Port Authority's Grand Compromise Yields New Bus Terminal, and Tensions

[marmar]

(WNYC) Usually, political horse trading goes on behind closed doors. But at the Port Authority's most recent board meeting, it was on full display, in all its tension-infused glory.

New York Gov. Cuomo has made airport modernization a theme of his administration, and rebuilding LaGuardia's Central Terminal Building is one of his priorities. It's the responsibility of his appointee, Port Authority Executive Director Patrick Foye, to move that ball down the field.

But sometimes priorities of the two states don't mesh, and this was one of them.

The authority's chairman, New Jersey Gov. Christie appointee John Degnan, had previously said he wouldn't support the LaGuardia project because it was too expensive. But he changed his mind after board members agreed to support one of his key projects: to fund — and build — a new Port Authority Bus Terminal in midtown Manhattan.

"I am at the Port Authority to get things done," Degnan said, explaining his change of heart. "We did just that earlier in this meeting when the board committed to a new bus terminal in Manhattan and rejected the misguided notion of pursuing such a facility in New Jersey." ...................(more)

http://www.wnyc.org/story/bruising-port-authority-board-meeting-yields/