{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["http://maloney.house.gov/media-center/in-the-news/making-the-impossible-happen-100-years-later-second-avenue-subway-on-a-roll", "Making the Impossible Happen100 Years Later, Second Avenue Subway On a Roll", "2016-12-22", "2016", "2016-12", "Democrat", "House", "NY", "Carolyn Maloney", "M000087", "maloney.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Manhattan\u00a0electeds came together this afternoon to celebrate \u201cmaking the impossible happen\u201d after years of physical and political obstacles: the New Year\u2019s Eve\u00a0opening of the long-stalled Second Avenue Subway, decades after it was first envisioned.\nSpeaking at the 96th Street station of the Second Avenue Subway line, Cuomo told the 200-strong crowd of elected officials, transit workers and advocates that there was a Second Avenue elevated line and a Third Avenue elevated line that were taken down in the 1940s because the plan was to build a Second Avenue Subway\u2014\u201dexcept they forgot to build a subway on Second Avenue.\u201d He said that the delay in the implementation of the project explains why the 4, 5 and 6 lines are \u201cthe most heavily traveled lines in the world\u201d and blasted what he described as excuses made by the government that prevented the line from being built.\n\u00a0\u201cWe\u2019re gonna remind New Yorkers that there is nothing that we cannot do in this state when we put our mind to it and we\u2019re not gonna take no for an answer,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re gonna show you how dreams become a reality. Be here New Year\u2019s Eve, be here New Year\u2019s day and let\u2019s start the New Year the right way.\u201d\nThe first phase of the Second Avenue train\u2014which will run the Q train between 57th and 92nd Streets\u2014will open on December 31. The project received $1.3 billion in federal funding in planning that went on for more than a century. About\u00a0200,000 riders are anticipated\u00a0to ride the subway line on a daily basis, and the business community sees the new subway as a way to revive business activity in the area.\nCongresswoman Carolyn Maloney praised\u00a0the governor for putting $1.5 billion into the budget for the second phase of the\u00a0subway, which will extend downtown. She called him an \u201cinfrastructure king\u201d because \u201cinfrastructure is in his DNA,\u201d saying that the city \u201ccould have used you 100 years ago.\u201d\nShe said that when she first got to Congress, completing the Second Avenue Subway was her key goal.\n\u201cI thank my staff for working on it every single day because politics is at its best when it is making the impossible happen and getting people to listen to reason and persuading them to do what makes sense,\u201d Maloney said. \u201cEven if it isn\u2019t easy, even if it isn\u2019t quick and even if it isn\u2019t cheap.\u201d\nShe noted that in 2000, she received the first federal funding for the project\u2014$3 million for a study\u2014and credited retiring Harlem\u00a0Congressman Charles Rangel, who was in attendance, for his help in acquiring that. She said that the governor and the mayor at the time could not even offer a letter of support.\nIn December 2007, she said, the MTA was able to sign a full funding agreement, which guaranteed $1.3 billion in federal funds\u2014which covered a third of the $4.4 billion needed for the project. The project had three previous groundbreakings and every single time, the money placed in the budget was \u201cmoved elsewhere,\u201d she said.\n\u201cBut it didn\u2019t say when you would get the money, it was only that you would get the money,\u201d Maloney continued. \u201cSo every single year, it was a fight to get the money out of Washington and here into New York.\u201d\nAnd it was a full house at the announcement, with even\u00a0First Deputy Mayor Anthony Shorris\u00a0on hand representing Mayor Bill de Blasio.\nCuomo, Maloney, Espaillat, Mark-Viverito, Rangel, Garodnick and others were seen entering the station for the first time with MTA Chairman Thomas Prendergast, taking the escalator as a large number of reporters swarmed around them until they exited the station.\nMTA Chairman Thomas Prendergast credited Cuomo\u2019s \u201cdirect challenge\u201d to the MTA to complete the project on time.\n\u201cThere is no mistaking what his priorities are when he has a conversation with you,\u201d Prendergast said. \u201cHe made clear to those of us who were involved that this project was gonna get done on time.\u201d", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["http://maloney.house.gov/media-center/in-the-news/making-the-impossible-happen-100-years-later-second-avenue-subway-on-a-roll"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.625237986445427, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}