{"version":1,"type":"rich","provider_name":"Libsyn","provider_url":"https:\/\/www.libsyn.com","height":90,"width":600,"title":"Janno Lieber, Chairman and CEO, the New York MTA: \u201cNever Bet Against New York\u201d","description":"In this episode of Capital for Good we speak with Janno Lieber, the chairman and CEO of New York\u2019s MTA, one of the world\u2019s oldest, largest, and most complex public transit systems. \u201cNew York is my passion,\u201d Lieber says, and the throughline of his career.   Lieber, a lifelong New Yorker, business leader and transit veteran  \u2014  he was a transportation advisor to Mayor Koch, an Assistant Secretary of Transportation in the Clinton Administration, and led the rebuilding of the World Trade Center site after September 11 attacks \u2014 talks about the complexity of overseeing a public transportation system that spans a 12-county, 25-million person region: 6,400 subway cars, 472 stations, 5,700 buses, and two major commuter rails. Lieber notes that the success of the region \u2014 it is the economic powerhouse of the local state and much of the national economy \u2014 rests on density and mobility. \u201cThe ability to get around New York only works if you have great mass transit,\u201d he says; the MTA moves more than six million people per day. For users, trains, buses and subways are 15 percent the cost of owning an automobile. \u201cThe magic of transit,\u201d Lieber explains, \u201cis it is one of the very few things that makes living in New York City and the region affordable.\u201d   We discuss congestion pricing, the decades in making the policy to charge automobiles $9 a day to enter the most congested part of the city to reduce traffic, improve emissions, air quality, health and safety, and help finance maintenance and upgrades to the 100 year old transit system. The program launched January 5 and early data is very promising: a 10 to 20 percent reduction in traffic; significantly reduced travel times for drivers from New Jersey, Long Island, Queens and the Bronx, and along some of the city\u2019s most crowded thoroughfares (i.e., Canal Street, 34th Street, 42nd Street and 57th); increased transit ridership; and revenue generated for critical improvements: elevators and ramps to make all subway stations accessible and ADA compliant, new train cars and electric buses, new tracks, signals and power systems, mitigation efforts in areas that may see spillover traffic. Lieber notes that the economic benefits are already observable in the zone itself: increased pedestrian traffic, an uptick in retail, restaurant and Broadway sales, and promising indices in commercial leasing \u2014  \u201ca vote of confidence\u201d in the program. For all these reasons the business community has long supported the policy. The MTA is equally pleased to see high rates of customer satisfaction coming from drivers with reduced commute times, which Lieber believes will also be important to counter the recent political opposition from Washington. Lieber reminds us that congestion pricing has been successfully tested in the courts, and there is nothing in the federal law or program design that would allow for its rollback.   We also speak about how central public safety, real and perceived, is to the economic and civic health of the city. \u201cPublic transit is where six million New Yorkers every day form their opinion about whether government works, and to some extent whether this community, this experiment in diversity and tolerance and economic dynamism, is working,\u201d Lieber says. While the data show that overall crime in the city is down, crime in the subway is down, and subway crime accounts for less than two percent of overall crime, high profile and frightening crimes, and the city\u2019s larger mental health, substance use and homeless crises that are acutely manifest in the subway system, play an outsized play role in the public\u2019s sense of security, order and well-being. \u201cNot only to the subways have to be safe, they have to feel safe,\u201d Lieber insists, and we discuss numerous efforts the MTA is taking in coordination with other city agencies to address these issues.   We conclude with the resilience of New Yorkers in the face of adversity \u2014 the fiscal crisis of the 1970s, the September 11 attacks, the dotcom burst, and the financial crisis, Hurricane Sandy, the pandemic \u2014 and how the city \u201cbounces back even better\u201d to become a better version of itself. "Never bet against New York,\u201d is Lieber\u2019s motto.   Thanks for Listening! Subscribe to Capital for Good\u202fon\u202fApple,\u202fAmazon,\u202fGoogle,\u202fSpotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Drop us a line at\u202fsocialenterprise@gsb.columbia.edu.  Mentioned in this Episode Congestion Pricing Reduced Traffic. Now its Hitting Revenue Goals, (The New York Times, 2025)   ","author_name":"Capital for Good","author_url":"http:\/\/tamerinstitute.libsyn.com\/website","html":"