The Fastrack program replaced the old system of closing down subway stations for several weekends at a time in order to make repairs. Now the MTA will partially close a line during four consecutive weeknights from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m., keeping it fully operational during the day and over the weekend. The change is partly in response to a 5.3 percent boost in weekend ridership since 2007, according to MTA figures.

The survey, conducted between mid-June and July of this year and answered by 990 people, also found that locals are clamoring for Upper East Side ferry service. Seventy-one percent of respondents said they’d use the East River Ferry if it stopped nearby. Seventy-two percent said they support a new City Council proposal to give letter grades, much like the Department of Health currently gives to restaurants, to each subway station.

Columbia Jumps Into Tech Ed
Earlier this week, Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Columbia University President Lee Bollinger announced that the city will be partnering with the school to create a new institute for data sciences and engineering as part of the city’s Applied Sciences NYC initiative.

The city will give $15 million in funding and financial assistance to Columbia to create the new school, a figure that includes discounted energy transmission costs and partial debt forgiveness. The school will create 44,000 square feet of space on the campus by 2016 and hire 75 new faculty members over the next 15 years as the applied science and engineering programs grow. The program will be located at Columbia’s Morningside Heights and Washington Heights campuses and will fall under the umbrella of the Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.

“We are proud of Columbia Engineering’s ascent among its peers over the past decade and the impact of its constant stream of innovations on our economy,” said Bollinger in a statement. “We know from experience that the creativity and dynamism of this new Data Sciences Institute will be ignited by collaborations that are possible because they are part of the wide diversity of intellectual excellence that defines not just a great urban research university like Columbia, but the genius of New York City itself.”

The mayor and other politicians praised the deal for its potential to create jobs and boost the local economy. According to a study conducted by the city’s Economic Development Corporation, the project is expected to generate $3.9 billion in overall economic activity over the next 30 years, including 4,223 permanent jobs and 285 construction jobs, as well as the creation of 170 spin-off companies in the city.

Columbia’s proposal was also hailed for its focus on data science in ways that will impact the city in the near future. The new institute will have five specific departments: new media, smart cities, health analytics, cybersecurity and financial analytics.

“New York City is quickly becoming a national epicenter for tech innovation,” said Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer in a statement. “The new Center…is an exciting new initiative that will support advances in the promising technologies of tomorrow and will continue to attract the best and the brightest to the city. The city’s investment in the project is a forward-thinking use of capital resources to promote continued growth in these fields.”

Columbia had previously put in a bid to receive a hefty chunk of city funding and access to city-owned land to develop a new applied sciences campus; that $100 million deal was awarded to a partnership between Cornell University and Israel’s Technion Institute to build a 2 million-square-foot tech campus on Roosevelt Island. Bloomberg has consistently said that the city would be open to awarding funding and making deals with more than one of the 17 schools that initially applied. In April of this year, the city reached an agreement with an NYU-led consortium to create an urban science and progress center in downtown Brooklyn as part of the Applied Science program.

East Side Access Tunnel Finished
The giant underground construction project that will eventually connect the Long Island Railroad to Grand Central Terminal hit a major milestone this week, though it still has a long way to go before it’s operational. Construction crews for the East Side Access project finished boring the tunnel that will make the rail connections possible. The MTA’s 200-ton boring machine, nicknamed “Molina” after a group of sixth graders chose the moniker, finished its journey on Monday and will now be scrapped as the next phase of the project gets underway.
“We’re literally starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel on completing East Side Access, the largest mass transit project under construction anywhere in the country. There’s still a lot of work to be done, but it’s worth taking a moment to celebrate this important milestone. I congratulate all the sandhogs, MTA employees—and Molina!—for completing this difficult and grueling task,” said East Side Rep. Carolyn Maloney.
The project is located almost entirely in Maloney’s district, and she has pushed for federal funding to keep it going.

Night Out Against Crime
The Upper East Side’s 19th Precinct will participate in the National Night Out Against Crime this Tuesday, Aug. 7, from 5–8 p.m. Police officers will be on hand to talk to community members about crime prevention and the issues that are of concern to the neighborhood. There will be activities for kids and adults, including live music from the French Cookin’ Blues Band and refreshments from Manny’s on 2nd, Butterfield Market, Pintaile’s on York, Maz Mescal, Le Pain Quotidien and Shake Shack. The event will be at Carl Schurz Park at East 86th Street and East End Avenue, weather permitting. For more information, contact the 19th Precinct’s Community Affairs liaison at 212-452-0613 or lynch19ca@aol.com.

