is the bottleneck of Long Island,” he said, “and the situation is someone who knew them. getting worse and worse.” 64 It was likely no coincidence that the Long Island Association and Regional Plan Association issued a detailed report and horror spurred calls for immediate just then, that once again called for a action. Newsday called it the worst third track from Floral Park to Hicksville motor vehicle accident in Long Island to allow expanded service to Suffolk history. The National Transportation County.65 Suffolk’s population had Safety Board investigated and conclud- almost doubled between 1960 and 1980, ed Herricks Road was the nation’s most and the public demand for better train dangerous grade crossing. service was intensifying. The next year, Democratic Gov. Mario And after all, the MTA had included Cuomo budgeted $70 million to elimi- study money for a third track in its nate Herricks Road and the five other first capital plan. For railroad planners, grade crossings in Mineola - the same it made engineering sense to do both ones that had been scheduled for re- types of work at the same time. And moval in 1941. sadly, it had all too often taken a tragedy Lee Koppelman, executive director to get important track projects funded. of the Long Island Regional Planning But news of the $70 million, greeted Board, said the project was coming none with tears of relief by some in Mineola,

At a news conference in Manhattan’s World Trade Center held to drum up support for the ‘Rebuild New York’ bond issue, Gov. Mario Cuomo, center, is joined by Coun- ty Executive Peter Cohalan of Suffolk and Francis Purcell of Nassau, Mayor Edward Koch and Lt. Gov. Alfred Del Bello. © Newsday

26 Part II: “The Bottleneck of Long Island:” 1966–2000

merely reopened old wounds for others, install the tracks 25 feet below grade, because once again, the state’s plan en- planners estimated. That depth was tailed elevating three miles of roadway. needed to accommodate “piggyback” "It's going to divide this town phys- freight, a condition of receiving the fed- ically and emotionally," one resident eral money, Spellman said. So the lobby- warned, telling Newsday she’d sell her ing began for the extra $110 million. house and move out of state if the plan Another $50 million was secured from went through. 66 Federal Highway Administration funds Accident or no accident, if grade cross- steered by the local congressman, Robert ings were to be eliminated, Mineola Mrazek. And the LIRR agreed to chip residents still wanted those rail lines in $50 million, so it could use the oc- lowered. casion to install a third track between New Hyde Park and Carle Place. Even “Mineola was a madhouse,” recalls a shorter stretch of passing track would John Spellman, who was hired as vil- offer huge improvements in reliability. lage attorney in 1985 after village voters upset about the LIRR’s plans narrowly This, then, was the first time that the ousted the sitting mayor and voted in LIRR actually agreed to fund construc- Ann Galante, a more militant critic of tion of a third track on the Main Line. the agency. Spellman coordinated the Then the president of the United States crowded hearings before an adminis- weighed in. trative law judge for the state DOT at Ronald Reagan objected to Mrazek’s Mineola High School, at which residents appropriation, after his Office of Man- lined up out the door to reiterate their agement and Budget concluded that desire for tracks cut below grade. The lowering Mineola’s tracks was a “waste- railroad people tried to explain that ful, unnecessary and low-priority” use those lowered tracks on the Port Wash- of federal money. Congressional Demo- ington branch are a maintenance and crats ignored him. operational headache, because they tend to fill up with trash, to flood and to suf- “It’ll be snowing in the South Pacific before this money gets cut,” Mrazek fer outages when it rains. But a strong 67 majority of residents were adamant. retorted. “They didn’t want an El,” Spellman recalled. “They said, ‘We came here to get away from the El!’” “Mineola was a madhouse,” The DOT judge approved the vocal resi- ... residents lined up out the dents’ preference to lower the tracks - on condition they could raise the money. door to reiterate their desire A memorandum of understanding was signed by the village, the DOT, the for tracks cut below grade. county, and the MTA. It was going to take not $70 million, but the unheard-of sum of $180 million to

27 PartPart II: “The ii: “The Bottleneck Bottleneck of Long of Long Island:” Island:” 1966–2000 1966–2000

Eastbound passenger train at the Mineola Blvd Bridge, 1972 © Paul Carpenito, RRPictureArchives.net

Finally, Nassau County agreed to come 25 feet deep through the heart of Mineo- up with the last $10 million, because la, without any significant disruption of it owned the decaying Mineola Blvd commuter train service? Bridge. “Twenty engineers and me,” Spellman “This letter seals it,” County Executive recalled. “We spent a lot of time design- Tom Gulotta exulted in 1988. “The only ing.” 68 thing left to do is start the work.” As planning progressed, “they called me But that funding only kicked off a new, in and said look, we have a problem,” multi-agency process to develop the he recalled. There are two huge recharge actual plans. Spellman represented the basins next to the tracks near the Her- village for 30 years in meetings with ricks Road crossing. Federal regulations engineers from the MTA, the LIRR, the forbade running railroad tracks below county public works department, and grade so close to a body of water. So the state DOT. The challenge: how to they would have to find a separate solu- dig a railway cut three trains wide and tion for that crossing.

28 PartPart II: “The ii: “The Bottleneck Bottleneck of Long of Long Island:” Island:” 1966–2000 1966–2000

another three years were going by. said. The longer that big line item for A The MTA put off funding the third their small village was listed in the bud- track to its next five-year capital plan.69 get, the more ways would be dreamed In 1990, the MTA released a new 20- up to spend it, he warned. year plan that listed a third track on the In 1995, as if in confirmation, another Main Line as one of three major capital president, Bill Clinton, tried unsuccess- projects it hoped to complete by 2011, fully to axe the same funding Reagan along with East Side Access and a rail had challenged. But at least work on the 70 link to Kennedy Airport. Herricks Road crossing was finally un- And in 1991, the state had another der way, at a cost of $85 million, under a unpleasant surprise for Mineola. The compromise that involved running the price tag to eliminate Mineola’s grade roadway under slightly elevated tracks. crossings was not the $180 million it had The state reaffirmed its plan to lower the calculated, but $342 million. Staff had tracks for Mineola’s other five cross- underestimated the technical challeng- ings, and village officials said they were es, and inflation had raised costs. That breaking out the champagne. threw the feasibility of the entire project But by the time the Herricks Road in doubt, the state said, reviving its old, reopened as an underpass in 1998, the cheaper proposal to build bridges over county’s portion of the job had been 71 the tracks instead. designated a public hazard. The Mineo- Mineola officials were furious. For the la Blvd. Bridge had exposed rebar, loose next two years, they refused to approve bolts and so much concrete falling from any work at all on the deadly Herricks its undersides that it had to be wrapped Road crossing. They were convinced in netting. that if they allowed that single, above- Replacing that bridge without tackling ground project to proceed, the political the tracks first meant the end of the pressure to lower the other five would plans for which Mineola mayors and evaporate. trustees had fought for over 40 years, “The entire project is important to the whole central Nassau area,” Mitch Pally, then vice president of the Long Island Association, tried to assure residents. That threw the feasibility of the “Not only for vehicles, but for the railroad also. We want to see the entire entire project in doubt, the state project done.” But residents were not said, reviving its old, cheaper inclined to trust such assurances. “We had meetings you can’t believe,” proposal to build bridges over Spellman said. Eventually, trustees the tracks instead. relented after Spellman quietly warned that Mineola shouldn’t play chicken with the state. “It might be an allocation of money, but nobody’s holding it in his pocket,” he

29 Part II: “The Bottleneck of Long Island:” 1966–2000

The Mineola Blvd. Bridge had Why did Mineola get so little done? Had exposed rebar, loose bolts the state been slow-walking a project it didn’t like all those years? “There was a and so much concrete falling great paranoia in the village,” said Spell- from its undersides that it man, but he is convinced the planners’ efforts were sincere, and said he has 200 had to be wrapped in netting. cartons of drawings and correspondence to prove it. Jim Malatras, a former senior Cuomo aide who now heads the Rockefeller In- stitute of Government, saw a similar dy- Spellman knew. But the plans seemed namic play out with the 2005 third track to have been all but forgotten now that effort, and says it’s only to be expected traffic was flowing smoothly and safely when difficult projects are delegated to at Herricks Road, and the contentious agency staff. public mood had eased. A generational Mineola’s decades of work weren’t fruit- shift was under way, one that was com- less: its citizens had kept the “El” out. ing to embrace transit-oriented down- Another crossing, Roslyn Road, would town apartment development that soon become an underpass in 2009. Both of would become a Mineola signature. those rail bridges were configured to

Mineola’s two Willis Avenue grade crossings are to become an underpass as shown in this rendering. © Metropolitan Transportation Authority

30 Part II: “The Bottleneck of Long Island:” 1966–2000

An aerial image of the tracks near Herricks Road shows the third track that was added when the crossing was eliminated. © Google Earth

one day accommodate a third track, as was the Mineola Blvd Bridge. A half- mile stretch of a third track was even built into the south side of the Herricks crossing; it can be seen in Google Maps, and comes to an end about three blocks from the crossing. As for the other four of the six grade crossings the state had promised to eliminate - first in 1941, and then in 1983: Three are included in the “Long Island Railroad Expansion” project now under way: Willis Avenue’s two crossings are to become another underpass, An Oyster Bay train crossing Willis Ave. in Mineola, July while the Main Street crossing will be 1988. ©Tom Beckett, RRPictureArchives.net closed. The sixth Mineola crossing on the 1941 and 1983 lists, Second Avenue on the less-traveled Oyster Bay branch line, Replacing that bridge without will remain as is. tackling the tracks first meant the end of the plans for which Mineola mayors and trustees had fought for over 40 years.

31 PART III Long Island At Risk: 2000-2015

6. Building Coalitions RPA’s advocacy won the support of Governor George Pataki and Long By the turn of the millennium, work had Island’s dominant political figure, N.Y. begun on replacing the Mineola Blvd Sen. Alfonse D’Amato, who had risen Bridge. Behind the scenes, momentum to power as a Hempstead supervisor. was unmistakably building to tackle a D’Amato and Pataki, the last two Repub- third track in earnest. licans elected to statewide office in an Its two indefatigable advocates were Re- increasingly Democratic state, knew they gional Plan Association and the Long Is- owed their political survival to keeping land Association. In the mid-1990s, RPA the pulse of swing voters in the suburbs. ramped up its campaign to get funding “They figured out that a large proportion for East Side Access, the tunnel connec- of the people commuting on the rail- tion to a new LIRR terminal at Grand road were Republicans and tended to be Central Station, now seen as a needed well-off voters, who voted in primaries,” economic boost for Long Island, which had begun to underperform the rest of the region in job creation and household income. For decades, the large majority of job creation in the tri-state region had happened in the suburbs, notes Robert Yaro, who served as president of RPA from 1990 to 2014. But since 1990, the pattern had reversed itself - most jobs were being created in Manhattan. 72 And while a network of revital- ized regional centers in places like Stamford, White Plains, Newark and New Brunswick, N.J. had been generating new employment, “Long Island was basically just not well connected to the core of the region,” he said. ”There was no opportunity for reverse commuting, no opportunity to expand the inbound commute in the morning.” © Regional Plan Association

32 Willis Ave. crossing, Mineola, 2013. The train has stopped to wait for another one due from the Oyster Bay branch. ©Neil Feldman, RRPictureArchives.net

Yaro said. “So he and Pataki got behind Reverse commuting was gaining cur- this. You could argue it was for political rency in economic development circles. reasons, but they saw that it was in the “Smart growth” was becoming a thing. best interests of Long Island.” Across the nation, Americans were 74 In 1998, the MTA began engineering warming to public transportation. studies for the East Side Access project, Articles began appearing with regulari- and Nassau County issued its first com- ty in support of a third track, including prehensive plan, which called for both one by the Rauch Foundation’s Patricia East Side Access and a third track. Schaefer. The MTA’s 2000-2004 capital pro- “What a third track on the LIRR rep- gram included $10 million to study a resents for individuals from the city to third track, envisioned as a 16.5-mile, the East End is more choices: in jobs, $100-million segment from Queens Vil- places to live and ways of getting there,” 75 lage to Hicksville. The agency launched Schaefer wrote. similar plans for a third track on Met- ro-North’s Harlem Line. In 2000, the man with veto power over Reverse commuting was the third track project through his seat gaining currency in economic on the powerful Capital Program Re- view Board, GOP Sen. Dean Skelos of development circles. “Smart Rockville Centre, pronounced the third track plan “a win for Long Island,” growth” was becoming a thing. a project that would be crucial to the growth of intra-Island travel, reverse commuting and, notably, rail freight.73

33 Part III: Long island at Risk: 2000–2015

fter so many decades as the un- tal review] and get a ... decision, the A loved punchline for commuting only other drawback is the question of jokes, the Long Island Rail Road now funding," he said then.79 The railroad held appeal to progressives as the green had applied for a grant from the Federal antidote to suburban sprawl. The rail- Transit Administration, Dermody said.80 road’s on-time performance was im- Finally, in Sept. 2004, the railroad rolled 76 proving too, and ridership had been out its new five-year capital plan, which coming back: in 2000 it hit 84.7 million, included $202 million for the “Main its highest level in 50 years. A coalition Line Corridor Improvement Project.” 81 was formed to fight against a plan by It did not go well. the state to widen the Long Island Ex- pressway, arguing instead for the third track and other transit improvements.77 In September 2003, a new president took the helm at the Long Island Railroad: James Dermody, whose career at the (R) Metropolitan railroad had started 45 years earlier as a Transportation ticket clerk in Massapequa. Authority “He knows that railroad backward and forward and inside and out,” a leading union official said with approval. From his first media interview, Dermody named the third track as a top priority.78 In May 2004, another new group, the “Coalition for the LIRR Third Track,” was launched by the Tri-State Trans- portation Campaign, the Long Island 7. Main Line Corridor Progressive Coalition, and the Long Improvements Island Association. An LIRR spokesman With its preliminary 2005 capital plan, confirmed the railroad was preparing to released in July 2004, the MTA an- hire an engineer and had included fund- nounced it was moving forward with ing in the capital budget for the project. what it called a “core investment” to The head of the commuter council called prepare the LIRR for the increased rail the project “sorely needed.” traffic that would come with the start of But while the MTA’s executive director, service to Grand Central, then expected Katherine Lapp, said she was “optimis- in 2012. The $202.6 million would be tic” the project would find funding, oth- spent on what it called “Phase 1” of that ers warned of stiff community opposi- project. tion, and at a time when there had been What it proposed: adding a third track serious talk of saving money by merging to an 11.5-mile stretch of the Main Line the LIRR and Metro-North. Dermody’s from Bellerose to Hicksville. Dermody anxiety was not hard to detect. noted this would allow expanded ser- "If we can get through the [environmen- vice for reverse commuters and accom-

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modate increased freight traffic, taking It should have been a PR bonanza for some trucks off Long Island’s congest- the railroad, but from the beginning, ed highways. The project would also Dermody’s third track pitch was in eliminate five grade crossings in New trouble. Hyde Park and New Cassel, and involve 82 Two months before the Sept. 2004 roll- substantial station rehabilitation. out, faced with a $436 million budget deficit, the LIRR’s parent MTA had “A total of eight roadway grade cross- begun floating the possibility of ending ings exist within the project corridor. service completely on two of the LIRR’s The Main Line Corridor Improvement branches, raising fares, or imposing initiative will evaluate the potential service cutbacks or layoffs. Those bud- for five of the eight roadway grade get worries dominated the headlines. crossings to be separated and/or Federal support for capital projects, closed as part of the future design meanwhile, had been increasingly dis- 84 of Main Line improvements. The appointing. remaining three are being addressed Newsday’s headline for the Sept. 2004 through a partnership of: New York rollout story, set a tone of incredulity: State Department of Transportation “LIRR's $2.4B solution/Despite fiscal (NYSDOT), MTA/LIRR, Nassau woes at MTA, Long Island Rail Road County and the Federal Highway seems set to spend billions on fixes, new Administration (FHWA). rail yard and more.“ The five roadway grade crossing be- Skelos, Long Island’s representative ing considered for separation and/or on the state’s Capital Program Review closure include: Board, had been an enthusiastic back- • Covert Avenue in New Hyde Park; er four years earlier, but now said he couldn’t support the project, suggesting • 12th Street in New Hyde Park; it was politically tone deaf in the current • New Hyde Park Road in New Hyde fiscal climate. Park; “There does not seem to be any coordi- • School Street in New Cassel; and nation, what they are proposing in the • Urban Avenue in New Cassel.” 83 capital plan and some of the things they

In addition to life-saving safety im- It should have been a PR provements, the removal of these grade crossings would relieve extraordinary bonanza for the railroad, noise blight and chronic traffic problems. Federal railroad rules require a but from the beginning, train passing through a grade crossing Dermody’s third track to blow its horn three times, and the Main Line carried 250 trains a day. At pitch was in trouble. some of the intersections safety gates were down 24 minutes out of every rush hour.

