What Happened to the Great Urban Design Projects?
What happened to the <i>great</i> projects is that the governments responsible generally flubbed their ability to <i>balance a budget</i> so badly that people lost faith in their ability to deliver anything. The MTA Second System was a glorious and wonderful idea on paper, and any New Yorker would love having it, but look what actually became of those lofty ideals: one useful connection and the station named &quot;Grand Street&quot; (B&#x2F;D) plus a bankruptcy.<p>Increased labor costs (thanks in part to pro-union prevailing-wage legislation) and environmental-planning holdups in years since haven&#x27;t helped get things built for less money, either, and we&#x27;ve suffered a parade of boondoggle public-transportation projects, like the Acela service: crazy-money wasted on designing new trainsets instead of importing existing ones, and then the trains are run at normal-train speeds for most of their trip. Next up: California high-speed rail. Not that this is specific to public transit, mind you: the Big Dig should disabuse anyone of that notion. And even when the government supposedly tries to be efficient, we end up with scandals like with the new Bay Bridge.<p>Bonus points, too, when the laughable micro-projects with insane price tags that <i>are</i> approved find themselves over-budget and end up dropping some of the promises that they <i>did</i> make. (In the Bay Area I know there are people who still complain about how VTA promised to run light rail up West San Carlos Ave, from downtown to the Valley Fair mall, and the old BART&#x2F;VTA institutional&#x2F;political rivalry is still running after all these decades.)<p>How can we restore our faith, asks our intrepid columnist? You&#x27;ll need to get the governments involved to get their acts together, and then it will be pretty automatic as they demonstrate competence. I wouldn&#x27;t hold my breath, though.