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THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.
Rail Tunnel Plan Advances
Cuomo, Christie agree
to split Hudson costs
with Washington, but
details remain unclear
BY ANDREW TANGEL
An emerging plan to dig
two new Hudson River rail
tunnels came into sharper focus Tuesday as the governors
of New York and New Jersey
offered to pay half of the
stalled project’s costs—if the
federal government picks up
the rest.
New Jersey Gov. Chris
Christie and New York Gov.
Andrew Cuomo sketched out a
proposal in a letter to President Barack Obama, in what
some observers and officials
saw as a significant step to
end a weekslong stalemate
over how to pay for new tunnels.
The governors also offered
an agency they jointly control,
the Port Authority of New York
and New Jersey, to take the
lead on the project. They suggested a tunnel-focused entity
recently proposed by U.S. Sen.
Charles Schumer, a Democrat
from New York, could be
housed within the authority.
“It’s a dramatic breakthrough,” said Martin Robins,
who once directed an earlier
tunnel project between the
LUNCHBOX | A20
| A22
two states known as Access to
the Region’s Core, or ARC,
which Mr. Christie canceled
five years ago.
Messrs. Christie and Cuomo
stopped short of spelling out
how precisely they would pay
for the tunnels, which are part
of Amtrak’s Gateway plan. The
broader plan, which also includes new bridges and an expanded New York Penn Station, is estimated to cost as
much as $20 billion and take a
decade or more to become a
reality.
The governors offered few
specifics about how much each
state or the Port Authority
might contribute, but the letter left open the door for un-
specified
“local
funding
sources,” low-interest federal
loans and “other funding strategies.”
Mr. Cuomo said officials
hadn’t determined what proportion of the half each state
or the authority should pay.
But by offering to collectively
cover half the bill, the governors have proposed a framework for hammering out an
eventual plan for what the U.S.
Transportation Department
said would be, by cost, the
largest public transportation
project in the country.
Mr. Cuomo, who had earlier
questioned why New York
should pay for a tunnel priPlease see TUNNEL page A18
Wednesday, September 16, 2015 | A17
Solid Foundations
New York City’s public and private institutions provide
builders with a steady stream of projects, unlike residential
construction, which is more sensitive to economic conditions.
37%: Public
elementary and
secondary schools
5%: Religious
institutions,
courts and
libraries
5%: Private
elementary
and secondary
schools
6%: Cultural
facilities
15%: Institutions
of higher education
Percentage
of the total value
of New York City
institutional
construction starts,
July 2008 through
June 2015
Source: New York Building
Congress analysis of construction
data from Dodge Data & Analytics
PETER FOLEY FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL (2)
News for and From
Roosevelt Island
BY LOUIE LAZAR
After loading stacks of
newspapers onto his motorized scooter, Jim Bates
zoomed through the halls of a
housing complex on a recent
Friday, tossing free copies of
the Main Street WIRE at the
doors of about 1,000 units.
Known on Roosevelt Island
as “Uncle Jim,” Mr. Bates is one
of about two dozen volunteers
who fan out across this strip of
land in the East River every
two weeks with a goal: deliver
the news to every household.
The WIRE, the only print
newspaper based on the island, was created out of neces-
sity but has become a unifying
passion of island residents
since the publication’s founding in 1981.
It is published by Dick Lutz,
76 years old, a veteran journalist who operates the WIRE out
of his apartment on Main
Street, the island’s sleepy main
thoroughfare. His small team
of reporters and editors chronicle the political affairs, people,
and happenings of Roosevelt
Island, which many residents
compare to a small town.
“It’s a community institution,” Mr. Lutz said of the
WIRE, which also appears online.
Located between Manhattan
and Queens, Roosevelt Island
is about 2 miles long and less
than 1,000 feet wide. In the
19th century, when it was
called Blackwell’s Island, it
was home to a smallpox hospital, prison and asylum.
Leased to New York state
by the city in 1969 for 99
years, the island was largely
desolate until the 1970s, when
affordable housing was built
for mixed-income, elderly and
Please see WIRE page A20
New York City’s public and
private institutions continued
to generate a steady flow of
work for builders in the first
half of 2015, launching projects
that by value far exceeded
those started in the first half of
last year, according to an industry report.
Schools, hospitals, courts, libraries and religious and cultural institutions initiated $2.9
billion of construction projects
in the first half of this year,
compared with $796 million in
the first half of 2014.
The analysis from the New
York Building Congress, which
promotes the construction industry, notes that this year’s
strong start follows the $3 billion in institutional construction projects started in the second half of 2014.
In good times and bad, the
institutional sector has demonstrated a “remarkable consistency” in spending money to
maintain and upgrade facilities,
said New York Building Congress President Richard T. Anderson. The institutions’ finances have been helped by a
hot stock market and a relatively strong economy, he
added.
“Institutions in New York
City have independent sources
of financing, which are somewhat recession proof,” said Mr.
Anderson, who noted funding
streams such as bequests and
private contributions from
wealthy individuals. “Wealthy
people don’t get affected by recessions the way normal people
do.”
