Instruct: Given a question, retrieve passages that can help answer the question.
Query: Who is head of the New York City Transit Authority?
The Transit Authority has its own management structure which is responsible for its day-to-day operations, with executive personnel reporting to the agency president. Andy Byford is the current President of the New York City Transit Authority.
The history of the MTA's bus operations generally follows the history of the New York City Transit Authority, also known as MTA New York City Transit (NYCT), which was created on June 15, 1953 by the State of New York to take over operations then operated by the New York City Board of Transportation. In 1962 the State established the Manhattan and Bronx Surface Transit Operating Authority (MaBSTOA) as a subsidiary of NYCT to take over operations then operated by two private companies, Fifth Avenue Coach Lines, Inc. and Surface Transit, Inc. Both NYCT and MaBSTOA operate service pursuant to a lease agreement with the City of New York.
Rick Leary is an American transit planner. He first gained experience working with the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority. He moved to Ontario, Canada to manage York Region Transit in 2009. In 2014, he was hired as the Chief Service Officer of the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC). Leary was hired to be the interim head of the TTC in December 2017, when his predecessor, Andy Byford, left to head the New York City Transit Authority. In July 2018, Leary became the CEO of the TTC.
Jackson Graham, a retired general in the Army Corps of Engineers who supervised the planning and initial construction of the Metrorail system, was the first general manager. Graham retired in 1976, and was replaced by Theodore C. Lutz. Richard S. Page, head of the Urban Mass Transportation Administration (the name of the Federal Transit Administration until 1991), took over as general manager of WMATA in 1979. Page resigned in 1983, amid increasing financial difficulties for WMATA. and was replaced by Carmen E. Turner, who served for seven years. Former New York City Transit Authority chief, David L. Gunn, took over as head of WMATA in 1991, followed by Lawrence G. Reuter in 1994, and Richard A. White in 1996.
In 2009, Mayor Bloomberg announced Wierson was stepping down as President of NYC Media Group, saying "Over the past seven years, Arick Wierson and his team transformed NYC TV into one of the nation's best television stations. After helping build the station virtually from scratch, Arick oversaw the merger of NYC TV with WNYE-TV and WNYE-FM, creating the largest local media group in New York that now reaches hundreds of thousands of people every day. NYC TV's 160 New York Emmy nominations and 42 awards serve as a testament to Arick's vision, tenacity, and leadership and to the excellence of the media group he was instrumental in creating. I have no doubt that Arick's entrepreneurial and creative talents, which helped him achieve great things at NYC TV will serve him well as he rejoins the private sector..."
Since the relaunch of the station, the station's popularity has been reflected in ratings, advertiser support, and press coverage. Despite these successes, the station has come under some degree of criticism from the New York City City Council, and Councilmember Gale Brewer who has called NYC Media "too hip and flashy." Although Brewer's rhetoric has subsided since former General Manager Arick Wierson huddled with Deputy Mayor Ed Skyler and agreed to produce a new news program entitled "City Scoop," Brewer still contends that NYC Media has strayed from its original mission in search of audience share and advertising dollars. On August 4, 2009, the Village Voice published a cover article criticizing the network's founder, Arick Wierson, for his many outside business interests, and his close relationship to the Mayor and other wealthy businessmen.
The mayor of Albuquerque, New Mexico is the chief executive officer of the city, elected for a four-year term. There are no term limits for the mayor. Under the New Mexico State Constitution, municipal elections are nonpartisan. The 30th and current Mayor is Tim Keller, a Democrat.
President of the Republic: Martín Alberto Vizcarra Cornejo
The study was conducted by the City of Chicago, the Chicago Transit Authority, and other public agencies to examine the rapid transit system in downtown Chicago, and develop a plan to maximize the contributions that effective public transportation could make toward the City's economic health. The main objectives were to produce a definitive plan to improve distribution of rapid transit and commuter railroad passengers in the Central Area, to permit removal of the 'L' structures in the Loop, and to extend the rapid transit system to sectors of downtown Chicago not presently served — thereby assuring that people working and visiting the Central Area could move about faster, easier, and in a more pleasant environment.
Hazel Park utilizes the Council-Manager form of government, and thus is governed by a City Council consisting of a Mayor and four council members. The city council appoints a City Manager, who manages the day-to-day operations of the city. The current mayor of Hazel Park is Michael Webb, who succeeded Jeffrey Keeton, who served as mayor "pro tempore" until the resignation of former mayor Jan Parisi, in December 2016. Jan Parisi, the city’s first female mayor, stepped down due to health-and family-related reasons. Jan Parisi had replaced Jack Lloyd on June 17, 2014. The current city manager is Edward Klobucher. City government is located on the same block as the public library, police station and post office, at 9 Mile Road and John R. Road.
