Gov. Hochul pledged at Grand Central Terminal Thursday to work towards driving down crime within the New York Metropolis subway system as her proposed blitz of subway security spending made it by funds negotiations in Albany unscathed.
The funds embrace $77 million to maintain up NYPD additional time for in a single day practice patrols — funding which Hochul mentioned Thursday she would work to replenish past the tip of the fiscal yr. The funds additionally consists of $45 million to maintain Nationwide Guard troops deployed to the subway as a part of “Empire Shield,” a 9/11-era counterterror operation the governor has lately employed to discourage extra odd crimes.
“What was the world like before the pandemic, when people were not so anxious about going on the subway?” Hochul mentioned, flanked by Nationwide Guard troops, New York State Troopers and MTA chairman Janno Lieber at Grand Central. “We are now down 16% compared to 2019.”
“We’re 11% lower than last year at this time,” she mentioned.
Hochul’s presser got here as lawmakers in Albany are placing the ending touches on the state funds—which comprises funding for each the MTA’s giant scale capital initiatives and its day-to-day working funds.
Gov. Hochul visited Grand Central and the fifth Ave. station on the No. 7 practice Thursday amid a victory lap for subway security funding. (Evan Simko-Bednarski for New York Day by day Information)
Hochul additionally touted final yr’s efforts to put in surveillance cameras aboard each subway practice, in addition to applications meant to coordinate the state and metropolis’s subway-based psychological well being outreach applications.
Gov. Hochul visited Grand Central and the fifth Ave. station on the No. 7 practice Thursday amid a victory lap for subway security funding. (Evan Simko-Bednarski for New York Day by day Information)
The funding victory-lap comes as subway crime continues to be a flashpoint within the showdown between New York State and a federal authorities that has threatened to cease funding transit initiatives over each coverage variations — particularly congestion pricing — and a notion of rising subway crime.
“I more than anyone know there’s still more to do,” Hochul mentioned. “Just last week a man was stabbed to death on the No. 5 train, right in the middle of rush hour — a galling attack that shocked so many riders.”
The state funds additionally consists of full funding to the MTA’s $68 billion five-year capital plan — depending on the MTA discovering a method to save $3 billion over 5 years throughout its capital and working budgets.
That program additionally consists of different expenditures Hochul mentioned would make the subway safer — cash for subway platform limitations and $1.1 billion towards new fare gates at 150 subway stations within the subsequent 5 years.
