Damek.

In 2003, the MTA was no better off in the eyes of the public than it is now. That year, the agency was accused of cooking up two sets of books in order to justify a fare hike. One set showed the agency operating a deficit; the other showed a historic surplus.

At the time, Alan Hevesi unleashed a scathing report about the MTA’s behavior, and the agency was judged permanently guilty in the eyes of public opinion. It would be a watershed moment in the history of government — or quasi-government — agency corruption.

Fast forward to 2009. None of the MTA officials or board members responsible for the “two sets of books” scandal is still in power. Instead, the MTA Board is headed up by people with bona fide transit credentials, and the agency has attempted to be more transparent. Still, after years of governmental neglect, the MTA’s finances are in legitimate disarray, and if to close what may be nearly a $2 billion budget gap, the MTA will have to implement a Doomsday budget on March 25 if the state doesn’t act.

For its part, the State Senate can’t get over a scandal six years in the past.

I don’t know what to make of this. It’s very hard to distinguish a poorly managed, corrupt organization from 6 years ago from a broken, inept organization today. Particularly when service has changed little over that time span. Not to mention, the general economy has suffered during that time, so, there isn’t as much money to go around in general. Even well-managed organizations are suffering. There seems to have been some progress in the Senate, and I hope that, down the line, the NYC transit system, while not too shabby as it is, can finally get even simple improvements like live subway station updates and live bus stop updates.

As the warm months approach and I consider a trip out to a waterpark, or a trip to go river rafting, I was interested to read the most recent couple of posts on Ben Jervey’s excellent “reblog” sustaiNYC.

First, a post going to an Observer article on NYC’s water infrastructure, featuring a wonderful photograph of The Old Croton Aqueduct.

New York gets its water from two upstate reservoir systems that it owns and operates. To keep the sources of water clean the city works upstate to purchase land and ensure best management practices by local farmers and other residents.

The most interesting bit to me, of the part Jervey quotes, is how much our water is cleaned by natural ecological processes, and how we can sort of hang a price tag on that by considering how much it would cost to build a comparable filtration plant to do the same work.

The second post is more recreational, going to the new Parks Dept. Water Trail Map, basically featuring “28 spots along our vast waterfront where you could drop in a canoe or kayak.” Spending life amongst tall buildings and down in subway tunnels, it’s easy to forget this is a coastal, island city.

Of course, knowing it is one thing. Actually getting in that water is quite another. Seriously, have you looked at the East River (ok, tidal estuary) lately? *shudder*

I thought there was something funny with the Spitzer scandal stuff.

But what do you expect, Republicans are despicable in everything.

I’ve always wanted to get in touch with the outdoors, but wanted a mentor of sorts to show me the ways. Sadly I’ve never found such, but I did find something to cover a small part of that desire. See, one specific thing I’ve wanted to do for the past couple years is learn to rock climb — due in no small part to the influence of Kim Stanley Robinson, many of whose books feature mountain climbing to one degree or another.

Last summer I was looking for some sort of rock climbing lessons in New York City, and discovered two main resources: City Climbers Club and the Central Park North Meadow Recreation Center

The City Climbers Club, housed at the 59th St Rec Center, will give you a Beginners Lesson for $30. The North Meadow Rec Center has longer, more expensive climbing programs for children and adults.

After trying to sign up for adult climbing instruction at the North Meadow Rec Center last summer, but being told they didn’t have anyone else interested at the time and couldn’t enroll just one person, I finally got off my butt this June to go check out the City Climbers Club. I was given some equipment and given a short intro to belaying, but wasn’t sure what I was doing and didn’t want to go back. I decided to give the North Meadow program another try. Imagine my surprise this year when I was told “sure, you can start in August.”

So for four not-quite-consecutive Saturday mornings for the past six weeks (I was sick once and the instructor had car trouble another time), I went up to the Center and had one-on-one instruction with Dario, the resident expert. And he certainly knew his stuff. He taught me the basics of climbing, including technique and equipment, and gave me starting points for learning more, including what is apparently the all-in-one resource for outdoors activity, Freedom of the Hills. He also pointed out on a Central Park map a few of the good places in the park to go bouldering (traversing rock near ground without ropes).