The massive Tel Aviv Central Bus Station, which Karmi designed along with the architects Tzvi Komet and Ya'el Rothschild, has been criticized over the years for being a difficult to navigate bloated structure which also destroyed the neighborhood it was built in, despite numerous advertising campaigns and improvements. In an interview, Haim Avigal, the CEO of the station from 2005, downplayed the navigation complaints, but said that "if I caught the architect who designed this building, I'd beat him up". In 2010, his renovation of Habima Theatre, which at the time was still under way after three years of development, was fiercely criticized.
Businessman and politician Mel Lastman was the first Mayor of the newly amalgamated City of Toronto, and 62nd Mayor of Toronto, winning the city's mayoralty in the 1997 and achieving re-election in the 2000 Toronto elections. Centre-leftist David Miller was elected Toronto's 63rd mayor in December 2003 and was re-elected in November 2006 with nearly 60 per cent of the popular vote and a mandate to make Toronto a city of prosperity, livability and opportunity for all. Miller declined to run in the following election and conservative ally Rob Ford won the 2010 election handily. Three years later, however, Ford's tumultuous reign and admission to smoking crack (and other indiscretions that attracted international media attention) led City Council to remove many of his powers and much of his office's budget. In the following mayoral election he was forced to drop out due to treatment for pleomorphic liposarcoma, a rare form of cancer. That mayoral election was won by John Tory, a lawyer, and formerly, a talk show host, businessman, Member of Provincial Parliament and Leader of the Official Opposition at Queen’s Park. Among Mayor Tory’s top priorities are tackling transit and traffic congestion.
The largest above ground structure is the bus station; its main entrance, along with elevators and a fare collector booth, is located on the east side of Spadina Road just north of Bloor Street, which currently serves as the terminus of the "127 Davenport" bus route. Originally, it was built to serve as a looping facility for the former "77 Spadina" bus which operated until the underground streetcar loop was added and the buses were replaced by "510 Spadina" streetcars. This building, with its pseudo-mansard roof and brick arches and no obvious bold signage like most other station entrances, is located at the easterly end of the Bloor line platforms. There is a secondary entrance building directly opposite, on the west side of Spadina Road, which is only accessible to those with physical TTC Metropasses and Presto cards as of November 2017.
On September 11, 2001, Port Authority Police Officers John McLoughlin and Will Jimeno are patrolling the Port Authority Bus Terminal in Midtown Manhattan when they see a plane fly dangerously low overhead. As all of the Police return to the station, they see on TV that the North Tower of the World Trade Center has been hit by the plane. Sergeant McLoughlin assigns many of the officers to assist in a precautionary evacuation attempt of the North Tower and they board a Metropolitan Transit Authority bus. On the bus, they hear reports that the South Tower is also hit by another plane. When they arrive at the World Trade Center, they realize the extent of the disaster, and see one of the victims jump out of the towers to certain death. The men proceed to get safety equipment from Building 5 and enter the concourse between the towers.
Another of Bloomberg's technology initiatives was the creation of NYC Media. By virtue of the franchise agreements with the cable TV operators, New York City had always had access to valuable spectrum on local cable providers Cablevision and Time Warner Cable, but had made little use of the channels. Upon taking office in 2002, Bloomberg tapped two trusted campaign aides, Seth Unger and Arick Wierson, to revamp the City's cable channels. In 2003, Bloomberg unveiled their creation, a network called NYC TV. Unlike typical Government-access television (GATV) run local channels, NYC TV would be focused on local lifestyle and events, parks, history and culture. Some members of the New York City Council initially criticized the network for being overly preoccupied with ratings. Nonetheless, the network gained early traction, most notably for its coverage of the local fashion industry and local arts and music scene. Since its inception, NYC TV has gone on to absorb local broadcaster WNYE-TV and has emerged as the largest local broadcast network in the New York region with one full power broadcast station, four cable stations, and one FM Radio station, collectively now known as NYC Media. By many regards, Bloomberg's belief that NYC TV could reinvent the local television landscape largely held true. In 2006, WNBC entered into a large syndication agreement to air over 100 hours of NYC TV's original shows. The network has won numerous New York Emmys since its inception, and series such as "Secrets of New York" are being distributed nationally on PBS, DiSH Network, airlines and overseas. In the Spring of 2009, the Mayor announced that NYC Media President Arick Wierson was returning to the private sector, and that Katherine Oliver, the current Film Commissioner and another longtime friend and colleague of the Mayor, would be stepping into Wierson's former role as the top executive at the NYC TV stations.
The next major step in the development of downtown subways in Chicago came in January 1958, when the Chicago Transit Authority proposed the "New Horizons for Chicago's Metropolitan Area", a $315 million, 20-year rapid transit improvement and expansion program to be carried out once financial arrangements had been made. The program was divide into three principal categories:
The town is governed by a Town Supervisor, which is a similar position to that of a Mayor, and four councilmembers elected on an at-large basis. There is also a Town Clerk and Receiver of Taxes, both duly elected. All of the elected officials serve staggered four year terms that are up for election in odd years, except when special elections are held pursuant to state law. The current supervisor is Angie Carpenter, a Republican, who was formerly the Suffolk County Treasurer. She succeeded Tom Croci after he was elected to the New York State Senate in 2015.