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The meeting room at a local

catering hall in Floral Park nothing compared to what was waiting for the railroad at its public scoping hear- was jammed with hundreds ings on the third track plans in June 2005. of men, women and children The meeting room at a local catering hall in Floral Park was jammed with bearing placards condemn- hundreds of men, women and children ing the project. The mood bearing placards condemning the project. The mood was surly. was surly. “It was a screamfest,” is how Helena Wil- liams, president of the railroad from 2007 to 2014, summed up one meeting she attended. “Everyone was just yelling.”

are saying on the operational side,” Ske- Kate Slevin, now senior vice president of los said, suggesting the agency should state programs and advocacy at Regional “prioritize a little better.” 85 Plan Association, goes to public hearings for a living. In her experience, the 2005 Notably, Pataki provided Dermody little meetings were uniquely horrible. visible support. To the bewilderment of MTA leadership and Long Island’s busi- “Those meetings about the third track, ness and transit advocates, the governor the initial round, stick out in my mind the previous spring had thrown his as the worst ones I’ve seen,” said Slevin, backing behind an entirely different $7 who was there on behalf of the Tri-State billion proposal to build a new, one-seat Transportation Campaign. “I’ve nev- rail link to Lower Manhattan to promote er been, before or after that, booed by its economic recovery from the Sept. 11, 10-year-olds for supporting a project.” 2001 World Trade Center attacks.86 That Gerard Bringmann, then chairman of rail link became Pataki’s top transpor- the Long Island Rail Road Commuter tation priority, one he pushed the MTA Council, attended a hearing in Mineola to spend on, and for which he pursued and discovered he was the only one of federal support with singular zeal, as hundreds present who spoke in support allies suggested he had come to see the of the proposal. “They really got wound rebuilding of the Trade Center area as up,” he said. 87 the keystone to his legacy as governor. The opposition had exploded with the "The question is, does the (lower Man- speed of the Internet. Citizens Against hattan) rail link deserve to be at the Rail Expansion, (CARE) founded in Flo- head of the line?" asked Bettina Dami- ral Park, rapidly claimed the support of ani, project director for Good Jobs New 141 community organizations and elected York. officials. In Garden City, its counterpart As the LIRR’s engineering firm JMRM- was called RARE (Residents Against Rail Harris was preparing the project for Expansion). New Hyde Park residents environmental review in spring 2005, founded a group called Save Our Village. Pataki and the MTA were engaged in a Before long, CARE had a network of public battle over the size of the MTA’s 10,000 residents who signed a petition budget. But the tension in Albany was against the third track. It was little sur-

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prise, but the worst news possible for local traffic was before the state under- the MTA came when CARE won the took to eliminate the village’s grade support of their state senators, Michael crossings by elevating the tracks onto Balboni and Kemp Hannon, who lob- a viaduct. During rush hour, waits at bied to have the project removed from the crossings were so long, his moth- the MTA’s five-year capital program. er passed the time by having the kids Bowing to the wishes of their colleagues, sound out words on street signs. the Capital Program Review board that “She had to entertain five of us in the car summer rejected the MTA’s five year somehow,” he said. “The first two words capital plan, only agreeing to approve it I learned to read were (the street names) with one unprecedented condition: that CAROLINE and ATLANTIC.” it exclude the third track project, which Floral Park had lost a battle in the 1930s would have to come back for approval to have the tracks depressed below once the design phase was complete. grade rather than being elevated.89 Now "The railroad has done a poor job of it accepted the wisdom of eliminating a visioning this project as it affects com- source of both danger and daily traffic munities along the line, but particularly gridlock, and providing improved rail- Floral Park," Mr. Balboni told the New road service. But the job turned out to York Times that July.88 involve the taking of the houses at the Balboni had surveyed his constituents end of every block bordering the tracks, and noticed a striking phenomenon: In just to provide space for a temporary most communities, it was mainly those track during the construction period. living very close to the tracks who were During the same period, Tweedy re- opposed to the project. But there was called, the state widened nearby Jeri- broad opposition throughout Floral cho Turnpike a few blocks north. That Park. entailed removing every business on the “They hung together - they were unified north side of that thoroughfare. Another regardless of their proximity,” said Jim agency, meanwhile, was tearing roads Sherry, Balboni’s former chief of staff. In up for sewer lines, he recalled. Floral Park, “people have fidelity to the community, and their parish, and their schools and their Little League. They “People have fidelity to the have their little slice of heaven, and community, and their parish, they’re going to fight like hell to defend it.” and their schools and their Outsiders might better understand Little League. They have their Floral Park’s reaction, opponents suggested, if they had lived through the little slice of heaven, and trauma the village had experienced half a century earlier, the last time the state they’re going to fight like hell did major infrastructure work there. to defend it.” Former mayor Tom Tweedy said he is just old enough to remember how bad

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hat meant a boyhood with sand people antagonized and upset if that’s T always coming out of his pock- how you are presenting that topic so ets; but local mom-and-pop businesses early in the process…It wasn’t a great affected by the construction were hard strategy.” hit. They “hung on by their fingernails,” Arguments that seemed so compelling Tweedy said, but many did not survive. at regional business breakfasts, like “The kind of callousness that took place attracting more reverse commuters from in the adverse eminent domain and the the city to compete for LI jobs, suddenly clear-cutting of buildings is still kind seemed a lot less attractive in front of an of reverberating 50 years later here,” audience of LI residents. Many residents agreed Dennis McEnery, a co-founder were virulently opposed to improve- of CARE. “At one point Floral Park ments that would allow more freight to was 17,500 (in population), and now travel on the line. And they didn’t trust it’s pretty rock steady at 16,000 give or the railroad to tell the truth about its take...You ask, well, where were those plans. thousand people? A lot of them were on For career railroaders, business and Jericho Turnpike.” environmentalists, the idea of enabling Traffic in Floral Park did flow better and more freight to move on the rail lines more safely than before. But Tweedy was simply responsible stewardship. It says trains stopped in their village less could reduce the deficits this commuter often, and at first, the new elevated plat- line had long imposed on its owners, form could only be reached by climbing and reduce prices for LI consumers and a long flight of steel stairs, so the elderly, manufacturers alike. In the past, when disabled, and those with strollers had to the aerospace industry was a major travel elsewhere to board a train. Flo- employer, the freight lines had been far ral Park residents take their patriotism more heavily used - 74,000 carloads per seriously, Tweedy said, but came to feel year, compared with about 13,000 in they had been played. 2000. And getting freight off the express- “We bore a tremendous burden,” way was both safer and better for the Tweedy said. “Floral Park has done environment. more than its fair share for the growth But residents along the rail line saw it and development of Long Island.” differently. Even leading supporters of the third “We can all talk about the need for addi- track project say the railroad mishan- tional freight to take trucks off the road, dled both the substance and the optics but if that freight is coming through of the 2005 project - no surprise, consid- your backyard, you also want to know ering that the state’s top elected officials how it’s going to be offset,” said Jack had delegated the politically sensitive Martins, then the mayor of Mineola. project to MTA agency staff. Freight trains shake the earth as they “I walked into one meeting, and there pass, residents say, and it is not uncom- was a slide up (on the screen) with the mon for them to pull off to a spur and definition of eminent domain!” said stand idling, spewing diesel fumes RPA’s Slevin. “You’re just going to make and vibrations.

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Afternoon freight RF-60 heads east under the Mineola Blvd. Bridge, ahead of the rush hour. March 1, 1977. The bridge has been rebuilt with higher clearances that could allow for larger freight trains to pass, notes Jack Martins, a former Mineola mayor and later state senator who was a vocal opponent of the 2005 third track plans. © Tim Darnell, RRPictureArchives.net

It had not gone unnoticed that when the Even Dermody’s efforts at outreach Mineola Blvd. and Ellison Ave. bridges backfired. Tweedy, then a village trust- were rebuilt, they were elevated to a ee, remembers the railroad president height that would allow larger freight and other officials coming to the village trains to travel on the line, Martins said to discuss the planned changes -- in a in a recent interview. In the public hear- chauffeured car. The mayor wondered, ings, speculation abounded about what why couldn’t they take the train? 90 they might carry: Garbage? Toxic chemi- Bellerose Mayor Donna Sherrer said cals? Nuclear waste? the presence of an MTA attorney at the Making matters worse, the railroad’s hearings struck residents as adversarial, representatives wouldn’t say which, which only served to heighten the ten- or how many, homes and businesses sion in the hearings. would need to be condemned for the project. By the time they started to The railroad’s representatives provide numbers, the opposition had already hardened. wouldn’t say which, or how “To this day, they have never shared many, homes and businesses detailed plans,” said one veteran of the third track effort. “They broached the would need to be condemned subject in kind of an unprepared fash- ion...There’s nothing worse than uncer- for the project. tainty in a political environment.”

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He couldn’t understand why resi- so many benefits. But he was equally dents were so upset about some- confused when MTA officers insisted on thing that, to his mind, promised escorting him to the Mineola train station afterward, and even waited on the them so many benefits. platform until he boarded the train. “I was like, are you guys serious? They were overreacting,” Bringmann said. “...I never felt unsafe.” “People were not happy, and obviously As newspaper headlines accumulated expressed their unhappiness,” she said. about villages standing up to the pow- Tweedy said he was both horrified and erful MTA like David vs. Goliath, Bel- insulted to see MTA K-9 officers ap- lerose officials were busy devising the proaching the meeting hall before one municipal version of a poison pill. In of the later scoping hearings, as moms December 2005, that village adopted an with strollers and small children were ordinance allowing them to give land- entering the building. The sight of the mark status to the village hall and two police dogs set off a heated confron- other Tudor-style buildings bordering tation between Floral Park and MTA the railroad tracks. police, before the K-9 officers finally “Anything that slows this (Third Track) withdrew, Tweedy said. plan is a positive,” trustee Thomas The night Gerard Bringmann of the Ryan told Newsday. “If we can throw a wrench in the railroad’s plans, so much Long Island Rail Road Commuter Coun- 91 cil found himself the only supporter the better.” of the project at an emotional Mineola When the railroad submitted a revised hearing, he couldn’t understand why version of the plans to the Federal Tran- residents were so upset about some- sit Administration a little more than two thing that, to his mind, promised them years later, Bellerose was excluded.

A freight train working the siding at New Hyde Park in 1988. “He’ll spend 30 minutes going back and forth before getting everything placed and pulled,” noted photographer Tom Beckett. © Tom Beckett, RRPictureArchives.net

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8. ‘At Least He Got It Done’ and won. That was a section of the parkway that Robert Moses had famously By early 2006, the battle lines were pretty detoured three miles to avoid wealthy well drawn. estates, while ignoring a family farmer’s The business community, led by Long pleas not to build it straight across the Island Association President Matthew center of his acreage.92 Crosson, had joined with the region’s Mindful of resident concerns, Balboni unions to push for the third track project, was urging the railroad to focus on along with Newsday and the major plan- grade crossings and forget the third ning and transportation groups. track. (“The MTA doesn't "have enough In vocal opposition were the mayors money to do both, and the grade cross- and civics of the Main Line region. Siding ings have to take priority," he said.) 93 with the mayors were the area senators: Nassau County Executive Tom Suozzi Kemp Hannon, Michael Balboni and was urging the railroad to fit the project Dean Skelos. inside its own right of way.94 And the Traditionally, Long Island’s nine Senate governor was still focused on lower seats had been held by Republicans who Manhattan and his competing rail link. formed a caucus and voted as a bloc. The Long Island Association seemed That gave them enormous sway over all to score a coup that winter when they action by the Senate, because they ef- teamed up with union officials and fectively granted each other veto power Balboni, promising to back an afford- over any proposal affecting their district. able-housing measure Balboni was Long Island’s Republicans held the key trying to get through the legislature if he to Republican control of the Senate. would support the third track. But their The senators had learned from experi- announced “memorandum of under- ence to listen closely to their mayors. standing” backfired when the LIA and And the mayors were “unalterably Long Island Federation of Labor vowed opposed to it,” says Ernest Strada, to withhold money and support from Westbury’s mayor in 2006, one of the any state lawmaker who failed to back longest-serving and most respected the two measures. mayors of his era. It was the magni- “It hadn’t been done before,” federation tude of the takings, he said. “They had President John Durso recalled. “These not engineered it to the extent it’s been two issues were essential to the future engineered today...The state knows we of Long Island, and if you weren’t going are not a community to be buffaloed or to support them, we weren’t going to toyed with.” support you.” Strada was referring to Westbury’s battle That led to what Durso describes as with the state Department of Transpor- a “spirited discussion” with Senate tation in the late 1980s over the state’s Republicans. Skelos, then the deputy project to widen the Northern State majority leader, was furious, saying the Parkway, a plan that would have routed threats had crossed an ethical line, and traffic through the village and deleted that no senator would be authorized to two parkway bridges relied on by resi- back the rail project until environmen- dents. Westbury took the state to court, tal studies were finished. He refused to

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give up his leverage to protect residents ut the third track project’s momen- near the track, saying the MTA was B tum would first take another jolt. often “very insensitive.” The mess sent A teenager visiting from Minnesota, Balboni furiously backpedaling: “It’s a whose blood-alcohol level was nearly ham-handed approach,” he said in 2006 three times the legal limit, fell through of the LIA’s announcement. “I wouldn’t a gap between the train and platform 95 have advised it.” at the LIRR’s Woodside station in the That spring, New York’s future gov- early-morning hours in August, and was ernor, Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, killed after she crawled into the path of heartened third track proponents when an oncoming train. Within a few days, he promised to throw the power of his Newsday reporters had measured simi- office behind the project, calling it “a lar gaps as large as 15 inches at stations critical part of the region’s future trans- around the system. portation plan.” Spitzer also signalled The newspaper launched an intensive he would drop Pataki’s distracting quest investigation, similar to the approach to build a high-speed rail link to Lower taken by the Boston Globe reporters de- Manhattan. Spitzer’s aggressive pursuit picted in the movie “Spotlight,” whose of enforcement action against abuses in shoe-leather probe of the Boston Archdi- the securities industry had given him a ocese’s protection of abusive priests had national profile, and he was expected to won that paper the Pulitzer Prize for be equally bold as governor. public service three years earlier. Over “Parochial interests in the New York the next six months a team of up to 11 State Senate currently are blocking a de- Newsday reporters fanned out to ex- cision on the Third Track,” Spitzer told plore the unreported history of the gap RPA members in a speech that May, in a problem. The reporters found records dig at Skelos. “Too many timid political of some 800 gap-related incidents in the leaders are engaging in classic avoid- previous 10 years, and documented 30 ance behavior.” years of rider complaints and lawsuits. 97 Spitzer suggested he’d rather imitate The railroad‘s leadership dismissed the hard-driving Robert Moses, saying that history as “overwhelmingly, mi- Moses’ epitaph should be: “At Least He nor incidents,” but it was compelled to Got It Done.”96 make the problem an urgent priority. Spurred by Newsday’s gap coverage, the railroad undertook an emergency $9.4 million project to install threshold A teenager...whose blood-alcohol plates to fix the problem.98 The paper was a finalist for the 2008 Pulitzer Prize level was nearly three times the for public service.99 legal limit, fell through a gap Newsday’s intensive focus on the LIRR platform gap coincided with an abrupt between the train and platform. decline in coverage of the third track proposal, which went unmentioned for the remainder of 2006.

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Third Track vs. “The Gap” LIRR Coverage in Newsday Jan. 2006 – May 2008 – THIRD TRACK MENTIONS – “THE GAP” MENTIONS

45 40 35 30 25 20 15 10

NUMBER OF MENTIONS 5 0

Oct Oct Feb Feb Feb Aug Aug July July Nov Nov Dec Dec May May May April April April Sept Sept June June March March March Jan’07 Jan’06 Jan’08

Data Source: Proquest

The editorial page had designated grade crossing removal and express rail service as top priorities from its first days of publication in 1940. But from August 2006 until 2008, an intensive governmental effort to achieve those things was cast into shadow by the gap. Even without such competition, stories about debate over a track modernization project held little obvious potential as clickbait. During this period, planners quietly worked to revise their project in re- New warning sign, 2008 sponse to the objections of residents and © John McCluskey, officials. In October 2006, Dermody re- RRPictureArchives.net tired as LIRR president. The next month, Spitzer was elected governor.

