Today at 2:12 pm
Jeanette Sadik-Khan
Do check out my friend Dana Goldstein excellent profile of Jeanette Sadik-Khan, New York City’s masterfully innovative Transportation Commissioner, hero of transportation reformers everywhere. In my dreams, she’ll be our next Transportation Secretary. In reality, I’d hope we can at least get someone who’s familiar with her name and not just the major Interstate routes.
48 Responses to “Jeanette Sadik-Khan”
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November 24th, 2008 at 2:22 pm
If she’s so masterful, they should put her in charge of the M.T.A., which is planning draconian cuts in subway, bus and commuter rail services, and a catastrophic shortfall in capital funding over the next 5 years.
November 24th, 2008 at 2:37 pm
If she’s so masterful, they should put her in charge of the M.T.A., which is planning draconian cuts in subway, bus and commuter rail services, and a catastrophic shortfall in capital funding over the next 5 years.
1. How is this at all relevant, except as a way to lazily cast doubt on Sadik-Khan’s accomplishment by use of the phrase “If she’s so masterful”?
2. I’ve no doubt that MTA (like any large organization) could stand to be better managed. However, given that transit agencies nationwide are facing budget shortfalls and the prospect of service cutbacks, and given that it’s beyond the power of the MTA to raise tax revenue, or set city, state or federal budgets, how, exactly, do you think Sadik-Khan (or anyone) would be able to handle this situation differently?
November 24th, 2008 at 2:39 pm
Oh Mixner, she’s a woman, not Superwoman. You think any one commissioner would be able to wrest control of the MTA away from the union and its Mafia overlords?
If you think this article describes an isolated case (http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/16/nyregion/16mta.html), I’ve got a bridge to sell you (not the Brooklyn, the Manhattan or the Williamsburg — they host subway lines obvs).
November 24th, 2008 at 2:41 pm
You spelled her name wrong. Janette. She hates it when people do that. Actually, she likes it when people get it right, because so many times people get it wrong.
November 24th, 2008 at 2:45 pm
Here’s another fun fact about the MTA:
MTA records show 288 New York City Transit employees in “corporate communications,” 70 Long Island Rail Road staffers in “market development and public affairs,” and 52 at MTA headquarters in “corporate and community affairs.”
Two hundred eighty-eight employees in corporate communications. Wanna guess how many Wal-Mart or McDonalds employee? I’m guessing a hell of a lot less than that.
November 24th, 2008 at 2:45 pm
Actually, Mixie, forget question number 2. This post has nothing to do with the MTA or its problems.
Nor did your comment. You may as well have asked “Oh yeah? Well if she’s so great, why don’t they put her in charge of curing cancer, or solving the water crisis in the Southwest, huh?”
If you’ve got something substantive and on-topic to say, say it. But keep the sleazy inveigling to yourself.
November 24th, 2008 at 2:46 pm
And of course, that should have read “how many Wal-Mart or McDonalds employ.” I’ll go away now.
November 24th, 2008 at 2:52 pm
How is this at all relevant,
The MTA is a huge part of New York’s transportation system.
Oh Mixner, she’s a woman, not Superwoman.
But she’s “masterfully innovative,” according to Matt.
If you think this article describes an isolated case
Oh, I don’t. Transit is in trouble all over the country
November 24th, 2008 at 2:54 pm
If you’ve got something substantive and on-topic to say, say it. But keep the sleazy inveigling to yourself.
Go away, you obsessive, cyberstalking freak.
November 24th, 2008 at 2:56 pm
The MTA is a huge part of New York’s transportation system.
Yes it is. And yet, not something Sadik-Khan is in charge of. So your point was that Sadik-Khan is no good because…?
November 24th, 2008 at 2:58 pm
Go away, you obsessive, cyberstalking freak.
Oh my gosh. Your logic is so compelling.
November 24th, 2008 at 2:59 pm
Incidentally, did you finally realize your error on the other thread? In the interests of intellectual honesty, you might want to acknowledge that.
November 24th, 2008 at 2:59 pm
Yes it is. And yet, not something Sadik-Khan is in charge of. So your point was that Sadik-Khan is no good because…?
Because garble bargle nobody likes trains, they’re too crowded. Also, they need to have strict zoning laws to force developers to build sprawl, because that market has spoken.
And also, too, Matt likes trains! Matt likes trains!
Duh, jack. Haven’t you figured this out by now?
November 24th, 2008 at 3:02 pm
You have offered no evidence that…ch-chung-clang!
You have offered no evidence that…ch-chung-clang!
You have offered no that…that…that…that…that…that…that…that….thhhhhhhhhhhhhhh-zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz-pop!
November 24th, 2008 at 3:05 pm
DMonteith,
And yet, not something Sadik-Khan is in charge of.
I didn’t say she was in charge of it.