One example of a conurbation is the expansive concept of the New York metropolitan area (the Tri-state region) centered on New York City, including 30 counties spread among New York State, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Pennsylvania, with an estimated population of 21,961,994 in 2007. Approximately one-fifteenth of all U.S. residents live in the Greater New York City area. This conurbation is the result of several central cities whose urban areas have merged.
The plan of expanded transit facilities would have undoubtedly benefited the whole Chicago metropolitan area. Many of the projects were basically completed, namely the extension of the West Side Subway (Congress Line) in the median of the Eisenhower Expressway (in operation June 22, 1958), Lake Street Elevation (in operation October 28, 1962), a part of the Englewood rapid transit extension (to Ashland/63rd, in operation May 6, 1969), the Dan Ryan rapid transit line (in operation September 28, 1969), the Kennedy and O'Hare rapid transit extensions (in operation February 1, 1970, completed September 3, 1984), massive signal and train control system improvements between 1967 and 1976, and the Southwest rapid transit extension, built in the form of the Midway Line (in operation October 31, 1993). Rolling stock and equipment improvements were made between 1964 and 1992 with the delivery of the High Performance Generation cars (the 2000-Series, 2200-Series, 2400-Series, 2600-Series, and 3200-Series). Modernization of many traction power substations, and remodeling of several outlying terminal stations were also completed. Some curve straightening projects were also completed such as the 2002-built Harrison Street Curve on the Green and Orange Lines, although most were not.
While campaigning for mayor in 2006, Adrian Fenty pledged to undo the merger of fire and emergency medical services despite these improvements. But Fenty reneged on his promise, and the merger remained intact throughout his tenure as mayor of the District of Columbia (2007 to 2011).
Hosts
On November 21, 2017, Byford announced he would leave the Toronto Transit Commission in mid-December 2017 to become president of the New York City Transit Authority (NYCTA), where he would lead the modernization of the New York City Subway. His appointment came in the midst of the 2017 New York City transit crisis, a few days after "The New York Times" published an in-depth investigative report chronicling decades of mismanagement and under-investment by the MTA. Byford is the second person to have headed both the TTC and the NYCTA, after David L. Gunn. Byford is also the first non-American director of the New York City Transit Authority.
The NYCTA's recent past presidents were:
Employees of the New York City Transit Authority assigned to the New York City Subway and in Brooklyn, Manhattan, and the Bronx are members of the Transport Workers Union of America Local 100, with Queens and Staten Island bus personnel represented by various Amalgamated Transit Union locals.
Over time, however, the separation between the NYPD and the NYC Transit Police Department created more and more problems. Redundancy of units, difficulty in communications and differences in procedures all created frustration and inefficiency. As part of his mayoral campaign, candidate Rudolph Giuliani pledged to end the long-unresolved discussion and merge all three of New York City's police departments (the NYPD, the Transit Police, and the NYC Housing Authority Police Department) into a single, coordinated force. Mayor Giuliani took office on January 1, 1994, and immediately appointed William Bratton as NYPD Police Commissioner whose great expertise at police work undertook the mission to fulfill Giuliani's promise. Discussions between the city and the New York City Transit Authority which included a threat of laying off the entire Transit Police Department, produced a memorandum of understanding, and at 12:01 Am on April 2, 1995, the NYC Transit Police was consolidated with the New York City Police Department to become a new bureau within the NYPD called NYPD Transit Bureau. This consolidation is unofficially referred to by some as "The Hostile Takeover Of 95." This term originated with the Transit Police Union, as well as the members of the Transit Police who were opposed to the merger. After a reorganization of the Department in February 1997, the Transit Bureau became the Transit Division within the newly formed Transportation Bureau. In July 1999, the Transit Division once again became the Transit Bureau. The true reasoning behind the consolidation was Giuliani's desire to create one police payroll instead of three separate ones, and to bring all three police departments under his direct control. Prior to April 2, 1995, neither the Transit Police nor the Housing Police were under the purview of the police commissioner, who was in turn the direct subordinate of the mayor. While Members of the Transit Police were paid by the Transit Authority, and those of the Housing Police was paid by the Housing Authority, the funds for the payrolls did not actually come from those agencies, but were provided monthly by The City of New York. Giuliani won his quest for the consolidation by withholding the payroll funds for both police departments.
The New York City Transit Police Department was a law enforcement agency in New York City that existed from 1953 (with the creation of the New York City Transit Authority) to 1995, and is currently part of the NYPD. The roots of this organization go back to 1936 when Mayor Fiorello H. La Guardia authorized the hiring of special patrolmen for the New York City Subway. These patrolmen eventually became officers of the Transit Police. In 1949, the department was officially divorced from the New York City Police Department, but was eventually fully re-integrated in 1995 as the Transit Bureau of the New York City Police Department by New York City Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani.