Jim Dwyer exposes the scam that's the new budget plan.
As a resident of 2nd Avenue, this article really pisses me off.

The story was about the 6th Avenue el.

He has a point in that the proposed line gives New York the shaft, but
he really needs to have his facts checked.

But I've been watching TA, NYC and NYS politics for decades and I've seen a
lot of groups and politicians fight "the good fight" demanding this or that
or the other "and nothing less."

What we've actually gotten is close to nothing. I think some politicians
would rather say "we stopped those b*st*rds" than see anything built.

Almost 30 years ago the MTA published a laundry list of new lines (including
the full 2nd Ave. subway) which they insisted would get built despite the
fact that the voters finally got sick of passing multi-BILLION dollar bond
issues which never seemed to result in the building of promised transit.
With the list were completion dates ... we were cautioned that some
low-priority projects might not get completed until the mid-1990's.

So I say: let's shift gears. Put full backing behind the Broadway-2nd Avenue
Subway. Say, "OK, you say you'll build this." Do it. NOW.

Then we can militate for extensions and additions.

    I always wondered how the steel was positively traced from the 6th
Avenue el to Japan and back to us as bombs. Afdter all, the US had a
vigorous trade with Japan all thru the prewar era.
    But for Dwyer's piece harped on the inequity between City and
suburban funding and attention. What caught my eye was the map next to
his article,, apparently not part of it. This showed the alignment of
the 'new' 2nd Av line. It's the utter same as the northern leg of the
Rockefeller plan with one subtile exception.
    The line now indexes to Lexington Av for a side-by-side (or
over-under) transfer with the Lexingron Av line.
    There is still no stop at/near 116th St -- there's that long
K-&-half run from 106th St to 125th St, bypassing all of East Harlem.
There is still no station in the upper 70s.
    These are features of the Rockefeller plan which were roundly
debinked in the 1070s. Why are they kept in the face of soaring pop
increase and commuter increase from the Bronx? A parallel article in
the same paper notes that the density of the UES is now about
60,000/Km2 -- equal to that of 3rd world cities like Calcutta, Cairo,
Jakarta. It excedes Istanbul (I was surprised)  which I visited this
summer for the solar eclipse! Yet there are just 3 stations in UES, 1
for el Barrio, and 1 for Harlem central.
    The hoopla from the MTA stresses the use of the express tracks in
the BMT Broadway line. It is completely silent on ewhat goes on in 2nd
Avenue. Guess what? The effing plan still posits a two-track road.
That's it.
    If you live or fabor the Bronx you should be very worried. There
is no committment to push the 2nd Avenue line into the Bronx at all.
Note carefully the new location of that 125th St station. By putting
it next to the green line it is far too easy to presume that riders
from the Bronx will transfer to the 2nd Avenue line, so there's no
need to have that line extend farther north.
    This placement of the north end of the 2nd Avenue line actually
complicates the Rockefeller plan to merge it into the Pelham and Dire
Av lines. If anything, there may be a one-stop extension to 149th &
Grand Concourse and that's it for the rest of the 21st century.

        Later

IIRC, the popular phrase was something like "We sold the 6th Avenue el to
Japan, and they gave it back to us at Pearl Harbor."

The steel from the 6th Avenue el was sold, either directly to Japan, or to
Japan through a broker.

In the context of the pre-War era, this was not such a big deal. Japan was
almost totally dependent on imported steel for its economy, which included
its developing war machine. Japan was especially dependent on the U.S. for
steel.

As Japan's militarism became more intense (or more difficult to ignore in
the spirit of business-as-usual) there was pressure to embargo steel
shipments to Japan, much as today many call for embargoing the sale of
supplies or equipment with military use to countries deemed hostile or
war-mongering.

The U.S. did embargo steel to Japan, which Japan took to be a hostile
action, since the U.S. was a neutral nation at the time. Some revisionist
historians today cite the embargo as a measure which "forced" Japan to
attack the U.S. at Pearl Harbor.

I would imagine that any scrap sold to Japan was completely melted down and
re-smelted before it was made into whatever.