Backing something positive as front-page

Over the past three years, big hopes for a grand infrastructure Bill have been dashed. Nevertheless, and looking past the ongoing Impeachment proceedings, both sides will need to be seen as backing something positive.

So, remembering that infrastructure was a signature issue for President Trump (Republicans) and was on Democratic Rep. Pelosi’s “Big 3 issues” list of last year, maybe there is hope. But there is a famous quote, from the late Tip O’Neill (who held the same “Speaker of the House” role that Rep. Pelosi holds now), along the lines of “All politics is local.” In the New York region, ferries have been getting an outsized share of headlines.

Transit advocates at the local level fight with a different brand of venom than political figures on the national stage, but they do hit hard. New York City’s ferry programme, still in its early stages, has come under vicious attack as a money-pit (per ride subsidies are high) benefiting affluent residents- making it into a local news outlet renowned for its “Page Six” gossip column.

Meantime, Congresswoman “AOC”, whose district includes “La Guardia Airport”, has urged Federal planners to consider ferries as a possible complement (or maybe an outright replacement) for an ill-conceived surface transport plan to improve access from the central business areas of New York City to the airport.

Adding to the headlines, the local coastguard took unprecedented action against a private ferry operator which valued schedules over safe practices, shutting down substantial portions of its fleet until deficiencies could be corrected.

Fortunately, the politicians stayed out of this one, though they did figure prominently in a spat with the same ferry owner regarding a maintenance facility on the New Jersey side of the harbour.

Offshore wind energy (the subject of my article in this issue) has not seen the media interest as passenger ferries, but the pieces for a very positive story are falling into place. The sector, seemingly bursting on the scene in the past year, promises to bring jobs and some revival to under-utilised stretches of waterfront in the New York area (and elsewhere along the coast).

Unlike the ferries- which are not central to port planner tasks, offshore wind needs to be considered alongside mainstays such as containerships and tankers.

Offshore turbines (not “windmills”) are very much the stuff of politics- with state governments behind the mandates (and power purchase arrangements) fuelling the move to greener more sustainable energy generation.

Yes, some of the local news is indeed gossip worthy, about “Page Six”, but the news that we might get from Washington, D.C. on bigger picture infrastructure issues, could actually be front page news.