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9. Losing the Battle “They were going to take out about Spitzer took office promising to tackle 20 properties in New Hyde Park, and the “megaprojects,” but the MTA also among them a number of single-family faced a $1 billion deficit. homes,”-- just to provide a temporary grade crossing during construction, re- He began by trying to weaken the called New Hyde Park Mayor Lawrence Republicans’ grip on the Senate. He Montreuil, who was then a trustee. appointed Balboni as homeland security czar, throwing his support behind “Helena was very patient with us,” he a Democratic county legislator, Craig said. “As we came back and said, ‘why Johnson, who won that open seat in the can't you do this?’ she would go back resulting special election. But Republi- to her engineers and come back with a cans made the third track a central cam- technical explanation.” paign issue, and Johnson soon declared Over time, though, the number of prop- 100 himself an opponent as well. erties affected by the tracks was lowered By the time Helena Williams took over from 197 to 80, then 72. Takings for the as president in June 2007, railroad offi- grade crossings were whittled down cials had shrunk the project from 11.5 to from 52 to between eight and 19. Only 10 miles, starting it in Floral Park rather two homes would be entirely taken, the than Queens Village.101 railroad now told residents; most homes would be affected by less than five feet.102 Williams, a Garden City resident and affable neighbor to many of the proj- By the time the railroad submitted its ects fiercest critics, held more than 40 preliminary draft environmental impact meetings with officials and civics, and statement to the Federal Transit Admin- worked closely with engineers to try istration in February 2008, its informa- and reduce the project’s impacts. tional Power Point had dropped all

Nassau village officials on an unsuccessful 2018 trip to the Federal Transit Administration’s lower Manhattan office to see the preliminary draft EIS for the third track project. An official showed the group several banker’s boxes, but would not permit them to be examined. Tom Tweedy photo

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Daily Ridership Falls in the Recession mention of increasing freight capacity or 280,000 reverse commuting. Instead, it empha- sized reliable and frequent service to 275,000 both Penn and Grand Central, as well as 270,000 safety, intra-Island service, and supporting Long Island’s economy and housing 265,000 market. 260,000 None of this was proving any more persuasive with opponents, however. And 255,000 events had turned against the project: In 250,000 March, Spitzer abruptly resigned amid a prostitution scandal. His successor, 245,000 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 David Paterson, would show little interest in the project. The collapse of the nation’s subprime mortgage industry was Data Source: MTA, Long Island Rail Road triggering a financial-sector meltdown that would usher in the Great Recession crats had taken control. To shore up MTA and send ridership into a slide. But what finances, they approved a commuter tax MTA officials worried about were the that infuriated suburban voters. Dem- huge shortfalls on the Second Avenue ocrat Craig Johnson, well aware of the Subway and East Side Access projects. political price he would pay for supporting the measure, demanded in exchange Williams learned just how pressing that the chairmanship of the Capital Projects problem was after she filed the LIRR’s Review Board, giving him the power to proposed interim capital program with block funding for the third track. MTA chairman Elliot Sander in the early spring of 2008, including the third So far had the project’s political fortunes track as they had planned, and adding sunk by this point that even an attempt $1 billion in its estimated costs. When to insert mention of it in unfunded, the finalized program was announced conceptual form into the 2010-14 capital 103 that summer, the third track and that plan met with blistering criticism. The $1 billion had been deleted. East Side finalized plan dropped all mention of Access, which had been the spur for the it. Hempstead Supervisor Kate Murray third track all along, was by then years gathered with local officials at the Floral behind schedule, although the federal Park train station to celebrate the victory. stimulus program would provide badly needed funds to keep it going. “It became clear to me that I was not go- “Why am I going to go pound ing to get the third track done,” recalled Williams, now chief deputy Nassau all these neighborhoods and all County executive. “Why am I going to go pound all these neighborhoods these local officials for meetings and all these local officials for meetings about something we can’t fund?” about something we can't fund?” In the state Senate, meanwhile, Demo-

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“This is still America, and the will of the Avenue, completed in 2016, and Post people will always eventually prevail,” Ave, which reopened in 2017. She called CARE president Bill Corbett told the it her “stealth third track” work. 104 Floral Park Dispatch. “Once there was no funding for the A year later, Andrew Cuomo was elect- third track in the capital program and ed governor on the Democratic line, and it didn't make any sense to continue Johnson lost his Senate seat, defeated by talking about it, I didn't talk about it Mineola Mayor Jack Martins, a third- anymore,” Williams said. Instead, she track opponent who had attacked John- took on the Double Track expansion son’s vote on the commuter tax. project from Farmingdale to Ronkonko- But Williams had not entirely aban- ma, which opened in September 2018, doned the third track project. Instead dramatically increasing the railroad’s she shifted her effort to incremental, capacity to serve Suffolk County. That noncontroversial steps toward the project was legally, politically and tech- same goal: Finally finishing, in 2009, nically much easier, and involved no the Roslyn Road crossing in Mineola takings. that had been promised since 1983, but Second Track was anything but a third building space for a third track into rail in Suffolk County, Williams said: it. Making sure space for a third track they “loved it, welcomed it, wanted it.” was designed into two railroad bridge She got that right, to judge from the replacements, at Westbury’s Ellison turnout for the ribbon cutting.

Second Track ribbon cutting and Wyandanch station rededication, September 2018. © Metropolitan Transportation Authority

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Westbury’s 2017 Post Ave. bridge replacement, with space for a third track. © Metropolitan Transportation Authority

it hoped to resume work on it in a few 10. Third Rail or Fast years. But Cuomo had had no exposure Track? to the proposal, which had been aban- Five years of quiet ensued, but change doned before his election, and Long was under way for Long Island. Island’s elected officials weren’t going to tell him about it. Elsewhere in the region, in places like New Brunswick, N.J. and White Plains, “I really do tip my hat to the Rauch in Westchester County, urban revitaliza- Foundation for resurrecting something tion projects were booming, the RPA’s that was dead,” said Dennis McEnery, Yaro said. “Then you’d go to Long a co-founder of Citizens Against Rail Island and stuff was just sitting there. It Expansion (CARE) recently. was astounding that we couldn’t make “I mean, this was literally like Franken- progress.” stein, you know -- it was DEAD. This Metro-North had completed its own should have been a once-in-a-generation third track, and thousands of new re- fight. “ verse commuters were riding it from the McEnery and Yaro don’t agree on the city to White Plains. It was working on a third track, but they both believe the plan to send trains directly to Penn Sta- Rauch Foundation played a pivotal role tion. Penn Station was already increas- at this point. ingly congested with expanding new Rauch is a Long Island-based family connections from New Jersey Transit, foundation established with the fortune Amtrak expanding its own service, and from an auto parts manufacturing busi- steadily climbing LIRR ridership. ness started by Philip Rauch in 1913. But on Long Island, the third track had The foundation’s aim was to find places become a political third rail. When where focused philanthropy could have prodded, the MTA still told Newsday the most impact in shaping positive

47 Part III: Long island at Risk: 2000–2015

Long Island was losing young was one of Long Island’s most import- people at almost five times ant ones. Transit-oriented downtowns, reliable and convenient rail service and the national rate, because more affordable housing were the key to housing was unaffordable and the region’s future. “We understood the opposition (to a commutes unmanageable. third track) from the local communities,” Douzinas said. “But that they should determine what happens for the entire Island? It was such an obvious change, and much of its early work on strength.” Long Island was in early childhood and In February 2012, the Index’s director, education projects. But foundation presi- Ann Golob, and Douzinas met with the dent Nancy Douzinas, a family therapist MTA’s chief planner, the late William with training in systems theory, couldn’t Wheeler, to compare notes on their avoid noticing patterns in Long Island’s demographic research on young people political life that seemed to keep it from and employment trends on Long Island. attaining its potential, despite a well- But when Golob asked whether the educated and prosperous population MTA would recommend restarting the and many other advantages. third track effort, he threw up his hands. Taking cues from projects in Silicon Val- “He was talking about how frustrated ley and other regions that had been ef- they were with Long Island, where all fective in catalyzing progress,105 Douzi- good things were killed,” Golob re- nas became convinced of the potency of called. “He was ready to give up.” fostering cross-sector collaborative relationships. So in 2001, Rauch established That convinced Douzinas that building the Long Island Index to study the re- community support for a third track gion’s quality of life and the factors that was just the project for Rauch. might improve it, bringing together an “That’s what a foundation can do,” she advisory board of leaders from business, said. “That’s what we can and should unions, nonprofits and academia who be: risk takers. Part of the strength of might not otherwise interact. One of the foundations is that they can speak truth Index’s first studies was an eye opener, to power, and they have a very strong pointing out that Long Island was losing convening capacity, because your agen- young people at almost five times the da is - really, we hope it is for the good national rate, because housing was unaf- of society…I think we’d been doing all fordable and commutes unmanageable. this long enough that people might have With an aging population and shrinking thought we were crazy, but they respect- employment, the region’s future outlook ed us.” was poor. So the next Long Island Index report Systems theory teaches you to build on was one by the Regional Plan Associa- your assets, Douzinas said in an inter- tion. “How The Long Island Rail Road view, and it was clear that the railroad Could Shape the Next Economy” sought

48 Part III: Long island at Risk: 2000–2015

to billboard the transformative impact nomic analysis by HR&A Advisors upgrades to the LIRR could have for life and Parsons Brinckerhoff that came on Long Island: Easier access to higher to an eye-opening conclusion: A third paying jobs in Manhattan and to West- track would add $5.6 billion to Long chester. Commutes up to 42 minutes Island’s economy, as well as 14,000 jobs shorter. Boosted home values for 400,000 and 35,000 residents, largely because of homes in the two counties. Less conges- reverse commuting. tion and pollution. The report was well received, but Dou- zinas also got a warning from Mark Les- Transit-oriented downtowns, ko, then head of Accelerate Long Island, a nonprofit working to promote research reliable and convenient rail entrepreneurship. service and more affordable “He said, what you've done is good,” she recalled, “but if you drop this issue, housing were the key to the you will have done nothing.” region’s future. So the Rauch Foundation sponsored a second report, this time a 2014 eco- 2013 Long Island Index Special Analysis

2013 Long Island Index Special Analysis 2013 Long Island Index Special Analysis How the Long Island Rail Road CouldHow the Shape Long the Island Next Rail Economy Road CouldHow the Shape Long the Island Next Rail Economy Road Could Shape the Next Economy

LIRR LIRR

Report by Regional Plan Association / January 2013

49 Part III: Long island at Risk: 2000–2015

hese were not numbers easily “It was a good group, and we made T ignored, and the report was cir- incremental progress within our various culated widely. To build on that mo- capacities - our silos - within academia mentum, Douzinas asked David Kapell, and research institutions, labor and Greenport’s former mayor, to convene business,” said Kapell. “We were build- a “Fast Track Task Force” to brainstorm ing support on the street, if you will. But ways to move wider public opinion on we were making no progress whatsoev- the project, and to persuade the MTA to er with the two state senators who held include funding for it in its 2015 capital the key veto power, effectively, over this plan. The Long Island Association had project: Jack Martins and Kemp Han- a new president, Kevin Law, who began non. running the task force meetings together “...Because they didn’t want it. You with Kapell. could hardly get them to talk to you. Beyond his convening role at the LIA, Martins ...would sit with you, and listen, Law was uniquely suited for driving and appear to agree at points, but at the cross-sector collaboration, because he end of the day he was unmoved, and seemed to know just about everybody unmovable.” on Long Island: A former managing Law agrees: “We had nothing to give partner at Nixon Peabody LLP with ties them to entice them to get on board.” to a succession of Democratic governors, Law had held senior posts under two But something happened miles from county executives, chaired the Long Long Island that would change the Island Power Authority and Accelerate equation, recalls the RPA’s Bob Yaro: Long Island, and served on boards of Andrew Cuomo set out to replace the the Long Island Housing Partnership, failing Tappan Zee Bridge. Nature Conservancy and Suffolk Coun- “That project had been going nowhere ty Community College, among others. for years,” Yaro said. “It was only when But he and Kapell also saw their limits. the governor put enormous amounts of muscle and attention behind it that it moved ahead. It was one of those “It was only when the governor put miraculous things where the project went from initial commitment by the enormous amounts of muscle and governor to do it to a construction start attention behind it that it moved in about 14 months... “First, people were amazed, and he got ahead....And soon after that, the a lot of really good press in the Hudson Valley. He...saw that public works were third track popped up as one of something that could be done fairly the next projects in line.” quickly. “...And soon after that, the third track popped up as one of the next projects in line.”

50 51 PART IV An Unprecedented Level of Outreach: December 2015 - July 2017

11. Reception at the which their group had helped select. Capitol After the grants were announced, Cuo- mo held a reception in the war room of Law co-chairs the Long Island Regional the state capitol. Economic Development Council with “I had learned when I was mayor that if Hofstra President Stuart Rabinowitz. you play your hand right, you can often Kapell, who had gained respect for his have unscripted, spontaneous conver- revitalization efforts as mayor, was a sations with people in high government natural choice for the council, and they positions in the hallway at events like agreed to appoint him as a way to raise this,” Kapell said. his profile and networking ability. So as Cuomo worked the room, Kapell In December 2015, the three men trav- positioned himself in the governor’s eled to Albany for an annual ceremony path, and introduced himself as a for- at which Cuomo announced the next mer mayor, “which always establishes a year’s economic development grants, rapport with another elected official.

New York State Capitol building, Albany, NY © NY Dept. of Economic Development

52 Cuomo spoke first. “Why the hell

“He stopped, he took that in, and want- haven’t you told me about the ed to know what I was doing. I told him third track before? This is excit- I was working with the Rauch Foun- dation. ‘Oh yeah? What are you doing ing! We should work on this!” there?’ That got us on to third track. I gave him the two-minute pitch on the project.... “At the end, he asked me, ‘What do the more vocal and motivated people you think it’s going to take?’ And I said, are the opponents,” Law said. “So he’d ‘Governor, it is going to take executive create a lot of enemies, while the rest of leadership.’ ” Long Island had heard about the third Law had been standing impatiently track but didn’t really understand it, about 25 feet away with a woman he and were less motivated.” had promised to introduce to Cuomo, But there had been some changes that and noticed the governor had stopped might work in favor of the project: For moving. To his mortification, he recog- one thing, Dean Skelos, who had pre- nized Kapell. viously blocked the third track project, “Normally you try to be polite, say was out as Senate leader, indicted the hello, maybe sneak in a quick selfie previous spring on federal corruption and move on…. But Dave didn’t care.... charges. Assembly Speaker Sheldon When they finished, the governor made Silver, too, was out, indicted on corrup- a beeline for me.” tion charges. Two of the “three men in a room” who traditionally divided power Law was ready with an apology, but in Albany were gone. Cuomo spoke first. “Why the hell haven’t you told me about the third track “For the past 30 years, it was the state before? This is exciting! We should work senators who would stop it,” notes one on this! “ long-time Long Island Democratic op- erative. “When you lose a Dean Skelos, and you have a senate district that’s changed hands four times in the last five 12. A Very Busy Holiday elections…it becomes easier to get that Season stuff through.” It was the week before Christmas 2015. The timing was good. Cuomo had Law remembers a distracted holiday embarked on the most ambitious public season. works agenda since the days of Robert Moses -- he called it “the most aggres- Most of it was spent on the phone with sive infrastructure building program the governor’s staff, briefing them on in the country - period! By far!” 106-- a the history and politics of the third statewide $100 billion to-do list encom- track, its supporters and opponents, and passing bridges, airports, roadways, ski the pros and cons for Cuomo of getting resorts, convention space, cashless toll- involved. ing and even synchronized LED lights “Just the 50 years of history of NIMBY- on bridges, choreographed to change ism, where, as with so many projects, colors along with music.

53 Part IV: An Unprecedented Level of Outreach: December 2015 – July 2017

The new Governor Mario M. Cuomo Bridge alongside the former Tappan Zee Bridge © NY State Thruway Authority

Costly as it would be, the third-track fragility could turn minor snowstorms project on its best day would never be into regional public-safety emergencies. mentioned in the same breath with the They’d had a drumbeat of calls for a Governor Mario M. Cuomo Bridge, the third track from the Long Island Asso- Tappan Zee Bridge replacement. ciation, then-MTA board member Mitch “The third track is not a soaring, dra- Pally and Suffolk County Executive matic piece of architecture or engineer- Steve Bellone, who said their economic ing, it's a track on an existing railroad,” development efforts were wasted with- acknowledges the RPA’s Yaro. But Cuo- out it. From a wider regional perspec- mo “saw that the NIMBY opposition tive, this project was key to realizing the was not that powerful, and that politics full benefit of East Side Access, which Islandwide were going to be actually was going to shift some LIRR traffic out good for him for advancing this project. of Penn Station, freeing up space for a People were just tired of the delays on new Metro North service to Penn via the the railroad.” Bronx. And the governor “liked focusing on But they also knew Long Island. Even the seemingly insurmountable prob- plans for the Long Island Welcome Cen- lems,” said James Malatras, president ter, a cheerful high-concept rest stop on of the Rockefeller Institute of Govern- the Long Island Expressway that opened ment, then director of state operations. in 2016 offering locally sourced food Malatras himself had by then grown products, tourist info, a police satellite weary of how easily the LIRR system’s office and a DMV kiosk, had run into a

54 Part IV: An Unprecedented Level of Outreach: December 2015 – July 2017

buzz saw of opposition: Residents were coming up and Congress in Republican convinced it would attract prostitutes. hands, federal funding was uncertain. It So a third track project? “I don’t know would be a squeeze to fit into the MTA’s if this is going to happen,” Malatras capital budget, but avoiding the need remembers thinking. for federal funding would allow them to use design-build procurement this time, Staff dug into the history of the 2005 an approach in which design and con- attempt to understand why it failed, he struction services are contracted with said: “What was the actual plan? Is there a single entity. That could provide for no way to modify it to be more palat- more control of the timetable, and serve able and take the arguments away from to channel all the resistance into improv- those people who don’t want this?” ing, rather than blocking the work. Cuomo bore down on the railroad to Cuomo had one more request, Law said: give him a proposal he could sell. a broad and robust show of regional “He looks at it through the political support on Long Island from a coalition lens,” said the MTA’s former chairman that would have his back. Law agreed. Thomas Prendergast, an engineer. “And Cuomo announced his support for the then he forced the dynamic discussion: third track project at the LIA’s annual do you really have to take the prop- State of the Region breakfast on January erty?" Railroad engineers draw plans 5, 2016. with straight lines. "It doesn't have to be that way because of safety or reliabili- Jack Martins, who had opposed the ty, it's just the way you run a railroad: project as mayor of Mineola and was straight lines, and you don't have many now the 7th District’s state senator, got curves....If you want to shrink the num- a courtesy call from a Cuomo aide at 10 ber of property takes and try to get it p.m. the night before. down to zero, you have to think differ- “You’ve lost your mind,” he told the ently.” aide. (At least that’s the account he gave Cuomo looked at all the old grade-crosson the day of Cuomo’s announcement, 107 ing elimination projects that had nev- calling the plan “dead on arrival.” er been completed and decided they Today, he recalls urging that the railroad should be included as well, making the do a better job of addressing impacts third track just one component of a rail- along the tracks.) road modernization project. The executive staff began running num- They looked not just at what all bers. They looked not just at what all these improvements were likely to cost these improvements were likely and the economic benefits they’d deliver, but also the costs of doing nothing, to cost and the economic benefits Malatras said: all those emergency shut- they’d deliver, but also the costs downs, the limited train service, overcrowding, chronic delays. This would of doing nothing. be expensive, but the math said it was worth it. With a presidential election

55 Part IV: An Unprecedented Level of Outreach: December 2015 – July 2017

That upbeat assessment came despite the fact that most of those in the ball- room that morning were bewildered to learn that Cuomo was reviving a project they all thought was dead, says West- bury Mayor Peter Cavallaro. That evening, Floral Park’s mayor, Thomas Tweedy, got a call from Cuomo, asking how he was doing. © Long Island Association “I said, I’ve had had better days,” Tweedy recalled. “He said, this is some- In 2005, the LIRR’s president had re- thing he felt strongly about. I reiterat- leased his plan like a civil servant: in a ed our concerns about bearing all the capital program document distributed burden and deriving none of the bene- at an MTA board meeting. But Cuomo fit, and my concern for the Floral Park rolled out his 2016 initiative the way a station, for mitigation, for the business political campaigner does, with a speech community and how it will survive before a large audience of Long Island’s this…. top business leaders, offering them something their organization had been “We probably spoke for about 20 min- begging for since before most of them utes, which is a long time for a governor were born. Newsday was given a pre- to give a mayor on Long Island. I really view the night before, assuring two days appreciated the conversation. I truly of coverage. For his part, Law made sure did. Not that I thought we had a meet- prominent business officials were on ing of the minds. He clearly understood hand to provide positive comments to at the end of the conversation that Floral reporters. Park was going to give him a fight.” Thus, in contrast to the negative reaction Tweedy thought that might be why, the 2005 plan got in Newsday, coverage when Cuomo later unveiled details of this time featured Laureen Harris, presi- his plans, the project area began just dent of the Association for a Better Long east of Floral Park’s station, and the Island, calling Cuomo’s plan "exactly railroad specified that “no major station what is required to ensure Long Island modifications would be made at Floral has a vibrant economic future." Park.”108

...calling Cuomo’s plan “exactly what is required to ensure Long Island has a vibrant economic future.”