For all of 2014, the value of
institutional-sector projects
started amounted to $3.8 billion, up from $2.6 billion in
2013 and $2.4 billion in 2012.
In years past, city’s institutional sector has typically accounted for 12% to 14% of all
construction starts, the New
York Building Congress said.
The report tabulated only hard
construction costs, excluding
expenses such as those for ar-
Five Baruch Students Charged With Hazing in Frat Death
Five Baruch College students on Tuesday were
charged in connection with
the 2013 death of a freshman
participating in a fraternity
hazing ritual, reigniting a debate over the place of Greek
life at the Manhattan school.
A grand jury has recommended third-degree murder
charges against five other fraternity members as well as the
fraternity itself, and lesser
charges against another 32
members, some of whom were
charged Tuesday, police said.
They expect to make the arrests in waves.
Chun Hsien “Michael” Deng
died in December 2013 during
a weekend trip to a Tunkhannock Township, Pa., house
rented by Baruch’s Pi Delta Psi
COURTESY OF THE DENG FAMILY
BY MIKE VILENSKY
AND ZOLAN KANNO-YOUNGS
Chun Hsien ‘Michael’ Deng
fraternity. There, he and other
pledges were outfitted with
weighted backpacks and
beaten by fraternity members
during a hazing ritual, according to the Pocono Mountain
Regional Police Department.
Mr. Deng lost consciousness
at some point, police said, and
died after being taken to the
hospital.
Pi Delta Psi didn’t respond
to requests for comment on
Tuesday. An attorney for one
of the students charged on
Tuesday said the students
were charged with hazing and
hindering apprehension.
The murder charges against
other students are expected in
the coming days or weeks. The
Pocono police didn’t respond to
requests for comment clarifying the timing of the charges.
Jim Swetz, an attorney for
one of the students expected
to face murder charges, said
on Tuesday he would defend
his client vigorously.
“What happened is a terrible tragedy,” Mr. Swetz said,
“but not every tragedy involves criminal conduct.”
In a statement, an attorney
for Mr. Deng’s family said:
“Fraternities and their members must be held accountable, and this step by authorities is an important one.”
On Tuesday, news of the
charges reverberated around
Baruch, part of the City University of New York system
with some 17,000 students.
“Everybody’s kind of eerie
about Greek life now,” said Laetitia Metellus, a 20-year-old
senior. “I wouldn’t participate
knowing what happened.”
Brad Williams, a recent
Baruch graduate who lived in
the same dorm as Mr. Deng,
said the tragedy has resulted
in extra attention paid to all
extracurricular groups on
campus.
“They’re really, really scrutinized right now,” he said.
Some students said the incident, while tragic, isn’t indicative of the campus culture.
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.
Institutional
Building Sizzles
Across the City
BY KEIKO MORRIS
Dick Lutz, editor and publisher of the Main Street WIRE on Roosevelt Island. Below, a copy of the newspaper delivered to a doorstep.
32%: Public
and private
hospitals and
health-care
facilities
But others were pushing for
wider changes.
Since Mr. Deng’s death in
2013, Baruch permanently
banned Pi Delta Psi. In fall
2014, it suspended all pledging activities.
Greek life remains a small
part of its campus life, with
fewer than 100 students involved, school officials said.
Baruch, citing federal privacy rules, declined to say
whether the fraternity members facing charges are still
enrolled, but it said it
“brought disciplinary proceedings against all of them, except for those who voluntarily
withdrew from Baruch.”
In a statement, its president, Mitchel B. Wallerstein
said: “We owe it to Michael
and his family to hold accountable those who were responsiPlease see BARUCH page A18
chitects, acquiring the site and
furnishing the interiors.
Schools and hospitals led the
way, the report showed.
“That’s driven by added population growth, more students
in the city and the commitment
of elected officials to build and
rehabilitate the school system,”
Mr. Anderson said.
New York City public and elementary
and
secondary
schools made up 33% of the
projects initiated in the first
half of 2015. They accounted
for $8.5 billion, or 37%, of all
institutional construction starts
over a seven-year period from
July 2008 through June 2015.
Public and private hospitals
and health-care facilities made
‘Institutions in New
York City have
independent sources
of financing.’
up 35% of building projects
through June of this year. They
amounted to $7.3 billion, or
32%, of projects initiated during the seven-year period.
Public and private colleges
and universities launched about
23% of construction starts
through June. Over the sevenyear period, projects started
amounted to $3.5 billion, or
15% of the institutional projects.
Memorial Sloan Kettering
Cancer Center’s David H. Koch
Center for Cancer Care was at
the top of the list for the largest project by value started in
2015. Data analyzed in the report put hard construction
costs at $750 million for a
750,000-square-foot, 23-story
outpatient cancer center to be
built on East 74th Street and
FDR Drive.
The center is funded in part
by a $150 million gift from industrialist David H. Koch. Previous reporting from The Wall
Street Journal has placed the
overall cost of the project at
$1.3 billion.
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N.Y. Sports Lineup
7:10 p.m.
Wednesday
Yankees @ Rays
7:10 p.m.
Wednesday
Marlins @ Mets
For N.Y. sports coverage, see A22