In the interests of intellectual honesty, you might want to acknowledge that.
In the interests of intellectual honesty, you might want to finally admit your ignorance and illiteracy.
November 24th, 2008 at 3:06 pm
You have offered no evidence that…ch-chung-clang!
“My name is joe from lowell and I just make facts up out of thin air.”
November 24th, 2008 at 3:08 pm
I didn’t say she was in charge of it.
So, you were just posting a couple helpful, completely off-topic, links to some articles about the MTA?
And the snark about Sadik-Khan was justified, because…?
November 24th, 2008 at 3:12 pm
In the interests of intellectual honesty, you might want to acknowledge that.
In the interests of intellectual honesty, you might want to finally admit your ignorance and illiteracy.
And yet, I’m not the one laying huge, fetid logic errors all over these threads…
November 24th, 2008 at 3:28 pm
And the snark about Sadik-Khan was justified, because…?
Go away, you obsessive, cyberstalking freak.
November 24th, 2008 at 3:32 pm
Go away, you obsessive, cyberstalking freak.
Ah. Impeccable logic. I am humbled. Truly, I had no idea Sadik-Khan was so incompetent. I guess you learn something new every day!
Wait. What is it you like to say? Oh yeah:
Nonresponsive. Why was the snark about S-K justified?
November 24th, 2008 at 3:54 pm
Al-
I’m not sure the article makes it so clear. I’m no expert myself, but I think it’s not so much her record, as intangibles like ‘vision’, ‘boldness’, and, as the article mentions, an impressive wonkyness.
So, while her actual policy accomplishments don’t necesarily look terribly impressive on paper (more bus lines, big deal, right?), they are real accomplishments, and they’re even more impressive viewed against the former baseline, and as components of a more visionary, forward looking plan (even congestion pricing – it may have failed this time, but it was a bold plan, and it moves the debate in the right direction: it may help set the stage for future passage, either in NY or elsewhere).
November 24th, 2008 at 4:00 pm
As a fellow comics reader, I strongly suspect that the misspelling of Janette Sadik-Khan’s is because of Matt’s knowledge of former DC Comics publisher Jeanette Kahn.
November 24th, 2008 at 4:16 pm
Kaaaaaaahhhhhhnnnnnn!
No no, “Khhhhhhhhhaaaaaaaaannnnnnn!”
That would have been a totally different movie if the bad guy was Jewish.
“You want I should walk around this desert planet for the rest of my life?”
November 24th, 2008 at 4:25 pm
Jef Klein’s my senator and he’s a good guy. Good for him telling that self-righteous hipster asshole to keep his effing hands off his car. I’d say the same if Klein was knocking on the guy’s bike.
As for Khan, I don’t see what that article highlighted that was favorable. It looks like she tried and failed (thankfully) on the CP initiative and now creates these absurd, and quite dangerous if you’ve seen them, pedestrian zones along broadway.
I hope she gets the federal appointment too, it’ll keep her from screwing up my City with another CP plan.
November 24th, 2008 at 4:56 pm
I really don’t understand the cafe-tables-in-the-middle-of-the-street thing. Who would want to sit down to coffee or lunch in the center median of a major road?
November 24th, 2008 at 5:19 pm
I really don’t understand the cafe-tables-in-the-middle-of-the-street thing. Who would want to sit down to coffee or lunch in the center median of a major road?
I haven’t seen them in person, but I don’t think they’re in the median. It’s more like a veeery wide sidewalk (I do have mixed feelings on putting the bike lane in the middle of it though).
In any case, they’re clearly successful. I suspect the long term plan is to turn the entire street into a pedestrian-only avenue.
November 24th, 2008 at 5:31 pm
Jeff Klein’s my senator and he’s a good guy. Good for him telling that self-righteous hipster asshole to keep his effing hands off his car.
Not least because this was a particularly wacko self-righteous hipster asshole who “did not use toilet paper for a year.”
November 24th, 2008 at 5:41 pm
Jeff Klein’s my senator and he’s a good guy. Good for him telling that self-righteous hipster asshole to keep his effing hands off his car.
Not least because this was a particularly wacko self-righteous hipster asshole who “did not use toilet paper for a year.”
Right. Because it’s okay to run bicyclists off the road. As long as they’re assholes.
November 24th, 2008 at 5:49 pm
Right. Because it’s okay to run bicyclists off the road. As long as they’re assholes.
No, just you, “jack.”
November 24th, 2008 at 5:55 pm
No, just you, “jack.”
You support your position with such a varied and learned array of facts, such faultless, crystalline logic. It is little wonder that you are known in the grand debating clubs of Europe simply as “Mixner the Invincible”.
I bow to you, sir.
November 25th, 2008 at 12:29 am
Moo!
December 15th, 2008 at 12:51 pm
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