56 Part IV: An Unprecedented Level of Outreach: December 2015 – July 2017

13. LIRR Expansion Now, the prize they were seeking was Project from Floral Park the approval of (or at least acquies- cence to) funding for this project by the to Hicksville four-person MTA Capital Program Re- The governor and Long Island advo- view Board, which in 2005 had refused cates ramped up their efforts. Kapell to consider the project without a costly called it a two-pronged approach, with full environmental impact statement. Cuomo and his staff driving the pro- For that, Cuomo needed unanimous cess, while local advocates worked to support from Long Island’s Senate build a vocal and visible campaign of delegation, so that the Senate represen- support. RXR Realty Chairman Scott Re- tative on the CPRB, Republican Martin chler, then an MTA board member, saw J. Golden of Brooklyn, would not use his Cuomo’s own effort as two parts: an “air veto. At least two Long Island senators, game” using Cuomo’s personal authori- Kemp Hannon and Jack Martins, were ty and executive staff to get results, and firmly opposed. Cuomo would have to a ”ground game” with an unprecedent- win over the Main Line mayors, from ed level of outreach at the local level. whom the senators took their cues, and For that ground game, the governor who had been unified in opposition in tapped John McCarthy, a low-key MTA 2005. attorney and Garden City resident who Rick Cotton, Cuomo’s infrastructure had handled routine and crisis com- czar, set an aggressive timetable. The munications for New York City and its last time around, the environmental police department; and Lisa Black of reviews were abandoned incomplete Rockville Centre, a registered Republi- after more than three years.This time, can who’d served 15 years as an aide to by opting out of federal funding, the Senate Republicans, and was working LIRR itself could lead the environmen- on cajoling community support for that tal review and complete it within a Long Island Welcome Center on the LIE. year, just about the statutory minimum.

Lisa Black meeting with Mineola residents. © Mineola American

57 Part IV: An Unprecedented Level of Outreach: December 2015 – July 2017

“Hey, we want to hear from you, rant where Law, Albanese and Kapell we want to work with you, we agreed to an informal partnership, com- want to build this together.” mitting roughly equal resources to what would ultimately become a campaign in the high six figures. The Association for a Better Long Island would later contrib- Design-build would allow it to conduct ute to the effort as well. the environmental impact studies and In early February, the mayors of the vil- hearings at the same time it was inviting lages along the Main Line signed a letter consortia of contractors to compete for to their village officials’ association, -op the job. posing the project and asking for alter- The philosophy was simple: Allow the natives. Within days, Westbury Mayor schedule to drift during construction and Peter Cavallaro recalled, “we got a call you lose money. Allow it to drift during asking us to go into the city to meet with planning, and you lose the project. That people from the railroad.” sense of urgency was made apparent to Instead, it was Cuomo who walked into everyone on the project. the conference room, with Cotton and “When it’s a governor’s initiative and an the governor’s budget director, Robert MTA initiative, you have to treat it as a Mujica. Cuomo spent half an hour priority. And when something is a pri- explaining his reasons for support of ority, you move on it - you don’t sit and the project. wait a week between drafts,” McCarthy “He talked about its value to the Long said. Island economy…reverse commuting… The Long Island Association and Rauch all the items in the marketing pitch,” Foundation had also switched into high New Hyde Park Mayor Lawrence gear. They agreed to turn Kapell’s role Montreuil remembered. “I didn’t think into a full-time job. Law, quarterbacking that was the reason for it, and said so.” strategy, came up with the new name Cuomo was just looking for a project for their organization: the Right Track that would win votes in Suffolk County, for Long Island Coalition, with Kapell Montreuil said. its executive director, working out of the Cuomo “said he wants to make this offices of the LIA. a model for how state government The day after they announced their effort, can work with local governments,” Kapell heard from Vincent Albanese, di- Montreuil recalled. But when the may- rector of policy and public affairs for the ors pointed out they’d been asking for New York State Laborers’ Union, which the grade crossing eliminations for de- represents the bricklayers, ditch diggers cades, Cuomo said those would only be and mason tenders who would benefit done in conjunction with a third track. from the jobs created by a project like Cotton and Mujica then spoke: “They this. Albanese offered to put the union’s kind of set the tone: ‘Hey, we want to in-house media production, volunteers hear from you, we want to work with and lobbying to work for the campaign. you, we want to build this together, so That led to lunch in a Westbury restau- to speak,’” Montreuil recalled.

58 Part IV: An Unprecedented Level of Outreach: December 2015 – July 2017

ut after the meeting, most of the because Long Island needs it....Our job B mayors stuck to their previously in the process should be to make sure it stated public opposition to Cuomo’s happens in the best possible, quickest project, “because of their experience the manner, with the least impact on our last time around, and their fear that this communities, and if we can get bene- was just going to replicate the same kind fits or infrastructure improvements, so of issues and anger in their communi- much the better.” ties,” Cavallaro said. As for preparing litigation, Cavallaro “(Cuomo’s) idea is, this is really some- said he told them, “I was not going to thing that's going to be great - It’s ‘Look participate in that.” at me, I did the Tappan Zee Bridge, I got That winter, Cuomo asked LIRR Presi- that done, and I'll get this done,’” said dent Patrick Nowakowski for an expe- Nicholas Episcopia, who was then Gar- dited work plan. Nowakowski balked at den City’s mayor. “Well, people don’t the timetable. Said a team member, “Pat live in the Hudson River, you know?” took his guys’ word for it when they Floral Park, New Hyde Park and Gar- said they need this much time, and the den City agreed to pool their resources governor pushed him on it - consistent- to hire a consultant to evaluate the envi- ly.” Eventually, “Pat delivered.” ronmental review process, with an eye In the late winter, Lisa Black met with toward preparing litigation. her old Senate boss, Hannon, who was But Westbury Mayor Peter Cavallaro warm, though unyielding on the idea of told them he was going to support the a third track; he introduced her to Mine- third track. Westbury and Mineola al- ola Mayor Scott Strauss. Black explained ready had begun to embrace transit-ori- that the plans as drawn would require ented development. This version of the the railroad to shave only 7 feet off the project was different from last time, he back ends of some lots along the tracks. concluded -- fewer takings, more ben- So Strauss arranged for her to visit the efits. And the mayors had been urging home of Trustee Dennis Walsh, who the elimination of those crossings for lived in one of those 1946 capes on Alb- years. “Weigh all of that with the fact ertson Place, and they saw what “only 7 that your residents who are commut- feet” meant. ing are going to have fewer delays and better train service, and if…beyond your own local parochial interests, it truly is better for Long Island in the long run, it “and if…beyond your own local was sort of a no- brainer to support it,” Cavallaro said. parochial interests, it truly is More to the point, by remaining largely better for Long Island in the long on its own right of way the railroad was sharply limiting the villages’ leverage run, it was sort of a no- brainer over the project. Cavallaro says he privately told the other mayors: “There is to support it.” going to be a third track within 20 years

59 Part IV: An Unprecedented Level of Outreach: December 2015 – July 2017

“It would have taken away his garage,” 14. The Right Track Black said. “We sat. We watched the Albanese recruited senior Nassau trains. We heard the trains. He was a Democratic strategist Resi Cooper and nice enough guy to let us hang out in Republican Jim Sherry, Balboni’s long- his backyard. You could feel the rumble time chief of staff and now a partner in from the trains.” his consulting business, Redland Strat- Challenged by the governor to reduce egies. Sherry had been a junior at Min- takings, planners ran computer traffic eola High School at the time of the 1982 simulations and rethought their ap- accident that killed nine teenagers, and proach to the crossings. If instead of heard the neighbors argue over plans building a vehicle bypass at each cross- for the tracks. In 1992, he’d been close ing, they closed the crossing partially enough to hear the boom and see the and then completely for a few months, white and silver flashes when a motor- that would temporarily inconvenience ist mistakenly turned onto the tracks motorists, but spare them the need to at Willis Avenue and hit the third rail. take homes. With careful preparation, Sherry, a volunteer firefighter, had seen they could restrict those closures to that car engulfed in flames, its driver months, not years. They had learned beyond all help. Had run to a phone in 2005 they’d need less land along the and called it in. So yes, Sherry had some tracks if they built retaining walls, so the insights. plans came to include 7.5 miles of them. The Laborers enjoyed a good relation- They kept studying the tracks, interlock- ship with the Republicans. Jack Martins, ings and spurs looking for safe ways to who owned a contracting company, was narrow the corridor. “always a big supporter of the trades,” “We had to take out a very fine slide Albanese said. But now, they were get- rule,” said Elisa Picca, the LIRR’s former ting nowhere. Privately, Martins would executive vice president and lead plan- seem amenable to a third track with the ner. “Just trying to shave it down, shave proper assurances. But in public, “he it down, shave it down.” was like, ‘I don’t want this project!’ It In March 2016, Cuomo announced that got very contentious.” the third track project no longer needed Sen. Kemp Hannon of Garden City, to take any residential property at all. “wouldn’t talk out of both sides of his mouth - he would just say no,” Albanese said. Smithtown Republican John Fla- nagan, now the majority leader, and his “We had to take out a very staff were “just kind of blowing us off. fine slide rule... Just trying to ...I really believe they thought this was like all the other times, and it would just shave it down, shave it down, die.” shave it down.” The message, Albanese said, was “‘Don’t waste my time.’” Kapell was busy scaling up his coalition-building. His main tools would be

60 Part IV: An Unprecedented Level of Outreach: December 2015 – July 2017

an email contacts database and a lot of targeted email blasts, first reaching out to allies of the LIA and Rauch to sign them up in the coalition, and later seeking to turn the right people out at public hearings. There would eventually be a website and petitions, and ABLI would pitch in on social media and letters to NYS Laborers the editor. Before it was over the Right Organizing Fund Track Coalition could claim to speak for 2 million of Long Island’s 2.8 million residents. community, not only to understand res- Among them was attorney Charles M. idents’ concerns, but also to get through Strain, a Garden City native and long- to them just how badly this project was time chairman of the board of Mineola’s needed. Winthrop Hospital, now an affiliate of NYU Langone Health. About 10 percent “I don’t think people really understood of Winthrop’s employees reverse-com- that trains really do only go in one direc- mute to their jobs at the hospital, so tion in the morning and the evening,” making this service more frequent and McCarthy said, ”You really have to sell reliable would have tangible benefits. the project on its merits, and if it’s not Because Winthrop had major zoning worth it, you’re not going to be able to applications pending in Mineola, the sell it.” hospital held back from taking any for- Politics is not as simple as it looks on mal position on the railroad’s plans. But Long Island, where the tiniest village is Strain wound up on the Right Track Co- sovereign over its patch of earth, and alition’s steering committee, ultimately different trustees or departments within playing a pivotal role behind the scenes that village may disagree in a way that and in public, including testimony at en- matters. Then there are the school dis- vironmental review hearings at Hofstra tricts, fire and water districts, towns and University and the New Hyde Park Inn. counties; the team was going to have to Like other members of the coalition, he talk to everybody and try to deal with also would play a quiet role behind the the issues one at a time. scenes at luncheon meetings and busi- Strain recalls one of the first visits Cuo- ness events, rebutting misinformation mo’s people made to the project area, and tucking advocacy for the third track meeting with him at Winthrop Hospital into all the pleasantries exchanged in that winter. elevators and lobbies on any given day: “I told them, you all have to be like real in short, all the places where opinion is estate developers,” Strain recalled. “All formed. these communities have something you Meanwhile, Cuomo’s team was reach- want, and it costs money, probably. But ing out to anyone willing to talk with what a real estate developer does is he them. The directive had been clear: an figures out what the community needs unprecedented level of outreach to the and says, OK, I’ll do that on my nickel.”

61 Part IV: An Unprecedented Level of Outreach: December 2015 – July 2017

15. “A Lot of Coffee and “Most people don’t want to go to a A Lot of Beer” meeting and face down angry opponents with a supportive statement,” The MTA issued a draft scoping doc- Kapell said. “We were able to overcome ument for the “Long Island Rail Road that, and I think that had a lot to do with Expansion Project” in May, 2016, setting shifting both the community’s percep- the stage for the first six public hearings tion and also the political perception at that would be the first, most important the state Senate level.” public signal of the political chances of One such persuader was Charles Strain. this latest attempt. “I’m not a litigator, but I’m reason- The stakes couldn’t be higher. Initial ably confident standing on my feet perceptions had proven decisive in the and speaking,” the hospital chairman past. A decade earlier, the visceral hos- recalled. “And I listened. One woman tility that exploded in Floral Park had who literally lived on the tracks of the been enough to turn previously sup- railroad was complaining that if there portive state senators against it, sealing are more trains, she’ll have a hard time its fate. And CARE had organized its barbecuing in her backyard… Some- network intensively to turn out an army body got up and said the whole purpose of opposition this time as well. of this is so that the railroad can move That army did not materialize. radioactive waste from Brookhaven Na- “The mayors in New Hyde Park and tional Laboratory over the third track.” Floral Park told me personally they The last time around, complaints like were surprised.... The level of negativity this had gone largely unanswered, and and opposition was nowhere near what they had formed the narrative that it had been 10 years earlier,” Westbury shaped newspaper headlines and fixed Mayor Peter Cavallaro said. “One mayor public opinion against the project. This said it was a tenth of what he had seen.” time, “you had a very mixed view, and “They were not filling the auditoriums” many people getting up and saying we as they had before, said Sherry. “The absolutely need to do this, and here are air was coming out of the balloon of the the reasons,” Strain said. opposition.” Albanese also noticed something new Cuomo’s insistence that no homes in his union’s turnout. The members would be taken was having an effect. supported anything that promised jobs, But Kapell saw evidence that the Right but when they stepped up to the mi- Track Coalition was doing its work as crophone he learned they were fed up well. with train delays, too. For opponents like Kathleen Auro of Garden City, the “The coalition was successful in turning changed dynamic was disconcerting. out its membership to balance the testimony,” he said. “So that immediately set “‘A number of union workers were a different tone. It was something more there - quite a number!” she recalled. civil, frankly. There was still a lot of an- “Any time somebody spoke about the ger in the room, but...there was another third track in a positive way, of course voice in the room, of support.” the union people would applaud.”

