Mayor Bloomberg lined up yesterday with Comptroller John Liu — a longtime political foe — to announce a plan for speeding up $1 billion worth of city construction projects.
Liu first came up with the idea in May, pointing out that historically low interest rates gave the city an opportunity to both move more quickly on hundreds of projects and create thousands of jobs. At the time, the comptroller suggested $2billion in fast-track spending.
The mayor said that while he was initially skeptical, it turned out Liu was right. Both men and City Council Speaker Christine Quinn eventually reached a deal to spend half of what Liu first proposed.
Bloomberg said the infusion of capital dollars would go to “unglamorous” needs, such as $60 million to repave 300 extra miles of streets, $21 million for sewer and water-main improvements and $20 million for protective coating to bridges.
Most of the funds, $300 million, were headed to schools where more lighting fixtures with PCBs were scheduled for removal.
“I think it’s fair to say, in contrast to Washington, where people from opposing parties seemingly can’t even agree on what day of the week it is, here in New York, we do things differently,” said Bloomberg.