New York's MTA announced this morning they've hired Rich Davey as their new president of New York City Transit, which runs the city's subways and buses. You may recall he was the MBTA general manager who actually took the T to work (he didn't even have a car) before going on to become transportation secretary and then leader of the effort to get the 2024 Olympics here, but we won't mention that.
Two of the last three New York mayors were from the Boston area.
Boston 2024 plans to release a major overhaul of its proposed plans for the Olympics next month, group CEO Rich Davey told a City Council committee today.
The revised plan would provide new details about possible venues, housing and other infrastructure, and may include locations outside of Boston or even New England, Davey said this morning, at at a hearing called by Council President Bill Linehan's Special Committee for the Olympics.
This just in from Hizzonah:
The success of Boston's bid for the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games relies on transparency. I urge Boston 2024 to release the salaries for all staff and consultants as a testament to the transparency and openness of this process
UPDATE: Boston 2024 releases salaries. Davey is making $300,000 a year, Patrick will get $7,500 a day to travel overseas and shmooze IOC members. The Herald has the complete list.
It seemed a bit odd at the time: There, in the back of a community meeting about the Olympics and Franklin Park sat Deval Patrick, smiling, but not saying anything.
The Globe reports this morning that Patrick's former minion and current Boston 2024 CEO Richard Davey has hired the newly retired governor to go on a lot of foreign trips, in a job as "global ambassador" to the International Olympics Committee. In the role, Patrick will journey overseas to shmooze the panjandrums of the IOC on why they should deign to grant Boston their munificence in 2024.
Richard Davey talks as Rev. Jeffrey Brown (l) and architect David Manfredi listen.
If Boston gets the 2024 Olympics, backers say they would fulfill part of their goal of making permanent improvements to venues by leaving behind a new swimming pool in Franklin Park after the end of the modern pentathlon planned for the park.
The pool would go next to White Stadium, which would undergo a major renovation as a venue for both the pentathlon - whose athletes compete in five separate sports - and for equestrian events.
When state Transportation Secretary Richard Davey wouldn't meet with protesters calling for a discounted "Youth Pass" for teen T riders, they sat down in his office in the Park Square transportation building and wouldn't leave - until State Police made them, and transported them over to their South Boston and Charles River barracks for booking on trespassing charges, according to O'Ryan Johnson, who reports they were released on $40 bail apiece.
Portraits of Boston is a nice site where a photographer goes around taking people's photos and asking them a question. Today, one of the featured people was a guy walking down the street in the Back Bay with a bunch of flowers for his wife.
A guy who happens to be Secretary of Transportation Richard Davey, as Steve Annear noticed:
"They’re for my wife."
"Is there any particular reason?"
"No. It’s always good not to have a reason."
The Globe reports on a proposal by state officials to spend an extra $10 billion over the next decade to keep our roads and public-transit systems from collapsing. Naturally, we're talking new taxes to pay for it all.
Around 8:45 a.m, Susan Anderson tweeted:
The Orange Line is seriously standing by "due to a coffee spill that needs to be cleaned up." ... At least it made for a nice-smelling train first thing in the morning...
Open letter from Richard Davey and Jonathan Davis:
Before our April 4th Board Meeting, we will lay out our final recommendation for closing the Fiscal Year 2013 gap. We continue to work on identifying prudent one-time revenues that will allow us to stave off some of the proposed service cuts for one year. Our final proposal will include both cuts and a fare increase, however.
Updated late Monday.
MBTA spokesman Joe Pesaturo issued the following statement Tuesday afternoon:
The employee today was reprimanded and the incident is now included in his personnel file. No further action will be taken unless such an incident happens again. This matter is closed.
Channel 25 reports the case of the reprogrammed message board on Christmas went straight to the top - and state transportation czar Rich Davey says the unidentified worker will not be punished.
The Globe reports Richard Davey and his wife have ditched their car and now rely on their CharlieCards and Zipcar to get around. You may recall his predecessor was chauffeured around in an MBTA SUV.
Richard Davey's effort may have intensified this morning. Needham Line rider Mike Davis tweets the signboard at his station this morning read:
Train to Boston NOT MOVING at this time.
Davey made his comments at the MBTA's monthly board meeting yesterday, in which he noted the worst commuter-rail performance in four years and "weaknesses in our fleet, particularly in our Orange and Red Line," as exposed by their performance during last month's cold snap.
Richard Davey tells Jon Keller people are willing to accept the T's running antiquated trains if the T does a good enough job informing them about the reasons for delays; says some T workers seem to forget they're ultimately dealing with people, not steel containers on wheels.
The MBTA is holding a Be the MBTA General Manager for a Day contest. Spend the day with Rich Davey as he battles aged infrastructure and lack of funds. Tour the Everett repair shops and the High Street control center:
Tell us in less than 150 words why you want to be the MBTA GM for a day. All contestants must be at least 18 years of age.
Deadline is Jan. 31.
Via Justin Sabourin.
Have something to say to the guy in charge of the T? Of course you do. Tomorrow's your chance: Richard Davey will be at the North Quincy stop on the Red Line between 7 and 9 a.m. "to customers concerns, and promote public transportation."
Nowhere near the City of Presidents? He'll be doing a whole lot of listening every Thursday for the next few weeks, including Thursday, April 15 between 7 and 9 a.m. at Dudley Square and the same time on April 22 at Kenmore.
Help keep Universal Hub going. If you like what we're up to and want to help out, please consider a (completely non-deductible) contribution.
