WEINER: MOVE FORWARD WITH BEST IDEAS FROM OLYMPIC BID

5 KEY PROPOSALS STILL WORTH DOING — EVEN WITHOUT THE OLYMPICS IN 2012

BETTER HARBOR SECURITY, MIXED USE HOUSING, FAST FERRIES, BUS RAPID TRANSIT, CLEAN UP NEWTOWN CREEK…

New York City – Today, Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-Queens & Brooklyn) proposed moving forward with the 5 best proposals contained in the New York City Olympics bid, even without the Olympics in 2012.

New York City’s plan to win and stage the Olympics wasn’t just about laying down tracks and building stadiums--the bid included plans for housing, harbor security, and new transportation models.  

Today, Rep. Weiner pledged as Mayor to push forward with the five best ideas in the bid.

5 OLYMPIC BID PROPOSALS STILL WORTH DOING:

Mixed Use Housing – The Olympic Village was to be built in the Hunters Point section of Queens, including 4,400 new apartments with 17,100 beds, and 43 acres of parkland.  As Mayor, Weiner will build the village as affordable housing, setting aside 20% for the middle class and 20% for low income New Yorkers.

Fast Ferries – Under the Olympic plan, ferries were to have run from the Olympic Village to Manhattan’s East and Far West Side, the Rockaways in Queens, St. George in Staten Island, Yankee Stadium and Pelham Bay Park in the Bronx, with the construction of three new ferry landings in Manhattan, Queens, and Brooklyn.  As Mayor, Weiner will move forward with the plans, using $15 million he secured as a member of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee to purchase three fast ferries. 

Bus Rapid Transit – The Olympic plan included the implementation of “Olympic Priority Lanes” designed to move athletes and the media quickly to competition and non-competition venues on major arterial roads and streets, including the Queens Midtown Tunnel, the Long Island Expressway, and the Triborough Bridge.  As Mayor, Weiner will convert the plans to “Bus Rapid Transit” lanes—lanes devoted exclusively to buses to move riders quickly to and from their destinations.  Weiner has secured $1 million in federal dollars to establish Bus Rapid Transit.

GPS Security for New York Harbor – The NYPD planned to employ Global Positioning System (GPS) technology licensed from the Department of Defense to track and monitor the movement of all ships coming into New York Harbor during the Olympics.  As Mayor, Weiner will utilize GPS technology in the harbor as a matter of course.  

Clean Up Newtown Creek – A 17 million gallon oil spill is contaminating the ground near the banks of the Newtown Creek, in Queens.  The Executive Director of NYC 2012 pledged that if New York won the Olympics cleaning up the creek would become a “major priority.”  As Mayor, Weiner will move ahead with the clean up.  In the House, he authored legislation requiring the Coast Guard to study the spill to determine the most effective means of cleaning it up.

“The end of the Olympic bid shouldn’t mean the end for these proposals,” said Rep. Weiner.  “If they’ll improve the lives of New Yorkers we should move forward with them.  Any one of these gold medal projects would be a fitting legacy to New York’s efforts to win the Olympics in 2012.”