62 Part IV: An Unprecedented Level of Outreach: December 2015 – July 2017

For A Modern Long Island LIRR Expansion N Project

Oyster Bay Port Jefferson Branch Branch Floral Park Station Carle Place Station Westbury Station © Metropolitan Hicksville Station New Hyde Park Station Transportation Authority 109 Hempstead Merillion Ave Station Ronkonkoma

Branch Main St. Branch School St. Willis Ave. Union Ave. Covert Ave. Mineola Station South 12th St. Key New Hyde Park Rd. – Existing Track New Track – Crossing – Hempstead Branch Station – Oyster Bay Branch – Ronkonkoma Branch

Floral Park’s ex-mayor Tweedy pointed idents out, meetings that were generally to another reason for the muted oppo- unpublicized and usually “not comfort- sition. In January 2016, within days of able,” Black said. Cuomo’s unveiling of his third-track Together and separately, they showed plans, 2,000 village residents had turned up and listened: at public meetings at out to oppose a plan by OTB to install village halls, and off-the-record sessions video lottery terminals at Belmont Park. in out-of-the-way bars and diners with Perry Criscitelli, a Floral Park resident maverick trustees and civics, collecting opposed to the railroad’s project, con- wish lists, advice and laments in all cluded that his village had a case of forms. They were not shy about going “the casino fatigue.” back to the railroad, the MTA, the state “We fought that casino arm and leg, Department of Transportation or the hand and fist, and everything we governor’s office with the feedback. had, and after that I think everybody wasn't in the mindset of another fight,” They showed up and listened: Criscitelli said. After those hearings the governor’s at public meetings at village halls, team began knocking on the door of and off-the-record sessions in every home near the tracks from Floral Park to Hicksville, alerting residents to out-of-the-way bars and diners... the coming work, asking: ‘What do you need? What would make an improve- collecting wish lists, advice and ment for you?’ Black and McCarthy laments in all forms. began systematically meeting with any interested civic organization to hear res-

63 Part IV: An Unprecedented Level of Outreach: December 2015 – July 2017

McCarthy and Black listened to worries able to attract engineers out of the city, about contaminated soil under the rails, and frankly younger engineering types and agreed to do soil testing; listened to who live in Manhattan and Brooklyn... grumbling about train noise and agreed that they may come out permanently as to install sound walls and do vibration they get a little older and decide to have testing; listened to complaints about 24- a family, so there was a clear benefit to hour construction noise, and promised a us.... I was simply trying to rebut Epis- 24-hour complaint line. They listened to copia a little bit.” insistent requests for more train service, That wasn’t the only public rebuttal which was one thing they weren’t in a that day: another came from a leading position to promise. And they traded developer: Russell Matthews, now CEO ideas about how to get the work done of Castagna Realty. “It was a watershed fastest. moment,” Kapell said. “There was a lot of coffee, and a lot of Further east, somewhat to his surprise, beer, and frankly, spending that time Cavallaro was finding that Westbury one on one with folks was fascinating, residents weren’t opposed to the project because they said things they wouldn’t at all. “They saw we were on top of it, say in front of an audience,” Black said. that we felt the impacts would be miti- “We got down to the heart of it.” gated, and we’d be getting tremendous The mitigations and adjustments nego- benefits,” he said. tiated by Black and McCarthy would But when residents did speak out, some eventually total some $800 million, got results. Nadia Holubnyczyj-Ortiz of Kapell said. Floral Park stood up at one meeting to Kapell had organized a kind of rapid-re- complain that no one had reached out to sponse war room approach, to make her civic association, only to have John sure no public attack on the project went McCarthy press his business card into unanswered. That would be tapped her hand moments after she sat down. when Garden City’s mayor addressed Holubnyczyj-Ortiz, who is disabled, had the chamber of commerce at a luncheon been outraged to discover the project about the project area started just a few feet east of the Nicholas Episcopia “got up and ... said: Floral Park train station, concluding it ‘The railroad will never be able to finish was an effort to avoid triggering ADA this project,’ and ‘They don’t have any (Americans with Disabilities Act) re- money for it, they’re never going to be quirements to install elevators. Then able to get it done,’ and ‘It’s really going she discovered Lisa Black had a Twitter to impact Garden City,’ and ‘Who cares feed, and messaged her about it. Before about the rest of Long Island, anyway?’ she knew it, the two were in regular Strain recalled. contact by email, texting and phone. The hospital chairman was ready with a “And she did keep encouraging me to response. speak up,” Holubnyczyj-Ortiz recalled. “I simply went through why we need As time passed, Black’s feedback was in the 21st century to be upgrading our usually the same: “Oh, they’re revis- railroad system… about the need to be ing, they’re revising.” She thinks it was

64 Part IV: An Unprecedented Level of Outreach: December 2015 – July 2017

after the initial scoping document was This was an important election year. completed in August 2016 that “I got a Martins was leaving the 7th Senate phone call again from Lisa Black. District seat to campaign for Con- “I said, ‘So, what’s the status?’ And gress. There were significant pockets she’s like, ‘Oh, they’re including it.’ of Republican support along the Main Three ADA-compliant elevators, one for Line project area, but they were soft. A each track. And I’m like, ‘Oh!’ ...They candidate perceived to be stronger on weren’t making a grandstand of it.” the third track issue might swing those votes. Holubnyczyj-Ortiz still didn’t like the project, but she had decided to make the Flower Hill Mayor Elaine Phillips, the best of things. She was hearing grum- Republican candidate for Martin’s seat, bling from neighbors that Tweedy’s campaigned as an opponent of the third stubborn opposition wasn’t doing their track, echoing CARE’s top objections. village any good. Meanwhile, CARE’s “With all due respect to the governor anti-Cuomo rhetoric had taken on a and the MTA, they’re saying oh, we partisan flavor, she said; her civic pub- can, we’ll be out of that area in nine licly withdrew from the umbrella group. months - no way, I challenge that!” she Lisa Black went to meet with Bill and told Newsday’s editorial board that fall. Ann Corbett, CARE’s founders, at their “We’re talking about years. That could office, and found this banner on their devastate those businesses in downtown front window (below): Floral Park.”

Sign outside Corbett business in Floral Park, 2016 © WSHU News/ Terry Sheridan

65 Part IV: An Unprecedented Level of Outreach: December 2015 – July 2017

Phillips also repeated uncorroborat- ed reports of cancer clusters and toxic chemicals. “You’re talking about health issues,” she said. “You’re talking about soil that’s going to get disturbed again. ...There is a problem there… all kinds of different cancers…Look - I don’t want to spread incorrect rumors, but there is -- what I heard was Agent Orange used there in the early ‘70s, ‘72, ‘73.…This is soil that they - in order to build that third track, that’s going to have to be excavated.” Kemp Hannon addresses a rally of Citizens Against Rail Expansion, March One of the studies Black and McCarthy 24, 2017. Floral Park Village of Floral Park had seen to was soil test borings for Agent Orange and related toxins, and when the draft environmental impact statement came out later that November, 16. A Moving Target those test results had varied from zero to trace amounts of the toxins. When the draft Environmental Impact statement, incorporating feedback and By then, Phillips had already won her changes to the plans, was released in race. So had Kemp Hannon. The Repub- November 2016, it was to be followed licans had kept control of the Senate. by six more public hearings and a public The LIA’s Kevin Law said Hannon, til comment period that would close in then ever the mild-mannered gentle- January. After protests were lodged the man, dropped the niceties when they comment window was extended, but ran into each other at a League of Con- it was clear that critics felt the gov- servation Voters cocktail party a week ernment’s pace was leaving them at a after the election. disadvantage. “Listen - as for your third track project? In written comments on behalf of the It’s not happening! Over my f***ing villages of Floral Park, Garden City dead body!” Hannon told the startled and New Hyde Park, the environmen- Law. (Hannon did not respond to re- tal law firm of Beveridge & Diamond quests for comment.) contended that the EIS process should not have even begun until the project “Listen - as for your third track was better defined, and that selecting a design-build process made it impos- project? It’s not happening! sible to evaluate potential impacts in advance, resulting in a study that was Over my f***ing dead body!” “superficial” and “vague,” with analysis that was “flawed or completely missing.” The construction schedule seemed “wildly optimistic.”

66 Part IV: An Unprecedented Level of Outreach: December 2015 – July 2017

The decision to forgo federal funding al- DOT regulations, health regs, etc. With lowed the state to avoid an independent design-build, “you don’t have to do that federal review of the project, Beveridge sequentially.” By the time these public & Diamond pointedly noted, “unnec- hearings were completed, four finalist essarily placing the entire burden of design-build teams had been selected. the growing cost of this Project on New In March, the mayors of Floral Park, York taxpayers and LIRR commuters.” New Hyde Park and Garden City, all The comments, while adversarial, were harsh critics of the third track plans, a pretty accurate summary of the Cuo- ended their terms of office. But they demo team’s strategy for finally getting cided to go out with a bang, convening a this railroad project completed. By in- press conference with Hannon, Phillips, cluding it in the MTA capital plan, they and other elected officials and dozens had avoided the uncertainty of seeking of CARE members waving “NO ON 110 federal support from what would turn THIRD TRACK” placards. out to be an unsympathetic GOP Con- But Westbury Mayor Peter Cavallaro gress and president. Design-build pro- convened a competing pro-third track curement allows speed, efficiency and press conference at his village hall, at- control, Malatras said, combining pro- tended by Oyster Bay Supervisor Joseph cedures and processes and using these Saladino.111 The Laborers went a step public comments to shape the project, further, parking their big mobile video rather than “paralysis by analysis.” truck outside the CARE event. Typically, every level of a project pres- “What we did was fairly antagonistic, ents a fresh target for opponents to we knew,” Albanese said. “We tried to challenge and delay it, Malatras said: screw up their press conference.” But first the environmental review, then the the union membership had begun to contract award, then land use decisions, take this issue on as their own - 350 had

A specially equipped box truck was used to spread the pro-third track message in 2017. NYS Laborers Organizing Fund

67 Part IV: An Unprecedented Level of Outreach: December 2015 – July 2017

Elaine Phillips addressing the CARE anti-third track press conference, March 2017 Village of Floral Park

turned out at the last environmental mayors were comparing their deals. hearings - and they were getting frus- “We would have the biggest adversar- trated at being told by Republicans that ies of the project sit down and say ‘OK, it was a “losing campaign issue.” if this is going to happen, you should The planning continued. Westbury’s Ca- be able to make a right turn here,’ and vallaro said he had become accustomed make some very helpful and thought- to speaking with John McCarthy and ful points,” McCarthy said. “I think we Lisa Black “multiple times a week” to started to see collaboration.” discuss updates and concerns. The State Environmental Quality Re- “They kept us pretty well apprised to view Act findings statement was execut- things they were requiring as part of the ed April 27, 2017, less than a year after negotiation making sure our commu- the process began. The previous attempt nities were being taken care of in terms had been shelved after three years, still of impacts and infrastructure improve- in draft form. ments. They were very proactive, very With the environmental review com- on the scene, very accessible. Their job plete, the MTA in May 24, 2017 ap- was to allay all those fears and address proved an amendment to the 2015-2019 all those issues in a proactive way. The capital program that authorized $1.9 residents were well informed, officials billion for the Long Island Railroad were well informed. Potential opposi- expansion. The full cost: $2.6 billion, of tion didn’t really percolate.” which the remainder would come from People were coming to understand that the next capital program. engaging with the governor’s outreach team could be fruitful, even if the meet- “LIRR Expansion Project from Floral ings sometimes ran long. The gover- Park to Hicksville” was submitted to the nor’s team tried to be evenhanded: if four-member Capital Program Review one mayor talked them into sound walls Board, which now had 30 days to ap- or parking, they offered those benefits prove or deny it. If it took no action, the down the line, because they knew the project would automatically be ratified.

68 Part IV: An Unprecedented Level of Outreach: December 2015 – July 2017

17. Brinkmanship stood this wasn’t the same plan they had rejected before, he was convinced: “It The clock was ticking now. was one of those things you just feel.” The project could be killed with a single So without informing Law or Kapell, “no” vote from the Senate’s represen- Albanese and the Laborers hired the tative on the board, Republican Martin Republicans’ own pollster, instructing Golden of Brooklyn. He had just been him to sample 600 residents of Phillips’ given an incentive to a fast-track renova- 7th District, without bias. It was a risky tion of a subway station in his Bay Ridge move - a poor result was sure to leak out district, but he would vote as directed and be used against them. by his party leader, Flanagan, who would not assent without unanimous “The anxiety I had! I didn’t want to de- support from Long Island’s Republican rail this thing,” Albanese recalled. senators. Hannon and Phillips were still The poll found 67 percent of Phillips’ opposed. constituents supported the third track, But Albanese was convinced that the Albanese said. But when the Laborers’ Republicans were wrong about the pub- lobbyist presented it to the Senate Re- lic mood. There was momentum in the publicans, they brushed it off as invalid, Paid for by New York State Laborer’s PAC PRE-SORTED media. Two Suffolk Republican sena- a “push poll.” After that, said Albanese,STANDARD U.S. POSTAGE PAID his members were “livid.” NEWARK, NJ tors, Phil Boyle and Tom Croci, openly PERMIT NO. 625 supported the project. People under- Newsday’s long-running support for the

Tired of your painful commuter rail system? Had ENOUGH of the overcrowding, delays, and track breakdowns?

DEMAND CHANGE!

Postcard sent to Long Islanders, paid for by the NYS Laborers PAC. Kivvit

69 Part IV: An Unprecedented Level of Outreach: December 2015 – July 2017

project had become urgent. the mayors continued to hold out for “There are times when local leaders more, and Flanagan wasn’t responding. must make decisions for the good of the A week after that, Newsday fired a region,” the paper wrote. “This is one of none-too-subtle warning shot. 112 them.” “In this crisis, it's worth remembering The Laborers began bombarding Phil- that the proposed all-important third lips’ office with “catch-and-release” track on the Main Line would solve calls demanding support of the third this in the future. State senators who track. Catch-and-release phone solicitors won't be part of the solution will be canvass residents to find those willing to blamed.”113 record a phone message demanding ac- In Floral Park, Mayor Dominick Lon- tion from a lawmaker, and then transfer gobardi’s phone rang. It was Governor them to the official’s voice mail. In the Cuomo. What was it going to take to first week of June, Phillips was getting work this out? 20 to 50 a day. “He says to me, ‘Your residents are my “There are a lot of campaigns where our residents,’ and I said, ‘Yeah, we get job is just to provide political cover for that,’” recalled Longobardi, who holds whoever is going to stick his neck out, a day job as deputy comptroller for and I’d initially thought that’s what the town of Hempstead and receives a this was going to be,” Albanese said. “I $10,000 stipend from the village for his never thought it would be as intense as mayoral duties. it got.” The two men then spent more than an On June 7, LIRR managing director hour on the phone together going over Veronique Hakim wrote to Hannon and the issues, which Longobardi detailed Phillips outlining nine pages of specific as: Communications and traffic plans. commitments it had made, including six Construction schedules. Dust. Rodent new parking garages, extensive station control. upgrades, sound walls and vibration controls, a new signal system, and a “He understood I wanted to protect my Project Community Fund to cover inci- community, and he wanted to protect dental village costs. The villages would the people too.” even be allowed to participate directly A Newsday editorial saluted signs that in selecting the design-build team. But the railroad and the villages were getting closer to agreement.114 When a daily newspaper throws its editorial support behind a cause, ev- Newsday fired a none-too-subtle eryone can see the words on the page. warning shot.... “State senators Less visible is the pressure on elected officials when an editorial board calls who won’t be part of the solution to ask for their position on an issue, one they know will be on record the next will be blamed.” time they seek a campaign endorsement. Newsday had noticed who seemed to

70 Part IV: An Unprecedented Level of Outreach: December 2015 – July 2017 Paid for by New York State Laborers’ PAC PRE-SORTED STANDARD U.S. POSTAGE PAID NEWARK, NJ PERMIT NO. 625

Senator Elaine Phillips STOP IGNORING COMMUTERS

Postcard sent • Crumbling Infrastructure to voters in Senator Elaine Phillips’s dis- • Overcrowding trict, paid for by the NYS • Track Breakdowns Laborers PAC. Kivvit • Commuter Delays

By The Editorial Board May 24, 2017 Let the LIRR third track go forward was internal disagreement over whether pose“There as moderates are times with when the editorial local leaders must make decisions boardfor while the goodstriking of athe militant region. pose This at is oneto of raise them.” the ante with ads targeting Fla- CARE events. The paper started to press nagan himself: Law urged restraint, and them for clarification. Its disapproval prevailed. could be withering. Things were equally tense on Long Is- Albanese knew the Rauch Founda- land. Lisa Black postponed a trip to Paris tion and the Long Island Association because, after 18 months of talk, she still couldn’t engage in partisan politics, but did not have the mayors’ signatures on his organization was a political action memoranda of agreement. The negoti- committee. So while the Right Track Co- ations were no longer about amenities, alition began running positive television but absurd standoffs over what she con- spots for the project, the Laborers ran sidered microscopic word changes. She direct-mail pieces going after Hannon called it “butterflies.” and Phillips, one of the most vulnerable ”I don’t think anybody wanted to pull members of the Senate. They parked the trigger,” she said. “Or they wanted their mobile video truck outside train to - they just were afraid to.” stations in Phillip’s district with ads tar- Unbeknown to Black, New Hyde Park geting her by name, handing out fliers. Mayor Lawrence Montreuil still had All this was triggering tensions within a “No On Third Track” lawn sign on the union. A business manager in Roch- his front stoop, though he said he had ester called Albanese to ask, “What the become comfortable with the deal that hell are you guys doing? The Republi- was being finalized. Then he was outed cans are all pissed off at us.” And there online, in a Newsday editorial newslet-

71 Part IV: An Unprecedented Level of Outreach: December 2015 – July 2017

Everyone knows where the mayor of New Hyde Park lives

A lawn sign reads “No LIRR 3rd track.” Newsday online editorial. Photo Credit: Randi Marshall

ter about the controversy: “Everyone $2 billion for Long Island disappear knows where the mayor of New Hyde because of the NIMBY opposition of Park lives,” it read. Montreuil called a handful of local leaders?”115 Floral Albany and said the deal was off. Park’s mayor had another phone con- The next morning, the phone rang; it versation with the governor. was the governor, calling to commiser- On June 30, the final day, Floral Park got ate. Montreuil sheepishly backed down. a letter from Nowakowski, the LIRR “If it was a good deal for New Hyde president, “stating they would mod- Park yesterday, it is a good deal today, ernize and redo the design of the Floral regardless of my personal emotions,” he Park railroad station,” according to said he told Cuomo. trustee Cheng. Another letter signed by But signatures were still not in hand: the state that day promised $2.5 million “Deadline?” Floral Park trustee Archie worth of road work in the village, he Cheng said with a laugh. “We wanted it said. to go away! I think the governor and the At 1:30 pm that day, Black collected MTA had a deadline - we didn’t have a signed memoranda of agreement from deadline.” Floral Park and New Hyde Park, the On June 29, Newsday’s editorial page two holdout villages everyone had been pleaded for lawmakers to resolve things: worried about. The villages announced “The grand bazaar is over. The time that they had resolved concerns about has come for leadership.…Will they let the project to their satisfaction.