Grand Central Station. Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

by Adel Manoukian

Apple is under scrutiny after State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli’s office released an audit claiming the company had an unfair advantage when the Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) let it secure a spot in the Grand Central Station.

In December of last year, Apple was allowed to open up a store in the iconic building’s balcony.

The audit states that the MTA and Apple negotiated a lease for over two years before the Authority asked other companies for proposals on the space.

Before that request was released in May 2011, Apple tried to get reimbursed by NYC taxpayers in July 2009 for the $2 million it had paid the restaurant Metrazur to occupy the space at Grand Central. This was rejected by the MTA. The audit claims that the MTA allowed Apple to set a hurdle for rival bidders–the authority required companies bidding for the space to pay $5 million upfront, something Apple was able to do, according to NY Post reports. This gave Apple the competitive edge, according to DiNapoli.

The State Comptroller performed the audit after a 2010 review of MTA real estate practices revealed issues and a second audit that year revealed that only two of the 12 recommendations to better their practices had been enforced, according to the comptroller’s office.

But MTA Chairman Joseph Lhota believes that the audit lacks accuracy and is “worthless” opinion, according to the NY Post.

Jeffrey Rosen, the MTA’s real-estate director wrote in a letter to DiNapoli’s office that the authority intervened in negotiations between Apple and the restaurant because it saw an opportunity to have the restaurant surrender its lease which ends in 2019 because Apple would pay a higher rent and generate more revenue for surrounding businesses. The MTA says that Apple is paying $1.1 million in rent, four times what the restaurant was paying.

The comptroller wants to have more oversight on public authority contracts worth more than $1 million so this is less likely to happen again.

Kodak Coloramas — massive, panoramic photographs depicting idealized scenes of American life — were once championed as “the world’s largest photographs.” A single Colorama ad, measuring 18 feet high and 60 feet wide, dominated the east interior wall of the terminal’s main concourse.

Beginning July 28, visitors will be able to view scaled-down prints of the iconic images on display at the New York Transit Museum, located in the Gallery Annex of Grand Central Terminal. The Kodak Colorama exhibit includes 36 prints, which, at about two feet high and six feet wide each, are a mere fraction the size of the original images.

The advertisements ran continuously from 1950 to 1990, with Kodak boasting 565 different photographs over a 40-year period. Every three weeks, like clockwork, the company would undertake the expensive and laborious process of replacing the ad with a new image.

“The Colorama images were highly stylized ideas of American life that became part of the Grand Central experience for millions of visitors over a 40-year span,” said Gabrielle Shubert, director of the Transit Museum.

The campaign ended in 1990, when the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission declared Grand Central Terminal a landmark.

Many of the images, which portray idealized snapshots of 20th century American culture, are reminiscent of Norman Rockwell paintings; and not without reason. Rockwell — famous for his paintings and illustrations of everyday American life — served as an artistic director on some of the photo shoots for the Colorama campaign, according to Rob Del Bagno, manager of exhibits for the Transit Museum.

Although the ad campaign ran for four decades, the exhibit features only photographs from the 1960s.

“The curator felt that that decade was the heyday of Kodak — and the heyday of advertising,” Del Bagno said.

He added that the exhibit, which will run until November 1, marks one of many upcoming events and activities meant to honor the centennial of of Grand Central Terminal. The iconic New York transportation hub, which opened to railway traffic in 1913, will celebrate its 100th anniversary in February.

“As we prepare for our Centennial, the return of these images serves as a reminder of how Grand Central has been at the center of life and culture in New York and the Northeast for all these decades,” Shubert said.

From Nov. 24 through Dec. 19, a display at the Transit Museum next door to Grand Central will feature nine of Lionel’s trains, including the popular Polar Express and brand new models of Metro North’s M7 and New York City Subway’s R27.
The track takes visitors to the North Pole through iconic New York City landmarks like the Brooklyn Bridge and Empire State Building.

“Lionel Trains has been a classic American brand for over 100 years and the holiday season is a special time for us,” said Lionel CEO Jerry Calabrese “We look forward to this exhibit every year and Grand Central visitors are sure to find a memorable holiday experience.”

Admission to the exhibit is free. For more information, visit www.grandcentralterminal.com.