Yet another edition of Larry Penner’s Bizarre Universe.

First and foremost, if you recall, Mr. Penner was previously against the 2nd Ave. subway. He has been saying over and over the MTA has greater priorities. So how does he feel about it now? It appears as if he is in favor of it.

Second, do the people at FTA that approve the grant live in a vacuum? $4.3 billion is an immense sum of money (obviously). does the FTA simply take the MTA’s word for it that it can pay? If not why not? I’ve owned three new cars since 2015. In each case the creditor took a look at my credit to see if it could be reasonably expected I could pay for the car.

The Congestion Pricing issue – whether Congestion Pricing is right or wrong and Mr. Penner has taken both sides of the issue – has been creating nothing but controversy since it died during the Bloomberg Administration. Mr. Penner has criticized various elected officials for its delay. Did the FTA make an attempt to see how reasonable it was the MTA would prevail on the issue? If not why not?

So in a nutshell: Larry Penner was in favor of Congestion Pricing, then against it, then in favor of it. Larry Penner was against the 2nd Ave. subway and now is for it. Larry Penner criticizes MTA Chairman Lieber because Congestion Pricing is hung up in lawsuits. How exactly does Mr. Penner feel Mr. Lieber is responsible for the lawsuits? Larry Penner criticizes MTA Chair Lieber due to the 2nd Ave. subway grant being in jeopardy but does not utter a syllable as to the apparent lack of due diligence by the FTA,

Only in Larry Penner’s Bizarre Universe does any of this make sense. Stay tuned, folks. Much, much more to come.

Nat Weiner

Bronx