72 Part IV: An Unprecedented Level of Outreach: December 2015 – July 2017

mong the concessions: an agree- Hannon and Phillips, were trying to A ment to help provide turn-around squeeze more “goodies” out of the deal, space for a new engine acquired by including hospital and health care fund- Floral Park’s volunteer fire department, ing and economic development dollars whose incoming chief was the mayor’s for a public works garage. Malatras said brother. Both villages would get anoth- Golden’s threatened veto on the third er round of soil testing when the work track had become a convenient point began. An additional reserve fund of of leverage to extract concessions from $10 million would be set up by the LIRR Cuomo on New York City’s share of the to cover unanticipated costs that might MTA capital plan. arise after the project was complete. “Train wreck,” another editorial began And the agreements projected that four July 9. “There will be no other way to more trains would stop in Floral Park describe the disastrous consequences if each day, and 10 more in New Hyde almost $2 billion in funding to improve Park. (But the document warned, “LIRR Long Island Rail Road service is lost be- reserves the right to revise service lev- cause of the reckless and self-interested els.”) politics of most of our state senators.”116 But there still wasn’t an okay from the On July 11, there was another op-ed on Senate Republicans. Newsday’s editorial page, this time from MTA Chairman Joseph Lhota, warning © Newsday Word began circulating that Golden was going to use his veto against the project. that “havoc comes from ignoring long- 117 The project’s backers scrambled for a term projects.” way to buy more time. Late that after- Law and Kapell spent that afternoon at noon, the MTA withdrew the funding another economic development meeting, measure. It was re-submitted shortly then shared a commiseration drink at after midnight: that maneuver re-started an Appleby’s in Hauppauge. The whole the 30-day clock. thing had seemed like such a Cinderella Flanagan announced he was confident story, when you thought about it: Up 30 more days would give the MTA “the and down, up and down. Then down, opportunity to develop a comprehen- down and down. sive solution to the ongoing commuter On the way home, an email pinged Ka- crisis.” The MTA’s Hakim was confident pell’s phone. He pulled over to read it. that “any remaining questions will be Flanagan had announced his assent. answered in this time.” “We were crushed,” Kapell said. “It was a very depressing moment.” But Law The whole thing had seemed said he’d had a message from Flanagan: like such a Cinderella story... Trust me. “That’s all he said - that he was going to Up and down, up and down. get it done,” Law recalled. Then down, down and down. Another 10 days passed. Newsday reported the same two local senators,

73 Part IV: An Unprecedented Level of Outreach: December 2015 – July 2017 TRUMP JR. RELEASES RUSSIA MEETING EMAILS A4-5

SPORTS FINAL newsday.com TRUMP JR. RELEASES RUSSIA MEETING EMAILS A4-5 $2.00 | LI EDITION Wednesday SPORTS FINAL newsday.com July 12, 2017 $2.00 | LI EDITION Wednesday HI 83°LO72° THEJuly 12,LO2017 NG ISLAND NEWSPAPER SCATTERED STORMS HI 83°LO72° THE LONG ISLAND NEWSPAPER SCATTERED STORMS ‘SoProud FUTURE OF LIRR ‘SoProud Of MyFUTUREMom’ OF LIRR Thousands mourn slain NYPD Det. Miosotis Familia Of My Mom’ A2-3 | VIDEOATNEWSDAY●COM GREEN Thousands mourn slain NYPD Det. Miosotis Familia A2-3 | VIDEOATNEWSDAY●COM GREENLIGHT FOR THIRD LIGHTTRFORACK Final hurdle cleared as State

DREW SenateGOP OKs$1.95B project

ICHARD PLUS:Updates from #SummerOfHell Day2 /R AP Genesis Villella, center,and twins Peterand Delilah Vega, A6-8 | REAL-TIME RAIL UPDATES AT NEWSDAY●COM/LIRRWATCH remember their mother at her funeral yesterday in the Bronx. THIRDCOPYRIGHT 2017,NEWSDAY LLC, LONG ISLAND,VOL. 77,NO. 312 TRACK Final hurdle cleared as State

DREW SenateGOP OKs$1.95B project

ICHARD PLUS:Updates from #SummerOfHell Day2 /R AP Genesis Villella, center,and twins Peterand Delilah Vega, A6-8 | REAL-TIME RAIL UPDATES AT NEWSDAY●COM/LIRRWATCH remember their mother at her funeral yesterday74in the Bronx. COPYRIGHT 2017,NEWSDAY LLC, LONG ISLAND,VOL. 77,NO. 312 Part IV: An Unprecedented Level of Outreach: December 2015 – July 2017

Gov. Cuomo at the LIA breakfast after funding for the third track was approved. His Power Point presentation (shown on the right) focused on the difficult dynamics of creating change within communities. From NYGovCuomo YouTube channel

18. There’s a Lesson in and if you don’t make the changes and All of This if you don’t grow, what happens? Then you have stagnation...and that, my With funding at last secured, the LIA friends, is defeat. invited Cuomo to celebrate the victo- “They’re gonna go right past you! ry at a packed luncheon the following Because California’s growing, and Asia week. The governor thanked a long list is growing, and Connecticut’s growing, of people and organizations who had and other regions are growing, and if supported the project, which he called you’re stagnant, and you’re not mov- “the largest single investment in infra- ing, and you’re not progressing, they’re structure ever made in the region.” going to leave you behind! Then Cuomo used his Power Point to “And those are the options that we offer the Long Islanders some blunt really face.” advice. “There’s a lesson in all of this....We don’t “We don’t like change. We like like change. We like control, right?” Cuomo said. control, right?” Cuomo said. “Magnify that a thousand-fold when you have to talk to 100 local govern- “...But life is options, and life is ments and 100 local politicians….The choices, and if you don’t make NIMBYs come out….‘I’ve got mine.... Don’t change a blade of grass.’ the changes and if you don’t “We don’t like conflict. We don’t like grow, what happens? Then you confrontation. We’re going to make people unhappy. That’s true! And we have stagnation... and that, my are going to take a risk. And we are risk averse - I know! friends, is defeat.” “But life is options, and life is choices,

75 PART V Getting It Done

19. Bespoke Contracting ignated communities and businesses With the funding finally securely in along the right of way, so “the concerns place, the MTA and LIRR spent the of the Project stakeholders will have summer and fall in technical review and a seat at the design and construction pricing negotiations with the three teams table.” vying for the contract. Lewi had once been a spokesman for the The agency chose Third Track Construc- town of Hempstead, and his portfolio tors, a joint venture of Dragados USA would include the village of Mineola, Inc., John P. Picone Inc., CCA Civil Inc., for instance, while Andy Kraus of Epoch Halmar International LLC, Stantec and 5 Marketing, generally regarded as Long Island-based Cameron Engineering. Long Island’s best public relations firm, Stantec, the lead designer, had overseen would work with the village of Garden those fraught grade-crossing elimination City, which had been a client on other projects at Herricks Road, Mineola Boule- matters. vard and Roslyn Road. And Rubenstein’s Among the new goodies contained in Gary Lewi, a former D’Amato aide and the contract: a new, temporary firehouse the region’s No.1 public relations for the New Hyde Park Fire District, man, had been recruited to complete with heating, ventilation lead the team’s outreach. and bathrooms, south of the tracks, so The team heeded Cuo- volunteers would not be cut off from LIRR CONTRACT #6240 mo’s directive to make their equipment on the north side when Design-Build Services for this undertaking a crossings were closed for construction. LIRR Expansion Project collaboration with the The plan also featured a “bespoke from Floral Park to local governments, and Public Education Program,” led by John Hicksville a national model for similar efforts. Cameron, “to engage the youth of the corridor and promote their interest in “Our community out- Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts from the reach effort will eliminate Third Track and Mathematics (STEAM) careers.” the traditional silos that isolate Constructors infrastructure project teams,” 3TC prom- At a meeting of the MTA board in contract December, 2018, LIRR Executive Vice documents ised in its agreement, adding in boldface: “Community outreach will be viewed as President Elisa Picca called the board’s an equal partner among the construction attention to that public outreach compo- and engineering discipline.” nent in recommending approval of 3TC - “a very astute team,” she said, with an Under 3TC’s strategy, members of its “innovative” approach. team were tasked with “creating specific stakeholder relationships.” A team of “Project Ambassadors” would be assigned personal responsibility to des-

76 20. Billions upon Billions By December 2017, two years after that conversation between Cuomo and Access, the MTA’s upgrades for Long Kapell, the project was finally ready to Island’s commuter rail service now go. The $1.921-billion contract with 3rd amounted to $650 for every man, woman Track Constructors (3TC) came before and child in the state, or about $90,000 the MTA board for final approval. for every LIRR commuter. He abstained The LIRR had priced this project at $1 from the vote. New York needs to fix billion in 2007 - about 10 times what it “our broken and onerous procurement had estimated 20 years earlier. Now the laws,” he said. total cost was pegged at $2.6 billion, of Board member Andrew Saul agreed. which the remainder would be request- “These mega-projects have eaten our ed as part of the MTA’s next five-year capital budget alive,” he said, lament- capital program. Picca told the board ing the way the MTA was unable to fix that 3TC’s contract came in two parts: its deteriorating service because it was a $1.5-billion “base scope,” including spending “billions upon billions upon grade crossings and some of the garages billions” on projects like these.120 and stations, which would be tackled The Rauch Foundation’s Douzinas first; and the “completion scope,” in- shares their frustration. In the 1990s, cluding the actual installation of the she noted, Nassau and Suffolk counties third track, which was to be funded and enacted laws to support local businesses implemented with $356 million from the by giving a 10 percent pricing preference next capital program.118 to local bidders. But a Long Island Index Allies testified in strong support. RPA’s review found such laws are rare across Chris Jones pointed out that New Jersey the United States because they are seen Transit and Metro-North had already as driving up prices and taxes and low- had big upgrades. The LIA’s Matt Cohen ering quality. presented a letter co-signed by Long Is- Then, too, the villages got “a lot of free- land’s two county executives pronounc- bies,” Douzinas said. “I don’t begrudge ing it "the most important infrastructure those communities those changes, they project the MTA has ever proposed for Long Island." The commuter council praised it. And the Right Track Coali- tion’s Lisa Tyson, director of the Long MTA Board Island Progressive Coalition, presented member a petition with 4,542 signatures urging Andrew M. approval. Saul discuss- ing budget “I’ve been working on this project for costs at MTA my entire professional career,” said hearings. Mitch Pally, Long Island’s board member © Metropolitan from 2005 to 2019, thanking fellow board Transportation Authority members for “finally understanding the importance of this project to us.”119 But James Vitiello, the Hudson Valley’s representative on the board, calculated that when combined with East Side

77 Part V: Getting It Done

We Can Community Center in West- The villages got “a lot bury. 122 of freebies....But I’m For the villages, it was just the beginning of an intensely busy few years, in not sure it would have which the plans are taking shape in a collaborative process designed to give happened otherwise.” virtually everyone a seat at the table. “...We look at this as a partner with the MTA to get this project done,” New are probably well deserved, but it’s Hyde Park Mayor Lawrence Montreuil a little frustrating when you see the said. “That’s how we’ve been approach- numbers skyrocket and go up. But I’m ing this ever since the MOU was com- not sure it would have happened other- plete...and in the end, I think it’s going wise.” to be good for New Hyde Park.” The board approved the contract. For “It’s not a very difficult project!” said Picca and her colleagues, it was a “gold- Mark Roche, the MTA’s executive leader en moment.” of the project, a native of Ireland who has handled major public works jobs in the Philippines, Hong Kong and Ma- 21. The Work Begins laysia. “There’s a lot to it...it’s a bit of a dance, it’s a bit of a jigsaw puzzle, but "We have been very aggressive about it’s not complicated. The issue is, it’s got all the work in this project, both the 400 families down each side of it, and environmental review and the procure- how do you work that so that you don’t ment, and we are not going to stop at upset them all?” the contract award,” Picca promised the MTA board. 121 The railroad and the contractors have With the contract signed, a limited notice to proceed was issued in January 2018. On the ground, most of the first year was spent on preparatory site work. While the MTA was working to obtain the needed transfers of land, 3TC’s “community ambassadors” fanned out through their assigned areas to get to know residents. In Septem- ber 2018, Cuomo presided over a formal groundbreaking ceremony with business, transportation and government officials. Gov. Andrew Cuomo, center, with Long Island’s "This was very much a collective," two county executives at the third track ground- Cuomo said at an event at the Yes breaking, September 2018. © State of New York

78 Part V: Getting It Done

Sound and retaining walls under construction. Nearly nine miles of such walls will be built in the project area. © Metropolitan Transportation Authority

established a shared project home under The ambassadors have adapted to suit one roof, so that design challenges can their communities. That might mean be addressed on the spot. Roche, who providing a project update at a meeting managed the design-build replacement at the village hall; in unincorporated of the Tappan Zee bridge, convenes areas, the ambassadors are networking monthly meetings with the mayors to with neighborhood groups, and walking discuss upcoming work, design issues, around handing out fliers. While local traffic concerns and logistics. The villag- officials say they have good relationships es also have had day-to-day contact with with the project team, the mood at public the managers supervising the work in meetings still tends to range from grudg- each area. ing to caustic. “What’s different here in a very simple “You can well imagine, very often their nutshell: Decisions are made on site by reception is not very gracious by many me and nobody else,” said Roche, who people in the community,” said Gar- has a rule that no decision drags on den City resident Kathleen Auro after past Friday. “We don’t have to go back attending one sweltering meeting in through an agency that adds 15 thou- August 2018, “but they themselves are sand layers - it’s almost like we’re an very, very nice people...they were very autonomous business.” gracious in answering questions. And, I must say, never losing their cool.”

79 Part V: Getting It Done

Covert Ave crossing in New Hyde Park today (upper left) and a rendering of the planned improvement. © Metropolitan Transportation Authority

In New Cassel in fall 2018, despite always going to be telling you,” LIRR handing out hundreds of fliers in En- spokesman Hector Garcia told Garden glish, Spanish and Creole, 3TC only City residents at another meeting. 124 drew a dozen or so to a meeting about In addition to the MTA’s prolifically de- the impending grade crossing elimina- tailed website, amodernli.com, residents tion that was soon to shut down West- can visit their own village websites, bury’s Urban Avenue for months. Lewi which post regular project updates, told Newsday that only showed the renderings, recent Power Point presen- 123 team needed to improve its outreach. tations and “look ahead” spreadsheets So they started to loop in local clergy, showing what is coming up nearby. and to hand out information at other And a “community benefit fund” funds community events. quick fixes for small problems that can “Our big commitment is, before we make a big difference in a village, like are going to be doing anything, we are the crossing guard Floral Park needed for one intersection recently. “Our big commitment is, before “It really is an orchestra of activity,” Picca said in January 2019, with multiple we are going to be doing any- work zones going on at any one time. Crews have to work fast without dis- thing, we are always going to rupting the neighborhood or interfering be telling you.” with each other - all while safely main- taining scheduled train service. During

80 Part V: Getting It Done

off-peak periods, they can take one A 3TC community section out of service at a time and work ambassador alert- around it, Picca said. Over the course of ing New Cassel residents about construction 15 full weekend outages are work to come. expected. © Metropolitan 3TC has had incentives built into its con- Transportation tract that reward speedy completion of Authority its work, currently scheduled for Decem- ber 2022. It also is rewarded according to how well it abides by promises on it,’ “Montreuil said. “That was the early quality-of-life issues such as noise, litter work. I think we are all learning from it.” and safety, keeping traffic tie-ups to min- The crews have gotten the message. imum and keeping construction crews When a water agency forgot to turn the off neighborhood streets. Residents water back on at the end of the day in living near the project site are invited to early 2019, triggering a complaint, the fill out a score sheet grading the contrac- homeowner’s security cam later caught tor on these issues. If 3TC meets a target two workers sneaking up to the back score, it earns a $250,000 incentive for the door -- to leave a bouquet of mums, by quarter; if it fails, that money goes into way of apology. an LIRR fund to reimburse villages for their expenses. “I don’t think people realize it, but more and more of what we do is in every- “We continue to be engaged,” said body's backyard, and if we're not doing Montreuil in late 2018. “I have a number these kinds of things, well, how do we of plans we are reviewing and giving in- do anything anymore?” Roche reflected. put to 3TC and the MTA. It’s an ongoing dialogue. I don’t know how that mes- “We need everybody's support to get sage was communicated down from the them done.” governor from that meeting, but it’s been communicated, and everyone seems to live that concept....It is a good setup.” Certainly not trouble free. New Hyde Park residents living along Covert Avenue were awakened by jack ham- mers and floodlights as utility crews began 24-hour-a-day excavation work to move lines. When they complained to their ambassadors, 3TC protested that problems caused by National Grid were beyond its control.

“So we escalated that to the MTA and Image from homeowners security camera showing a sat down and had a meeting and said, worker sneaking up to the back door to leave a bouquet ‘Listen, you have to have 3TC be coordi- of mums, by way of apology. Homeowner image courtesy of nator… they have to take ownership of Metropolitan Transportation Authority

81 PART VI Conclusions

ne of the first obstacles to railment were added to the sad history fixing the Main Line’s prob- of this stretch of track. lems was defining them. Was But during the years of private owner- the primary issue the lack ship when the costs would have been O of a third track, as the Long most manageable, the work wasn’t Island Association and commuter groups done, perhaps because of financial pres- had been arguing, or the dangerous sures on the railroads. Then, just when grade crossings, as residents and local the crossing work was both funded and motorists contended? required by the state, Robert Moses For the people who operated the LIRR, diverted those funds for his parkways. these were intrinsically connected prob- And soon the surging suburban popu- lems that made sense to fix together, and lation along Nassau’s Main Line led to not simply because of civil engineering a classic NIMBY policy split that grid- work involved. locked the process for generations. A third track was expected to allow the “Like all big mega-infrastructure de- LIRR to run more trains on the Main velopments, it came down to trying Line, which would mean more crossing to address the typical not-in-my-back- delays, noise, and danger. That dan- yard parochial perspective, against the ger was cast into stark relief yet again broader good for the region as a whole,” in 2019, when a pickup truck darted said RXR Realty Chairman Scott Re- around a lowered gate at one of the chler, who also chairs the Regional Plan crossings in Westbury slated for elimina- Association and is seeking to redevelop tion: Three more deaths and a train de- the Nassau Hub area.

