A Big Mistake

Mayor Bloomberg announces opposition to freight tunnel. That's a huge mistake on his part. The NY metro region has a very poor infrastructure connecting Long Island with the mainland for handling goods. Practically everything travelling through the region must be on trucks because of a circuitous route necessary to bring containerized items onto Long Island. There is no direct route, which means the regions tunnels, bridges and roads suffer as a result.

Construction of the freight tunnel under New York harbor would relieve the congestion and allow for tremendous future economic growth and improve the durability of bridges and roads that are pounded incessantly by the truck traffic. The mayor is opposing the tunnel because of the effects on Maspeth, Queens where the tunnel would have its transfer facility.

Planning for the tunnel began under Mr. Bloomberg's predecessor, Rudolph W. Giuliani, and has advanced in the last three years. Last April, the city's Economic Development Corporation, in a study known as a draft environmental impact statement, endorsed the project. It concluded that the tunnel should be built between Jersey City and Bay Ridge, Brooklyn.

Financing for the multibillion project has yet to be determined. In a sense, the project does not depend on the mayor's support, since most of the funding is to come from the federal government. Aides to the mayor consider the support of middle-class voters in Queens and Brooklyn important to his bid for re-election.

The project's major champion, Representative Jerrold L. Nadler, said he was unfazed by the mayor's remarks.

"In light of the city's own findings that the cross-harbor tunnel would bring crucial economic, health, environmental and national security benefits to New York, it's disappointing that the mayor feels compelled to back down from his full-on support of the project," Mr. Nadler, a Manhattan Democrat, said in a telephone interview. "His public stance, however, is not a central force in the advancement of the project."

He said he expected the Economic Development Corporation, which is working on the final environmental impact statement, to "actively look for ways of mitigating the impact on Maspeth, as it should."

Every truck taken off the roads in the City means countless tons of pollutants removed, improved health for residents who suffer from asthma and other lung ailments, and improved traffic that in turn leads to greater efficiencies. The mayor's opposition is unfortunately shortsighted and based solely on political purposes.