Why the Biggest City in America Can’t Get Big Things Done

With New York on the verge of becoming the first city in the nation to adopt congestion pricing, a sudden, familiar chill fell over the city last week, as another ambitious project was shelved.

This time, it was Gov. Kathy Hochul who consigned a big initiative to the dustbin, where it will molder alongside other abandoned and delayed big-ticket projects like a subway to Staten Island, an AirTrain to La Guardia Airport, a new Port Authority Bus Terminal, a new Pennsylvania Station, a reconstructed Brooklyn-Queens Expressway and a cross-Hudson River rail tunnel canceled by Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey.

In the adjoining garbage bin lies other big development projects like a football stadium on Manhattan’s West Side and smaller initiatives with potentially outsize impact, like all-door bus boarding.

For a place where change is the rule and unbridled ambition the guiding light, New York can be a remarkably hard place to get things done.

“We’re the most change-oriented place in America on one level, and we’re also the most traditionalist on another level,” said Bill de Blasio, the former mayor, in an interview on Monday. “It’s a very weird mix.”

New York City is nothing if not constantly in flux. Bodegas become illegal smoke shops. Neighborhoods identified with one group of immigrants become home to another. Disney supplants pornography in Times Square. Working-class outposts become havens for 20-somethings with trust funds.