LESSONS LEARNED

David Kapell, executive director of the Right Track for Long Island Coalition: Why it was so difficult to implement is really a story about Long Island: the fragmentation that tends to frustrate all regional progress. And what’s interesting is that we overcame that problem with a combination of grassroots support, careful organization of regional support, and the governor’s leadership. We learned you can overcome the fragmentation, the formal political and legal fragmentation with an informal process. You show broad support, grassroots support. That’s what we were effective in doing, starting with the little task force at the Rauch Foundation, working quietly initially, and then much more loudly through the Right Track Coalition.

82 LESSONS LEARNED

Lisa Black, now deputy county executive/chief of staff to Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone: I absolutely think it’s a model process....If you establish a relationship and give people the ability to be respected and have an influence on the project, the project will only be better... Long Island is even more unique in that everybody has something to say about everything: if it’s foggy today, it’s gotta be somebody’s fault! ...But it’s a model that should exist for every large-scale project - I hope that interpersonal communication still continues. What was original was we combined that with the work of Rauch and the third-track coalition.

That parochial perspective thwarted the 7th District senators became increasingly MTA’s efforts in 2005. Years of method- difficult to pin down on the third track ical research and outreach by the Rauch issue. Ultimately that did not save them Foundation and its allies managed to in the blue-wave midterm elections of forge a broad regional consensus in favor 2018, which swept both Hannon and of a third track that paved the way for Phillips from office and gave Democrats Cuomo’s involvement. But Cuomo also control of the Senate. saw that the grade crossings would be “They pulled me out of a rabbit hole to an essential element of any upgrade in run for this state Senate seat, and I’ve these busy crossroads communities. gone back into the rabbit hole, thank For the Long Island Republicans whose you very much,” said Phillips, a former unity had long been the key to GOP Goldman Sachs vice president. control of the New York State Senate, Cuomo’s forceful leadership was so Cuomo’s involvement posed a dilemma critical to the success of the third track that intensified with time: Disregarding project that his involvement made it the intense opposition of residents along look inevitable. But he did not accept the tracks not only put their hold on the challenge until he was satisfied that the 7th district seat in peril, but risked there was an effective coalition of local tarnishing their brand as defenders of support to help him win state Senate Long Island’s suburban way of life. But approval. Democrats now outnumber Republicans By 2015, there had already been a num- on Long Island,125 Suffolk County is now ber of coalitions formed over the years home to more voters than Nassau, and to push through the third track. They the railroad’s poor on-time record had did not prevail against the multi-village become intolerable Islandwide. coalition of project opponents known as So it’s little wonder that a succession of CARE (Citizens Against Rail Expansion).

83 Part VI: Conclusions

What made the “Right on the need for the politically unpopular Track for Long Island project. Coalition” successful? At the same time, the LIA’s Kevin Law had longstanding relationships of trust A long-term commitment by a with diverse players central to the nonpartisan foundation drama, which allowed him to maneuver, mediate and keep communication “The (Rauch) foundation played a flowing even when things were at their critical role in advancing this project, most tense. and essentially coalescing business, and civic, and ultimately political leadership Cross-sector collaboration - for the project, despite the local opposi- with no strings attached tion and the NIMBYism… (and) staying The Right Track for Long Island Coali- with this over an extended period of tion’s campaign was well funded, but time,” said RPA’s Yaro. “It would not it operated on a handshake between have happened without the foundation's the partners, who never signed a writ- advocacy.” ten agreement or formed a legal entity. This coalition owed its origins to a Kapell thinks that spirit of informal nonpartisan family foundation that had collaboration allowed the coalition to sought guidance from a true cross-sec- overcome the jurisdictional and political tion of the region’s constituencies, ex- fragmentation of Long Island in generat- cluding only elected officials from its ad- ing popular support. visory council. The Rauch Foundation’s “We never got tagged with any labels,” core competency was on using a systems he said. “We were focused on one thing, approach for positive change-making and one thing only, and people under- for the region, and it couldn’t be bought. stood that.“ That gave it cross-sector credibility.

Outstanding research, and Influential stakeholders strong relationships speak out When the third track was proposed The Rauch Foundation had gained its in 2005, Winthrop Hospital’s Charles voice in the region’s policy dialog by Strain said, it didn’t occur to him to par- founding the Long Island Index, which ticipate in the hearing process. organized and published an extensive array of demographic and economic “In hindsight, I probably should have…. data about the region that became a People’s view of it at the time was that valuable resource for planners and this is a railroad problem and they thinkers. It helped to focus discussions ought to figure out how to get it done, on the third track issue with a series of when the reality was that they needed research reports by respected entities help. such as Regional Plan Association and “...This particular template, of putting HR&A Advisors that are credited with an opposition to the NIMBY group that winning over regional opinion leaders is a mixed bag of stakeholders - and

84 Part VI: Conclusions

LESSONS LEARNED making sure somebody can coordinate getting them out - is the absolute critical Mitch Pally, former MTA board member thing that has to be done. It has to be for Long Island: energetic.” It’s so much easier to be united behind it That “energetic” aspect has been under- when you know the governor is leading. rated, Strain believes: An awful lot of wrangling is needed to make sure that the most influential community leaders make time to show up at the hearings Robert Moses dedicated the Henry Hud- and meetings where their support can son Parkway in 1936 with those words. In make a decisive difference, he says. 2016 and 2017, Andrew Cuomo’s pursuit of the railroad expansion reminded more The right wranglers than one observer of Moses’ unwaver- ing focus. Indeed, the mere news of his Here the choice of representation proved involvement immediately changed the critical: Dave Kapell, Greenport’s odds. ex-mayor, was respected as a peer and even a friend by adversaries as well as But in contrast to Moses’ fabled ruthless- allies of the project, because of his doc- ness, Cuomo surprised potential adver- umented success in the renewal of his saries by making a habit of picking up the own village. Kapell’s lack of a financial phone to check in with the village mayors incentive or competing agenda made his about their concerns, from traffic safety salesmanship all the more effective. and pest control to construction noise and bad press. Being listened to respect- “People feel that Dave was an import- fully by the state’s highest official seems ant player out in the revitalization of to have done much to soften their feel- Greenport,” Strain said. “And he's got a ings. One of the project’s most stubborn community-minded view. We were not Republican adversaries, Floral Park’s looking to build toxic dump sites here ex-mayor Thomas Tweedy, went on to in the middle of Nassau County. We buck his own party and join the Demo- were trying to upgrade an aging, failing cratic ticket for Hempstead town board. railroad.” Said Phillips: “When I lost my re-elec- LESSONS LEARNED tion, one of the first people I reached out to was Dave Kapell... I bought him John Spellman, Mineola’s former attorney: lunch! ...One might think Dave and I were on opposite ends, but we never “It comes down to time, trust and timeli- were.” ness: You have to take the time to build relationships of trust with people and A hands-on commitment by communities. Sometimes people aren’t a strong leader ready for things, and you’ve got to bring them along…Sometimes you might be re- "It cannot be said too often that what buffed, but you go back, and find a differ- New York needs today is not vision, with ent way…. Take the time, and do it right.” which we have always been plentifully endowed in the past, but elbow grease."

85 Part VI: Conclusions

The nation’s busiest commuter railroad expects to deliver big improvements in service when its third track project is completed. © Newsday

“Governor Cuomo is a singularly fo- Speed cused individual,” said Jack Martins, the Cuomo’s team and the LIRR shaved former Mineola mayor and state senator. years off the timetable with two key “He had decided this was going to be choices: using the design-build ap- the priority, and as the executive, he has proach and opting to forgo federal the ability to make it a priority - not- funding. That allowed them to set a withstanding what everyone else wants. pace fast enough not only to outflank ....And the governor himself was work- the opposition, but to overcome the ing it. For the governor to put himself in even more perilous force of bureaucratic the room and to sit and actually nego- inertia, which, by stretching the timeline tiate and have those discussions was of projects beyond the term in office of extraordinary….It makes a difference.” the elected official championing it, all Cuomo’s directive to develop a model too often consigns them to oblivion. process with an unprecedented level Designating itself as lead agency of the of outreach shaped the design-build project’s environmental review prevent- contract itself, with its provisions for ed the railroad from requesting federal community ambassadors and 24-hour funding for the project, but allowed it hotlines, as well as quarterly incentives to complete its environmental impact based on how well crews are adhering study in less than a year, whereas the to requirements for quick, neat, quiet 2005 review was shelved incomplete work that minimizes disruption. after more than three years. “For the construction industry, this is Use of design-build procurement meant actually a national model that others can that the selection of contractors could lift and use, because it is pretty compre- proceed almost concurrently with the hensive,” believes one participant. environmental review. A consultant By early 2019, 3TC was meeting or beat- hired by the villages complained that ing its targets, Rechler said, noting, “It this led to an environmental review that definitely helps that everyone involved was superficial and cut corners, predict- knows there’s an open line to the gover- ing 3TC and the railroad couldn’t realis- nor if need be.” tically complete the job within the prom-

86 Part VI: Conclusions

ised time frame - which could impose reverse commute,” Newsday’s editori- harsh impacts on residents and business- al board editor Rita Ciolli said. “Never es in the project area. But the Main Line for reliability of service and more ser- mayors signed memoranda of under- vice, which was the smarter argument standing that constrain their ability to to make....To expand business out here sue over any delays. Time alone will con- you need talent, and you cannot get firm the true cost of the approach taken, somebody out from Brooklyn to a job in but the failure of Mineola’s prolonged Mineola at any reasonable time.... It is attempts to lower grade crossings had an important argument, but it wasn’t a already shown what can happen when politically winning argument,” she said. too many levels, branches and agencies It certainly didn’t sell in the project area. of government are involved in designing and funding a project. “Lower-income jobs out east would not pay workers enough money to cover the Cuomo’s commitment to avoid high cost of tickets for reverse commuta- residential takings tion,” Floral Park trustee Archie Cheng insisted in 2016. “Why create added Many contend the 2016 effort succeeded competition for these jobs when Long primarily because Cuomo compelled Island residents need employment?”126 the railroad to contain the project almost And the promise that a third track entirely within its own right of way. That would allow for expanded freight traffic limited residents’ legitimate cause for became one of the most inflammatory complaint and created a more benign issues in both environmental reviews, image for the project Islandwide. It also continuing to flare up long after the rail- limited opponents’ potential leverage in road withdrew the claim. a court challenge. “I also firmly believe (should this go Critics understood that the state wasn’t through) that there will be MORE freight asking them to allow a third track - it trains running than now,” resident was telling them that one was on the Bruce Hecht commented in the 2017 EIS. way. “I don't know if they (mayors) really LESSONS LEARNED want to embrace it as much as, they probably feel at this point in time it's pretty difficult to resist it,” said West- Former LIRR president Helena Williams: bury’s former mayor Ernest Strada. If you ask me, there was a perfect moment in time that came together with Cuomo’s case for the project a very strong governor, with the right push from Long Island, a.k.a. Kevin and A third track offers so many advantag- David and other people they lined up, es that over the years advocates used which made that project happen. And a variety of approaches to sell it to the if it weren’t for them I’m not sure this public. But many were ineffective, and project would have happened. some backfired. “The editorial board kept pounding away on it that we needed this for the

87 Part VI: Conclusions

“What will be their contents? Dangerous pushing for better express service and chemicals or other toxic substances? A the elimination of grade crossings within MAJOR CONCERN!”127 its first weeks of publication. It became In 2016, Cuomo and the LIRR instead increasingly focused on the building of focused on safety and reliability as the a third track as the MTA’s work on East two top selling points of the project, Side Access came closer to fruition in the offering benefits even to the project’s 1990s. Like the Rauch Foundation, News- fiercest opponents. Kapell made a point day continued advocating for the project of emphasizing the peace and quiet that even when it had become politically would descend on Main Line neigh- untouchable, and the paper’s tenacious borhoods once the trains were running focus left elected officials no room for behind new sound walls, and no longer double-talk when the time came to count needed to blow their horns. On Long Is- votes in the state Senate. land, the promise of peace and quiet has generally proven to be the most compel- But reporters also had more straight- ling argument for any project. news stories to write about the project after 2016, when Cuomo’s team and Media support the Right Track Coalition were strate- gic about scheduling events and deftly Newsday became Long Island’s dom- managing political drama with an eye to inant shaper of public opinion soon winning positive coverage. This, too, con- after its founding in 1940, and it began tributed to a general sense of momentum.

Getting More Ink – Third Track mentions in Newsday, Dec ‘04 -’06 – Third Track mentions in Newsday, Dec ‘15 -’17

NUMBER OF MENTIONS 0

Oct Oct Jan Jan Feb Feb Aug Aug July July Nov Nov Dec Dec Dec May May April April Sept Sept June June March March

Analysis of news, editorials, op-eds and letters mentioning the third track in Newsday during listed period. Data Source: Proquest.

88 Part VI: Conclusions

LESSONS LEARNED Finally: Listen to the NIMBYs!

Said New Hyde Park Mayor Lawrence Ann Corbett, former Floral Park mayor and a Montreuil: “I’m always tempted to say founder of Citizens Against Rail Expansion: to folks who throw the NIMBY terminol- They have the right of way. In the end, they ogy around and criticize people who are can do whatever they want....Equipment at risk of taking the brunt of any sort of running all night long, vibrations, all kinds of situation like this, “perhaps you’d like stuff. But they say, ‘Oh, we’re not going to to do a house swap?” work 24 hours a day unless it’s really im- But if elected officials, the press and the portant to do it.’ But it’s always important.… nonprofit sector were used effectively to I’m not getting involved any more. I’d just overcome NIMBY resistance to the third really rather not even talk anymore about it. track project, Cuomo had also listened to the NIMBYs better than anyone had before. Cuomo’s initial plan already was Kathleen Auro, Garden City resident, a critic: more responsive to local concerns about Don’t buy across the street from the railroad residential takings than the 2005 plan had tracks. Don’t buy near a major parkway, or been, and over 18 months of intensive the Long Island Expressway, because they negotiations the state added a smorgas- keep adding lanes and lanes. bord of other concessions. This could be claimed as a vindication of sorts for the state senators who had blocked approval of the plan for so long: They can argue Lawrence Levy, Executive Dean, National that, far from ducking their responsibili- Center for Suburban Studies, Hofstra ties of office, they had fulfilled them. University: Cuomo is a powerful and effective politician Said Phillips: “I believe the intention who finally got it right, because he was was that there would be tremendous able to add other benefits, as they should community input. Some of those inputs have done in the first place….All politics would not had happened had we not is local….Successful developers on Long pressed back….just slowing down the Island have finally learned that the first process and making sure all the T’s were thing you have to do is talk to the little crossed.” people and get buy-in. Said Martins: “It’s an interesting case study on, over time, you can actually get something done….Some people will say Former Garden City Mayor Nicholas (the villages) got bought off. I don’t be- Episcopia, an opponent: lieve that. The reality is if there is a consensus that there is going to be a benefit When you have three mayors against this, to Long Island regionally from the third and they all go out of office at once, and the track, then in those communities that are people who come in are wishy-washies and most impacted, the impacts should be they decide that this is something we’ve got addressed.” to do, or negotiate with them because we can’t fight it -- it’s bound to happen, yeah.” Analysis of news, editorials, op-eds and letters mentioning the third track in Newsday during The lessons are still being learned in real listed period. Data Source: Proquest. time.

89 Part VI: Conclusions

LESSONS LEARNED

Westbury Mayor Peter Cavallaro: One lesson I learned, I think, is that the demographics on Long Island are not the same as they were 10 or 15 years ago. I think you see it in this project. There were people who rely on the railroad...and supported it. Maybe in the past you had a preponderance of people who were just negative, because the railroad didn’t mean anything to them. People realize you need to redevelop....You need to orient to the future. You need to make your community sustainable, and allow people to get back and forth to work....They have come to realize that if you stay the same, you basically struggle and die.

“Even now, that level of engagement at through the county legislature yet.” the local level continues, with monthly RXR has been convening two or three meetings of all the mayors of all the meetings a week, and in an approach municipalities that are being impacted, Rechler called “a little more unique,” for to try to make sure things are as smooth his shop, they’ve been soliciting input as possible, “ notes Rechler, who said before shaping their plans. he’s following a similar approach at the “We want input at the beginning,” he Nassau Hub, the site of another history said, “versus (the community) having to of frustrating failures. react to it.” The lessons, Rechler says, are clear: In the end, it was careful listening that “You’ve got to engage stakeholders resolved this intractable problem: First, throughout the process and even once it took methodical analysis and then dia- you’re moving forward. The more com- log among the region’s thought leaders, munication and transparency and open a collaborative process that helped to dialog you have, the more likely you’ll redefine Long Island’s self-image and be not to run into a pitfall, or a critic for the Long Island Rail Road’s central the sake of being critics. ...We already place in it - and to make the case that have been having a series of stakeholder this one prosaic stretch of track merit- meetings from the school board to the ed an extraordinary investment by the local town board members to legislators governor and state. The political im- to labor, and we haven’t even gotten passe was only broken after the gover- nor’s intensive, patient listening to local LESSONS LEARNED officials that led to a holistic redefinition of the problem, one in which local safety Tom Prendergast, former MTA chairman: and traffic concerns were an intrinsic element, and not a mere afterthought “I can’t even begin to tell you how to regional transportation needs. With much it will make a difference.” everyone at least heard, political fragmentation gave way to a broad regional consensus.

