This week's journey.Subway doors need to close before the train moves. The MTA spent $74 million to commission a Penn Station renovation plan that got denied. Don't e-bike while drunk — and more.
NJ Transit World Cup prices the latest example of NYC bilking tourists
A recent “On The Way” column by our crackerjack reporter Ramsey Khalifeh highlighted a taxi hustler named Jan “Rocco” Uzzo, who described how he made a living for decades by ripping off tourists at New York City’s airports. He’d shake down visitors by luring them into an unlicensed cab, where he’d charge them illegally high fares. Hundreds of criminals still employ this scam today.
Uzzo described his marks as “Lollies,” like lollipops, because they’re suckers. He said he’d drive to the airports “to do one thing and one thing only: Capture my lolly and get the f— out.”
He certainly has a way with words — but New Jersey officials echoed the spirit of his remarks last week when they justified charging $150 for a train ride to this summer’s World Cup games at MetLife Stadium. The high price tag, according to NJ Transit CEO Kris Kolluri, is meant to offset the costs to run service and security to the stadium.
“This slice of the transportation plan that costs $48 million has to be paid by the fans who are using it,” Kolluri said. Simply put: The tourists pay a fortune so New Jersey taxpayers save some cheddar.
Kolluri and Uzzo might have wildly different motives and backgrounds, but they’re carrying on a time-honored New York City tradition of bleeding visitors like stuck pigs.
Everyone’s looking for “lollies” in this town. Seats for a third-rate Broadway show can go for well over $200. Just getting to the airport requires a $9 AirTrain fare.
And many illegal scams, like Uzzo’s taxi hustling, have persisted for decades despite regular crackdowns by law enforcement. Take the scammers at Battery Park who sell tourists “tickets” to the free Staten Island Ferry. The more brazen ones sucker people into buying fake “Statue of Liberty” tour tickets, only to load them onto a bus that heads to New Jersey, where they board a ferry that floats near Liberty Island but never docks there. ( Alec Baldwin famously fell for this scam in 2019, bringing his family along for the trip.)
When you visit the Big Apple, it takes a bite out of you — not the other way around.
Tourism drives more than $6 billion in annual tax revenue for New York City and the Empire State. The city’s tourism industry employed nearly 200,000 people before the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the state comptroller’s office. The loss of tourism was among the single biggest hits to the city’s economy during pandemic lockdowns.
Despite getting gouged on prices, the tourists keep coming. James Parrott, an economist who worked for Mayor David Dinkins’ administration, said that’s been the case for a long time. He recalled an episode when then-Gov. Mario Cuomo signed off on a repeal of a 5% hotel tax in the early 1990s.
“What we saw in the data was the hotels just increased their hotel rates by 5%,” Parrott said. “There is an argument that tourism is largely inelastic, that people are attracted to the lure of New York City, for big events, and they know they’re going to raise prices as high as they can.”
“There’s a lot of latitude for the organizers to raise prices as high as they can,” he added.
Curious Commuter
Have a question for us? Use this form to submit yours and we may answer it in a future newsletter!
“If there is one type of door that requires 100% functionality, it is the subway door. What are the sensors that ensure the doors are fully closed? Is there a tolerance that allows a door to be fractionally open yet the train moves on? (I hope not.) It would be interesting to learn the history of the subway doors.”
- Jerry from Manhattan
Subway trains can’t move unless all the doors are fully shut and securely locked. An MTA spokesperson said there is “no tolerance” for doors to be fractionally open like you mentioned. Subway car doors are lined with sensors that detect obstructions and will remain open until the path is cleared. The train will not move until the doors are completely closed, officials said.
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We're also talking about...
How the MTA lost control of the Penn Station rebuild . In 2022, MTA Chair Janno Lieber commissioned a $74 million plan to redesign Penn Station. The plan called for taking over a portion of Madison Square Garden’s real estate, but the arena’s owners declined to play ball.
“The idea to force the Dolans to give up land … was not likely.”
E-bike injuries are up. More and more people are showing up at Bellevue Hospital’s emergency room with serious e-bike injuries — especially from crashes that involved riding drunk or without a helmet, according to a new study.
A Linden Boulevard redesign. The Mamdani administration wants to add bus lanes and more pedestrian space to Brooklyn’s Linden Boulevard, a dangerous roadway that some lawmakers have deemed the city’s "new Boulevard of Death.”
MTA bus simulators. Bus operators have begun training on new simulators that allow instructors to create specific scenarios.
Urban derailment. A freight train carrying hazardous materials derailed in North Bergen, New Jersey, last week, renewing concerns about moving these trains through heavily populated areas.
ICE wants parking spots. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's field office in Lower Manhattan is looking to lease 150 parking spots because its current contract for parking spaces at Hudson River Park on the West Side is set to expire soon.
