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Volume XVIII • Number 9 • January 27 - February 2, 2011 •
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On skating rink plan, city may be on thin ice By BRENDAN McHUGH The Bronx’s first ice-skating rink in more than a quarter century is slated to open next winter in Van Cortlandt Park. The tennis courts along Broadway, which go mostly unused this time of year, will be the site for the temporary new rink, according to Mayor Michael Bloomberg. In his State of the City speech, the mayor said, “In the Bronx, we’ll join with the Van Cortlandt Park Conservancy to do something that has been talked about for more than a decade: we’ll turn unused tennis courts into an ice skating rink open all winter long.” City Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe acknowledged that this idea has been around for years, ever since the Riverdale Ice Skating Rink closed. The women’s clothing store, Loehmann’s, now sits in that building. “Ever since that time people have been thinking about getting skating back here in the Bronx,” he said. “Fernando Ferrer, Adolfo Carrion and Ruben Diaz
(Jr.) have all had the idea of starting one in the Bronx,” Benepe said. Ferrer and Carrion were the last two borough presidents before Diaz, the current borough president. But it was always money that hindered the return of a skate rink to the Bronx. Now, however, the Parks Department will be adding $100,000 to $200,000 to improve the lighting and electrical infrastructure in the area to accommodate the rink. The Parks Department now awaits design proposals from contractors as to how they plan to build and fund the seasonal rink. “The mayor has embraced the idea so it has a good momentum going, but we’ll see if anyone thinks they can make money off of it.” Benepe said the VCPC has plans to model it after the rink in Bryant Park, but admitted the costs to maintain the rink is high and it won’t be easy to fund it. He added that Riverdale residents should be credited with getting the rink put in the park after a throng of requests from the neighborhood. But Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz has concerns. “I
would love to have an ice-skating rink in the Bronx and in our community. I am concerned about the cost, at a time when the city and the state are cutting millions out of the budget. “It concerns me we’re putting money toward something new when we should be fighting for money for things like our schools. Secondly, this should go through the parks department, not through a private organization. It raises a concern as to public access to this facility. It should be totally public. In my opinion, any privatization concerns me. The history of ice-skating in the Bronx goes back over a century. Lloyd Ultan, the Bronx County Historian, said an “explosion of ice-skating occurred in the Bronx in the late 19th, early 20th century. Thousands of people had ice-skates that were clamped on the bottom of their regular shoes.” Ultan said a pond in Van Cortlandt Park and Twin Lakes in Bronx Park were two major attractions for borough skaters. The Parks Department would measure and track the thickness of the ice.
MTA takes first step to cashless, but still expensive, tolls
By BRENDAN McHUGH It’s a farewell to arms. The MTA on January 20 removed the gates on the E-ZPass lanes on the Henry Hudson Bridge as part of a pilot program to move to completely cashless tolling on the bridge by 2012.
Drivers with E-ZPass can now roll through the tollbooth without having to wait for the barricade to rise, making it quicker to move across the bridge. “There’s a better way to collect tolls in the 21st century, and it’s called all-electronic tolling,” said Jay Walder, chairman
CEO of the MTA. “By removing the gate arms today, we begin the process of ushering in this new era in toll collection. If all goes according to plan, by next year the Henry Hudson Bridge will be the first cashless bridge in the country, reducing travel times for drivers and expenses for
FAREWELL TO ARMS – The MTA removed the gate on one of the lanes on the Henry Hudson Bridge last week, allowing motorists to drive through without stopping for the gate arm to go up. The removal is the first step in making all the toll lanes gateless, and eventually moving to a completely cashless system. Pictured at the removal of the gate are (L-R) Executive Director of the Tri-State Transportation Campaign Kate Slevin, MTA Bridges and Tunnels President Jim Ferrara, MTA Board Member Mark Lebow, Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz, Councilman James Vacca, MTA Chairman Jay Walder, Assemblyman Guillermo Linares, and Bronx Community Board 8 Traffic and Transportation Committee Chair Dan Padernacht.
the MTA.” There are still three lanes in each direction available for drivers without E-ZPass. In 2012, when the bridge goes cashless, those lanes will be eliminated. For drivers without E-ZPass and for out-of-state drivers, a picture will be taken of the car’s license plate and the driver will be billed the non-E-ZPass toll, currently $4.00. The E-ZPass rate is $2.20. During the current phase of the pilot, new state-of-the-art cameras positioned within the existing toll plaza configuration and back office operations will all be tested. “This pilot will significantly change our approach to toll collection,” MTA Bridges and Tunnels President Jim Ferrara said. He added that customers will notice the difference in the gateless phase right away because they will not have to come to a stop and wait for gate arms to lift. “Our message to E-ZPass customers at the Henry Hudson is simple,” he said. “Don’t stop, keep moving!” A decision on whether to expand either the gateless or cashless operations at other MTA crossings will be made after the pilot has ended. Currently, Denver, Texas and Florida operate cashless systems in a highway environment. In the New York region, several tolling authorities operate mixed cash and electronic systems, but none are totally cashless. The Henry Hudson Bridge, which links the Inwood section of Manhattan to Riverdale, was chosen for the pilot because of its favorable plaza configuration, its high E-ZPass market share (85 Continued on Page 13