Gov. Cuomo asks Trump to greenlight three major infrastructure projects in New York

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo traveled to the White House on Wednesday to ask President Donald Trump to greenlight three major infrastructure projects in the greater New York City area, which is in an economic free fall due to the coronavirus.

“The meeting we just had was not about politics. It was how do we supercharge the reopening,” Cuomo said at a briefing in Washington, D.C., after meeting Trump. “We need jobs now more than ever.”

The three projects include the expansion of the Second Avenue Subway line in Manhattan, construction of an AirTrain to LaGuardia Airport, and digging out new Amtrak tunnels under the Hudson River between New Jersey and New York, part of the so-called Gateway Program. All three projects require federal approval but could begin work quickly, said Cuomo, who sees them as a way to jump-start the region’s economy. 

“If he gives us the greenlight,” Cuomo said, “I have a shovel in the trunk of my car, we’ll start this afternoon.”

The Second Avenue Subway expansion, for example, is awaiting final federal approval before it can be extended north toward 125th Street in Manhattan’s East Harlem neighborhood and connect with the Metro-North commuter rail. 

Meanwhile, the AirTrain was conceived as part of an $8 billion reconstruction of LaGuardia Airport and would create the first direct rail connection, ferrying airport workers and travelers to other public transit arteries such as the Long Island Rail Road and the New York City subway system. 

Construction of the AirTrain is still awaiting a final environmental review by the U.S. Transportation Department — a bureaucratic hurdle Trump can help “move faster,” Cuomo said.

The spread of the infection in hard-hit New York state continued to decline on Wednesday, with around 1,000 people testing positive for the virus on Tuesday, down considerably from the peak, when more than 10,000 diagnoses were confirmed each day. The state also reported 74 deaths on Tuesday, basically unchanged from the day before and “headed in the right direction,” Cuomo said.

The governor expects to hear back from Trump, who pledged massive infrastructure spending as a major campaign promise in 2016, on the projects next week, he said. 

“His administration can just do it,” Cuomo said, calling the president “a builder” by occupation. “He believes in construction and development. He gets it.”

Essential construction has been allowed to proceed despite a sweeping lockdown in the city, now in its 10th week. Such work could ramp up further in early June, when the five boroughs are expected to begin phase one of reopening, which includes all construction, wholesale trade, manufacturing and some retail.

The appeal to Trump comes as New York City faces increasingly dire financial straits. The city now expects a revenue shortfall of $9 billion through fiscal year 2021, up from original projections of $7.4 billion, Mayor Bill de Blasio said at his daily briefing on Wednesday. 

“The economy is not functioning the way it normally does, and that’s taken away all the money that we use to provide services to all of you,” de Blasio said. Without federal stimulus, he said, the city would have to “make very, very painful choices that will affect the quality of life.”

New York City has shouldered the worst outbreak in the U.S. and has recorded nearly 200,000 cases of COVID-19, and more than 16,600 confirmed deaths as of Wednesday. (That number rises to over 21,000 if “suspected” deaths are included.)

Both Cuomo and de Blasio have called on the U.S. Senate to begin debating a $3 trillion stimulus bill passed 10 days ago in the House, which would include hundreds of billions of dollars in aid to state and local governments. 

As the first phase of reopening draws nearer, the city is weighing how some industries, especially bars and restaurants can reopen safely. One solution could be allowing eateries to take up more space outside to spread patrons out and enforce health protocols such as masks. 

Meanwhile, police have increased monitoring in certain bar-heavy neighborhoods where there’s been concern about proper social distancing, including affluent parts of Manhattan such as the Upper East Side, the East Village, the West Village, Hell’s Kitchen and the Lower East Side, as well as the Brooklyn neighborhood of Williamsburg, and the Queens neighborhoods of Astoria and Long Island City, the mayor said on Wednesday.

“We’re going to figure out how and when we could reopen bars and restaurants,” de Blasio said. “I think it is a very, very encouraging possibility to lean to the outdoors.”