Thread by @barely_th3re

@JacobAShell so I'll bite. I'm not as familiar with transit politics in NYC as in my city (Atlanta), so I'll do my best here.

My issue with your stance on this is that you're not looking at the situation at a high enough level.

@JacobAShell Mamdani winning is about the heart and the future of the democratic party. As I see it, the party has two paths forward: (1) a continuation of the old guard of Schumer, Jeffries etc. under the neo-liberal banner of abundance, led by Ezra Klein;

@JacobAShell (2) a modern FDR iteration of the democratic party which is more progressive, a wing led by Bernie Sanders, AOC, Rashida Tlaib, and Mamdani

@JacobAShell The primary difference b/t these two wings are who is identified as the enemy. The neo-liberal wing has identified that regulation and government itself gets in it's own way and limits government capacity, whereas the progressive wing identifies money in politics as the issue.

@JacobAShell my issue with the neo-liberals is that they have been in control since the Reagan years. We've been continually deregulating all sectors of our economy for decades, and it just hasn't worked.

@JacobAShell Take a look at projects like CAHSR; what Klein doesn't admit is that this project is essentially privately run. The only governmental staff on CAHSR is a small office of maybe 20-30 people.

@JacobAShell Everything is handled by a contractor in these absolutely massive multi-billion dollar deals, with multiple layers of sub-contracting beyond that, and the general contractor at the top of everything has no incentive to reduce cost. It's about the money, not the regulation.

@JacobAShell Perhaps, you say, the issue with CAHSR isn't that a private general contractor manages the project, but rather that property owners can disingenuously use environmental regulation to slow down and stall projects.

@JacobAShell My response to this is that this isn't fundamentally an issue with the specific regulations at hand, but rather an issue of concentration of wealth into land owners.

@JacobAShell The fact that these land owners have so much power to engage in litigation is a product of private land ownership in the first place. If people didn't view their home as a speculative asset to be protected, then they wouldn't be incentivized to stop these projects.

@JacobAShell Furthermore, the benefit of these projects is largely concentrated in non-landowners. Only well off folks (for the most part) get to own their homes, and they're much less likely to be invested in transit which disproportionately benefits renters, who tend to be less wealthy.

@JacobAShell I do believe that there are ways of fixing this, but the way to do this isn't to privatize more, it isn't to deregulate more. We've tried that and it doesn't work and we have 40 years of evidence to show that this is the case.

@JacobAShell The key to getting these projects through is, rather, by elevating the voices of the downtrodden. They don't have a say because they're too busy trying to pay rent and feed their families so of course showing support for the IBX is hard for them.

@JacobAShell further, I would argue that these property owners are actually more aligned with Cuomo & his agenda ! so if Cuomo won that would've actually been a negative for the project. Mamdani's base supports transit expansion and all these projects we're talking about

@JacobAShell If you press me further and as "ok how do we actually maximize the chance of IBX + 2nd Ave subway phase 2&3" my response is that if we want to be as cynical as possible, then the path forward is to support Hochul in the New York gubernatorial primary/race next year over Delgado.

@JacobAShell Hochul has explicitly tied herself and her reputation to this project, so she has a vested interest in getting these projects done. Mamdani also has these he needs from the state; namely cooperation from Hochul to allow for the 2% income tax that he wants to admit.

@JacobAShell They both have things that they want/need from each other so in my estimation supporting their very new alliance by advocating for Hochul next year is the way to do it

@JacobAShell I would still argue that ultimately Hochul is a politician who doesn't really believe in anything and that she, like Cuomo, is ultimately in the pockets of monied interests.

@JacobAShell from that perspective that is a good argument to support Delgado over Hochul next year, but I just dont think that Delgado has the same level of energy & support that Mamdani has, so, in a sense,

@JacobAShell I'm willing to sacrifice advocating for him over Hochul bc I think that it meets our practical near term goals.

@JacobAShell @threadreaderapp unroll