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Volume XIX • Number 40 • October 18 - 24, 2012 •
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Are you ready for a $5 Henry Hudson toll? By TESS McRAE Local residents will need a few extra quarters in their pockets for their daily commute come 2013, now that the Metropolitan Transportation Authority has announced plans to increase fare and toll prices across the board. The MTA attributes the need for increases to a rise in nondiscretionary costs such as pensions and employee health care. “Costs that the MTA does not exercise control over, namely those for debt service, pensions, energy, paratransit, and employee and retiree health care, continue to increase beyond the rate of inflation,” MTA Chairman and CEO Joseph J. Lhota said. “We are grappling with long-term measures to reduce these frustrating and difficult nondiscretionary expenses, but today, they are the drivers of the need for a fare and toll increase.” The increase for subway and bus fares has been divided into four alternative proposals, differing in the way they treat the base fare, the time-based unlimitedride MetroCards, and the MetroCard bonus discount
of 7 percent that customers receive for putting at least $10 on a pay-per-ride card. As it stands, the base fare is $2.25 or $2.10 with a bonus discount. The 30-day and 7-day cards cost $104 and $29 respectively. The MTA hopes either to raise the base fare to $2.50, keeping the 7 percent bonus discount and adding a lower break-even point with a smaller increase to unlimited-ride MetroCards, or to keep the base fare at $2.25 while reducing the bonus discount to 5 percent with a higher break-even point and larger price increase for unlimited-ride MetroCards. Completely eliminating the bonus value discount was also a considered, but that option has been dropped, according to published reports. Proposals for express buses lay out similar options, with the fare increasing to $6.00 from $5.50. Metro-North railroad ticket fares, which are based on distance traveled, will increase between 8.19 percent and 9.31 percent, affecting each of the ten zones differently. Prices for one-way peak-hour tickets to Grand Central Sta-
tion from The Riverdale, Spuyten Duyvil and Marble Hill stations, all in Zone Two, would increase from the current $7.50 to anywhere from $8.11 to $8.20. Off-peak fares would increase from $5.75 to anwhere from $6.22 to $6.28. Tolls for the Robert F. Kennedy Bridge, Throgs Neck Bridge and Bronx-Whitestone Bridge will rise from $4.80 to $5.30 for E-ZPass users and from $6.50 to $7.50 for drivers paying with cash. The toll for the Henry Hudson Bridge, which will no longer accept cash beginning November 10, rises to $2.43 from the current $2.20. Drivers without an E-ZPass will be billed $5.00 by mail, the current rate being $4.00. The original toll for the Henry Hudson Bridge, with the shortest span of the MTA bridges, was one thin dime. According to the U.S Census Bureau, New York City has more residents commuting to work by public transportation than any other city in the country. Approximately 30.5 percent of New Yorkers commute to work using Continued on Page 2
Artist Daniel Hauben finds a ‘sense of place’ here in The Bronx By PAULETTE SCHNEIDER On a quiet, leafy Riverdale street, Daniel Hauben opens the door to his windowless groundfloor studio, turns on the lights, and a world of vivid canvases comes to life. The number 5 train roars by as vendors hawk their wares under the el. The distinctive Broadway Bridge and a wedge of Yankee Stadium bleachers anchor bustling streetscapes that ascend into panoramic urban vistas. The oils and pastels staged in Hauben’s studio will dazzle viewers at an exhibition opening October 23 in Bronx Community College’s Hall of Fame Gallery. The show, called “Creating a Sense of Place,” will complement the permanent installation of 22 Hauben paintings in the college’s brandnew North Hall and Library. The library art collection, named “A Sense of Place,” has two stairway murals and 20 smaller murals along a balcony frieze visible throughout the facility’s “information commons” area. All depict Bronx scenes, including some that focus on the campus. Hauben was commissioned for the project in 2008 by an interdisciplinary committee including Wave Hill art curator Jennifer McGregor, who served as his liaison. Of the four artists who submitted proposals, “Danny was the unanimous choice,” she said.
The commission was an outof-studio experience for Hauben, an opportunity to “wear another hat” and interact with some of the “15 companies working on this building.” “My choice is to not just be an artist in my studio but to try to bridge the gap into the world and try to get exposure, work with the community,” he said. As linked as he is with the local landscape, Hauben said he doesn’t want to be thought of as a Bronx-only artist. “That’s not all I do,” he said. His 800-piece inventory includes natural landscapes and surreal pieces, including some addressing the 9/11 tragedy. “My whole trajectory in terms of my life and my career is to tune into my strongest impulses of what to paint,” he said. “To me, it’s a process of discovery—I don’t want to be pigeonholed.” Those impulses—and a travelling set of pastels—have influenced his style. “Of late, I’ve been doing these pop-up paintings,” he said, pointing to an engaging pastel where potential customers mull over yard-sale merchandise piled on tables outside his in-laws’ upstate home. “My approach changed,” he said. “For ten years, I painted cityscapes without any people. When I started incorporating people in my paintContinued on Page 2
Artist Daniel Hauben in his Riverdale studio preparing for an exhibition on view at Bronx Community College’s Hall of Fame from October 23 through November 29. Call 718-289-5341 for more information.