He was a wonderful, patient instructor, and very accommodating with my seeming inability to learn how to tie knots. I had a great time and highly recommend the course to everyone with even the remotest interest in learning climbing. You’ll have great fun, especially on the sessions spent outdoors climbing actual rocks in Central Park. Funny how they look taller from the top than from the bottom…

Oh, and that’s not all you get for your $200. As part of completing the 4-session instruction, I also have free use for one year of the North Meadow Rec Center’s climbing gym, during adult climbing hours (Sundays, Tuesdays & Thursdays). It was all a lot of fun and I feel much more confident now to go out and work on some rocks in the park, or go to the gym and practice. I might even stop by the City Climbers Club again to check out their routes. My only regret is that I have so many other things going on in my life right now I won’t be doing it much.

So anyway, if you’re at all intrigued about the idea of rock climbing, I highly recommend the North Meadow Rec Center’s program. Dario told me he does it year-round — yes, even in Winter. I’d almost want to take it again during cold weather just to see what it’s like. If you have kids, they have popular children’s instruction, too.

And if you take the program, let me know. Maybe we can go practice the ropes together sometime.

What Ezra says, and the Mark Kleiman he links to:

Today’s Washington Posthas a story about tree-planting in urban areas. The numbers are spectacular. In Los Angeles, tree-planting could reduce temperatures by as much as 5 degrees F., in addition to reducing air pollution and improving visibility. Yet apparently the urban, and especially suburban, tree cover ratios have been shrinking severely.

[...] There’s a big political problem here. A candidate who says he’s going to deal with our energy problem by drilling in ANWR will have his opinion taken seriously by reporters and pundits, even though the actual contribution of such drilling to reducing imports is trivial. But a national-level politician who proposed tree-planting or chalk dust would wind up the butt of jokes on late-night TV. Somehow the ideas lack gravitas. I have no clear idea what to do about that.

[...] For some reason, you need the thrill of danger, the lure of technology, or the threat of economic pain to inject a policy into the national agenda. Small bore, technocratic fixes that offer massive benefits while requiring relatively little sacrifice or sorrow just get ignored.

I think a similar problem comes in at the state and city level. If Bloomberg were to propose a massive city effort to increase bike lane milage, people would not only say, “meh” about bike lanes, they’d be angry over losing car space, even though most people here don’t own cars or drive. And you can’t just call it something else, like an “economic boost package” that includes transportation improvements or something. People see through that. Imagine if Democrats relabeled intelligent foreign policy, in a reverse Orwellian sense, something like “Anti-Terror Tactics” or something. It might sell a little better, but a lot of people would wonder where their explosions and guns went.

In NYC, we definitely need more greenery (integrated with the city, not in separate parks) and other heat-island reduction techniques, in addition to more efficient transportation, waste management, etc. How to sex up these ideas? How to sell them to a human population that in general wants to hear how you’re going to “attack” this or “destroy” that? The only thing I see is to present a comprehensive vision that most people would desire. Some idea of what the future city could be like. Sadly, so far no one in city government seems to have that, and individual developers both A) can only influence individual buildings; and B) seem to get their visions straight out of Blade Runner.

And in NYC, you also have the problem of the boroughs. Queens doesn’t want to be like Brooklyn, Brooklyn doesn’t want to be like Manhattan, da Bronx doesn’t want to be like Staten Island, etc. Each with a different flavor and a different vision of how they want their neighborhoods to be, their lifestyles to be. What sells in one won’t necessarily sell in another, but they need to be knit together.

BTW, and totally unrelated, Ezra also had a great post on Wal*Mart and how it isn’t just about the wages their cashiers earn — it’s much, much more. In fact, in general, I think Ezra is my new favorite blogger. Not that he’s new…