1. It's a dangerous mistake to view the L train fiasco as a drama of Cuomo's imperiousness. It's really a window on incompetence at the region's most vital - and flawed - public agency.
The problem is NOT Cuomo big-footing the MTA's plans, but the plans themselves.
The problem is NOT Cuomo big-footing the MTA's plans, but the plans themselves.
2. For six years since Sandy, it has been an article of faith that damages to the L train tunnel could be fixed in only ONE POSSIBLE WAY.
That was lazy fiction.
That was lazy fiction.
3. Saltwater had damaged cables contained in a massive (seven-miles long) concrete wall structure. MTA officials and a cadre of consultants decided to demolish the concrete, replace the cables, and then rebuild the entire structure -- just as it was a century ago. 
4. An interesting side fact that has gotten little attention: one reason the demolition would take so long is that it required intensive environmental mitigation procedures because of dangers from silica and other dust released by jack-hammering the old wall.
5. The disruption of shutting the tunnel to do this has been well documented -- in fact, some people almost seem mad that it's not going to happen after they've been expecting it so long. Others are rightly ticked off that no one thought of alternatives before.
6. Why didn't anyone think of the solution now put forward, which is to leave the old cables where they are inside the concrete, and run new ones overhead in racks?
7. As @emmagf and @jessemckinley report today, @NYGovCuomo tore apart the plan in the last month. Engineers from Cornell and Columbia, came up with the new one. nytimes.com/2019/01/04/nyr…
8. People are skeptical about Cuomo's plan. That's good. Without skepticism, society collapses. This entire episode illustrate the failure to be skeptical.
Whose job was it? Begin with in-house MTA officials and the consultants overseeing capital work. Who didn't ask, "Why?"
Whose job was it? Begin with in-house MTA officials and the consultants overseeing capital work. Who didn't ask, "Why?"
9. Kick it up the line: there's an MTA board. Did anyone demand alternative engineering plans? Would an aspirin work, or did we have to do a heart transplant?
10. What about the public officials who appoint people to the MTA board? Did the mayor, the Speaker of the Assembly, the head of the state Senate ask their representatives if this could be done differently?
11. How many hearings have been held in Albany by the Assembly or the State Senate on the necessity of upending the lives of hundreds of thousands of people? (Spoiler: None.)
12. How about the City Council transportation committee? They did lots of work on how to cope with the shutdown, but not on whether it was needed to begin with. Why not?
13. Yes, it's the governor's MTA, and he was extremely late to the party. He should have asked the questions sooner. No one else had asked them at all. It is mostly the governor's MTA -- not entirely.
14. Some people dislike Cuomo. He's not the story here. This was a colossal error, narrowly averted. The MTA is broken. It's not enough to say, get rid of it. How do you create an environment where skepticism and creative thinking are core competencies?
15. Finally, for most of the time that this plan was underway, I was writing a column in the metropolitan pages of the NYT. No one told me I couldn't ask the questions. I didn't. I should have.