90 PART VII Map

Number of Tracks on LIRR Train Lines

Map by Regional Plan Association

91 PART VIII

14. Albany Delegates near Final 38. List Needed Improvements to Endnotes Vote. New York Times, July 11, 1938 go with LIRR Rate Hike. News- 15. Nassau Girl, 2, Killed by Train. day, April 12, 1947 (one of many Newsday, Sept. 19, 1940 examples) 39 16. The Long Island Railroad. . LIRR Refuses Service Improve- 1. Newsday editorial, Oct. 2, 1940 ment, Newsday, Aug. 28, 1941 White, J.G., engineering corpo- 40. ration, Report on the Long Island 17. Robert F. Keeler, Newsday: A Transit Board Lists 7 LIRR Sore Rail Road company, 1942, vol. 1 Candid History of the Respectable Spots for ‘Speedy Relief,’ Newsday, 2 Tabloid, Arbor House, 1990, p.73 Jan. 7, 1949. . Main Line to the Mainland. 41 1959. LIRR’s 125th anniversary 18. The Long Island Rail Road . Zillow commemorative history. Replies. Newsday, Oct. 9, 1940 42. Better Rail Service for Nassau 3. Long Island and real life, New 19. Hearing Held on Grade Cross- County. Nassau County Planning York, Issued by the Passenger ing Issue. Newsday, March 21, 1941 Commission & Dept of Transporta- tion and Franchises, 1963; Inter- Department, Long Island Railroad, 20. List Five Crossing Projects state Commerce Commission/ 1915 Here. Newsday, Nov. 25, 1940 4. 21. MTA ridership data analyzed by The Long Island Rail Road Re- Verbal Tiffs of Officials Mark the author. plies. Newsday, Oct. 9, 1940. Crossing Hearing, Newsday, Dec. 43. Report of Investigation on the 5. White, J.G., engineering corpora- 12. 1940 22. Long Island Rail Road Company, tion, Report on the Long Island rail Caro, 140 NYS Public Service Commission, road company, 1942, vol. 2 23. Smith Turns Tide for Grade Albany, March 3, 1958, p. 14 6. Transit Board Blasts Pennsy Crossing Bill in Plea at Albany, NY 44. Caro, p. 934 ‘Evasions’ on Charges It Squeezed Times, July 6, 1938 45. See Report of the Long Island LIRR Dry, Newsday, July 7, 1949 24. Caro, 256, 465, etc. 7. Railroad Commission, 1951. Pro- Nassau County Transit Com- 25. Caro, p 227. Transcripts of posed legislation recommended in mission Second Report to Hon. J. speeches on the future of Long report to Hon. Thomas E. Dewey. Russell Sprague, county executive, Island given to the Eastern Long Moses was a member of a 3-man Mineola, 1949. Island Real Estate Board on June commission chaired by Robert P. 8. Caro, Robert, The Power Broker, 16, 1927, and the Long Island Real Patterson. New York: Vintage Books, 1975, Estate Board Sept. 9, 1927. 46. Doig, Jameson: Metropolitan p. 151 26. Moses Brands L.I.R.R. ‘Dilato- Transportation Politics and the New 9. Report of Investigation of the ry.’ Newsday Nov. 7, 1940 York Region, pp 151-2. New York: Long Island Railroad Company, 27. LI Chamber Opposes Crossing Columbia University Press; 1966. NYS Public Service Commission, Funds Diversion, Newsday, Nov. 47. Better Rail Service for Nassau March 3, 1958. Commuter railroads 28, 1940 County, iv typically run at a deficit because 28. Should Grade Crossing Funds 48 most traffic is crammed into a few . Caro, p. 934 be Diverted? I’m Against. Newsday, rush hours, while employees need 49. Caro, p. 938 Oct. 3, 1941 50. to be paid for a full day’s work. 29. “Foes of Shift in Tracks Cool Other railroads earned most of Sees Diversion Plan Blow to to RR Wonders,” Newsday, Jan. 13, their revenue carrying freight at State’s Finance. Newsday Oct. 15, 1968 off-peak times. But since New York 1941 51 30. . Those commutes have not has no dedicated cross-harbor Newsday Oct. 31, 1941 materialized. Andy Sparberg, a tunnel, rail freight bound for Long 31. Real Estate Board Hits Diver- career LIRR manager and author of Island has had to cross via barge or sion of Grade Funds. Newsday, Jan. a book about the railroad, said the travel to a rail bridge near Albany, 24, 1941 projections disregarded a variety leaving the LIRR poorly positioned 32. Says Grade Crossings No of elementary factors including to compete with truck transport; Longer a Hazard. Newsday, July 25, “dwell time,” the period trains in 1958 freight only accounted for 1941 must spend at each station while about a quarter of its revenue. 33. passengers get on and off. 10. Caro, p. 458. Caro, p. 274 34. 52. The Modernization of the Long 11 Nassau’s Grade Crossing . P.S.C. Assails Plan to have State Record: Roll of the Dead. Newsday, Island Rail Road. Derek Stadler, Pay All Crossing Costs, New York Nov. 3, 1941 Long Island History Journal, Stony Times, July 5, 1939 Brook University, Stony Brook, NY, 35. Republicans Sweep Elections. 12. 2016. See Annual Reports, Long Newsday, Nov. 5, 1941 Island Railroad Company, 1935, 53. “Wachtler Says Elevating LIRR 36. Seven Killed in Grade Crossing 1936, 1937 Would Create ‘Chinese Wall.’ Wreck. Newsday, Nov. 13, 1941 13. Smith Turns Tide for Grade Newsday, Jan 27, 1967 37. Diversion Halted Elimination Crossing Bill in Plea at Albany, 54. Smith Turns Tide for Grade Plan, Newsday, Nov. 13, 1941 New York Times, July 6, 1938 Crossing Bill in Plea at Albany,

92 NY Times, July 6, 1938 charts “a geographic shift of eco- billion-dollar expansion: JOIE TYR- 55. Propose New Mineola Busi- nomic growth toward the region’s RELL. STAFF WRITER. Newsday, ness Center. Tom Morris, Newsday, center.” Combined editions; Long Island, Feb. 28, 1968 73. MTA OKs a $17B Plan / New N.Y. 17 Mar 2004: A05. 83. 56. Interview, Dennis McEnery LIRR cars, East Side access Hugo Federal Transit Administra- 57. Foes of Shift in Tracks Cool to Kugiya. STAFF WRITER. Newsday, tion, Notice of Intent to Prepare an RR Wonders. Newsday, Jan. 13, 1968 Combined editions; Long Island, Environmental Impact Statement 58. N.Y. 20 Apr 2000: A07. for the Long Island Rail Road Main State Senate Deletes Funds 74 Line Corridor Improvements, For LIRR Grade Projects. Albany . According to a 2000 survey of Smart Growth America cited in a Long Island, NY. Federal Register, Bureau, Newsday, May 21, 1968 May 6, 2005. The MTA has never 59. Rauch Foundation white paper, Foes of Shift in Tracks Cool to 60 percent favored more funding released, and declined to provide RR Wonders. Newsday, Jan. 13, 1968 for public transportation even if it access to, its draft environmental 60. “Planner: LIRR Extension is a meant less funding for highways. impact statement. 84. Must.” Tom Morris, Newsday, June 75. LI TOPIC / Do We Need a House Panel Cuts Millions 24, 1973 Third Track? / Long Island Rail From Rail Plans in NY: Ellen 61. “State to Meet with Mayors Road cannot run more trains with- Yan. WASHINGTON BUREAU. Over Crossings,” Newsday, August out laying more track: Schaefer, Pa- Newsday, Combined editions; Long 14, 1975 tricia. Newsday, Combined editions; Island, N.Y. 21 June 2001: A48. 62. “No New LI Highways in Long Island, N.Y. 19 Aug 2001: B07. 85. RAILROAD EXPANSION Panel’s 5-Year Plan.” Newsday, 76. July 29, 2004 letter to MTA PLAN, LIRR’s $2.4B solution, February 4, 1976. board members enclosed with the Despite fiscal woes at MTA, Long 63. Official’s Final Joke. Newsday, 2005-09 preliminary capital plan Island Rail Road seems set to June 6, 1989. 77. STOP & GO / A WEEKLY spend billions on fixes, new rail yard and more JOIE TYRRELL. 64. “Boon for New York’s Roads GUIDE TO THE ROADS & RAILS STAFF WRITER. Newsday, Com- and Rails,” Newsday, Sept. 17, 1983. ON LONG ISLAND / Coalition bined editions; Long Island, N.Y. The grade crossings ultimately Wants DOT To Reconsider Its Plans. Lisa Chamoff. STAFF WRIT- 14 Sep 2004: A20. were funded out of the regular 86. budget, not the Rebuild New York ER. Newsday 21 Apr 2002: A29. LOWER MANHATTAN RAIL bond issue, because that would 78. “Full Speed Ahead For LIRR LINK, Pataki expected to support have steered proportionately too Chief,” Joie Tyrrell. Newsday, Com- $7B plan: ERROL A. COCKFIELD much money to Long Island. bined editions; Long Island, N.Y. AND JOSHUA ROBIN. STAFF WRITERS. Newsday, Combined 65. More Trains, Parking for LIRR 26 Sept 2003: A02. editions; Long Island, N.Y. 04 May Urged. Bill Bleyer, Newsday, De- 79. LIRR’S MAIN LINE, $4M 2004: A06. cember 14, 1983 study on a third track: JOIE TYR- 87. Downtown . . . and how to get 66. Altering of Fatal Crossing RELL. STAFF WRITER.Newsday, there, Pataki makes rail link from Draws Range of Reaction, Newsday, Combined editions; Long Island, JFK top priority, but critics say Sept. 7, 1983 N.Y. 21 July 2004: A15. he’s not helping other key transit 67. 80. Reagan Calls Rail Project in Big plans on track / East Side projects: ERROL A. COCKFIELD Mineola Unnecessary. Cope Moy- access, more new cars, a third Main JR. ALBANY BUREAU CHIEF. ers, Newsday, March 12, 1988 Line track; these and other moves Newsday, Combined editions; Long 68. Money Ready to Remove are part of a proposed multibillion- Island, N.Y. 29 Nov 2004: A08 dollar expansion: JOIE TYRRELL. Grade Crossings. Michael Alexan- 88. Third-Track Project Finds Its der, Newsday, April 28, 1988 STAFF WRITER. Newsday, Com- bined editions; Long Island, N.Y. Nemesis. John Rather, The New 69. Briefs, Newsday (1940-1989), [Long Island, N.Y]17 Mar 2004: York Times, July 10, 2005 Nassau ed.; Long Island, N.Y. 89. A05. The LIRR’s planners generally [Long Island, N.Y] 02 Mar 1988: 81. resist depressing tracks because 21A. RAILROAD EXPANSION PLAN, LIRR’s $2.4B solution, De- Long Island’s relatively high water 70. MTA’s 20 Year Plan Has $50B spite fiscal woes at MTA, Long Is- table meant costly drainage issues Price Tag: Bill Bleyer, Newsday, 25 land Rail Road seems set to spend and periodic flooding that affected May 1990. billions on fixes, new rail yard service, according to Andy Spar- 71. Six Deadly Crossings But and more JOIE TYRRELL. STAFF berg, former LIRR manager and revised cost stops railroad project WRITER. Newsday, Combined author of a book about the railroad. 90. in its tracks. By Adam Z. Horvath. editions; Long Island, N.Y. [Long Dermody did not respond to Newsday, 03 June 1991: 03. Island, N.Y]14 Sep 2004: A20. requests for an interview. 72. 91. See also “The Geography of 82. Big plans on track / East Side BELLEROSE, Village hopes to Jobs: NYC Metro Region Economic access, more new cars, a third Main derail track. WILLIAM MURPHY, Snapshot,” by NYC Department Line track; these and other moves Newsday, 30 Mar 2006: A35. of City Planning, July 2018, which are part of a proposed multi- 92. Caro, 279

93 Part VIII: Endnotes

93. The costs of going against the Innovation Index 2012, an analysis 116. Take politics out of the LIRR flow, Some who commute east to of “economic opportunities and third-track project: The senators Long Island say they love the idea documented innovation assets that responsible for stalling the third of a third track, but opponents say could be leveraged for greater eco- track are the same ones who like it would be disruptive and pricey: nomic benefit in Long Island.” to remind us every two years that Joie Tyrell. Newsday, 13 June 2005: 106. LIA luncheon, July 2017 GOP control of the State Senate A12. 107. Andrew Cuomo’s revived is good for Long Island. Newsday, 94. Getting back on track, Spitzer LIRR Main Line expansion plan Combined editions; Long Island, expected to blast GOP senators for dredges up old fears: Response N.Y. [Long Island, N.Y] 09 July stalling proposed LIRR expansion to 3rd track mixed Similar bid 2017. 117. that would add third track: Errol derailed in 2008. Alfonso Castillo, What’s clear as ‘summer A. Cockfield Jr. Newsday, 05 May Newsday, 6 January 2016 of hell’ begins: We need look no 2006: A28. 108. Long Island Rail Road Expan- further than the disaster unfolding 95. “New mandate for affordable sion Project Scoping Document, at Penn Station this summer to see housing bill,” Brand, Rick. News- May 5, 2016, page 6. what havoc comes from ignoring long-term projects. day, 06 Mar 2006: A16. 109. Map from LIRR Final Scoping 96. Eliot Spitzer, Downstate Trans- Document, 08-26-16, page 13 Lhota, Joe. Newsday, Combined editions; Long Island, N.Y. 11 July portation Issues Speech delivered http://www.amodernli.com/ at the Regional Plan Association’s 2017. wp-content/uploads/2016/08/ 118. 16th Annual Regional Assembly, LIRR_Final_Scoping_Docu- Janno Lieber and Elisa May 5, 2006 ment_2016-08-26.pdf Picca, MTA board meeting video 97. THE GAP/ WHAT WE 110. archives, Dec. 11, 2017 Anti-third track press confer- 119. FOUND/THEY KNEW FOR ence draws crowd. The Garden City MTA board meeting video DECADES/ LIRR sees bigger News, March 31, 2017 archive, Dec. 11, 2017 problem, will fix 100 platforms: 111. 120. MTA board meeting video Karla Schuster and Jennifer Malo- Main Line Mayors Clash over LIRR’s Third Track Plan. Newsday, archive, Dec. 13, 2017 ney, staff writers. Newsday, 19 Jan 121. March? MTA meeting video archive 2007: W03. Dec. 11, 2017 98. 112. Let the LIRR third track go Closing the gaps LIRR to pay 122. OFFICIALS MARK FORMAL a hefty $9.4M to install thresh- forward: There are times when local leaders must make decisions START FOR RAILROAD’S 3RD old plates as a permanent fix to TRACK Alfonso, A. Newsday, Com- plaguing problem RITEA, STEVE. for the good of the region. This is one of them. Newsday, Combined bined editions; Long Island, N.Y. Newsday, 24 Apr 2008 06 Sep 2018: 2 99. editions; Long Island, N.Y. 25 May Wash. Post wins 6 Pulitzer 2017. 123. LIRR’s third track project sub- Prizes. Mason, Bill. Newsday, 08 113. The LIRR braces for ‘summer ject of sparsely-attended meeting Apr 2008: A.44. in New Cassel. Christine Chung. 100. of hell’: It’s going to be a summer Issue in Senate contest: WIL- full of disruption and aggravation Newsday.com, Nov. 5, 2018 LIAM MURPHY Newsday, Long for thousands of Long Island Rail 124. WPOA Third Track meeting Island, N.Y. 26 Jan 2007: A04. Road commuters, whose patience, introduces PR team, scrutinizes 101. CAN SHE FIX THE LIRR? flexibility, and willingness to try memorandum. RIKKI N. MAS- THE TOP ISSUES 5 tickets to new ways of getting to work will SAND. Garden City News, April 19, LIRR’S future by staff writers Bart be tested when Amtrak’s emer- 2018 Jones; Maloney, Jennifer; Tyrrell, gency repairs begin on July 10. 125. As of February 1, 2019, Joie. Newsday 10 June 2007: A4. Newsday, Combined editions; Long Nassau had 402,413 registered 102. MTA Power Point presenta- Island, N.Y. 13 June 2017. Democrats and 327,661 Republi- tion, late 2007. 114. Important day for future of cans, according to the NYS Board 103. MTA Capital Plan Public the Long Island Rail Road News- of Elections. Suffolk had 358,296 Hearing, Mineola, NY, Oct 29, 2009 day, Long Island, N.Y. 16 June Democrats and 329,689 Republi- 104. MTA Third Track Plan De- 2017. cans. Nassau County tipped Dem- railed. Floral Park Dispatch, May 7, 115. Clear the rails for the LIRR ocratic in 2008, Suffolk in 2013. 2010 third track: We are on the cusp of 126. Rallying Against Third Track. 105. Of special interest was the the region’s most critical infra- Michael Scro, Westbury Times Feb- work of Douglas Henton. Col- structure project, one that’s been ruary 22, 2016 p. 3 laborative Economics, chaired by on wish lists and drawing boards 127. EIS comments: Attachment Henton, was retained by Rauch to for more than 40 years. It’s a D, p. 14 advise and assist on the prepara- project that says Long Island is tion of the initial Index reports and moving again. Newsday, Combined later to prepare the Long Island editions; Long Island, N.Y. 29 June 2017.

Author Elizabeth Moore is a freelance writer and former politics and government reporter at Newsday. She has written in depth about the political fragmentation on Long Island, particularly a much lauded 8-day series on Long Island’s volunteer fire departments that led to 14 state law changes. Moore has written three other studies for the Rauch Foundation and the Long Island Index on the issues of housing and early child care. Additional research and interviews were conducted by Abigail Cain.

About the Rauch Foundation The Rauch Foundation is a Long Island-based family foundation that invests in ideas and organizations that spark and sustain early success in children and systemic change in our communities. The Foundation was established in 1961 by Louis Rauch and Philip Rauch, Jr. Funding for the Foundation was made possible by the success of the Ideal Corporation, an auto parts manufacturer founded in 1913 by their father, Philip Rauch, Sr.

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