Opinion: Staten Island neglected again by the Port Authority

Staten Island is surrounded by the waterways leading to the ports in New Jersey, sits below the flight patterns of Newark Liberty International Airport, is home to the Teleport and is New York City’s critical link to the Outerbridge, Goethals and Bayonne bridges.

Yet despite the borough’s clear geopolitical importance, Staten Island does not have a voice in the boardroom of the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey.

So while the Port Authority focuses on its real estate interests – investing nearly $7 billion in the World Trade Center site alone – Staten Islanders and all New Yorkers are being crushed by the damages inflicted by the revenue-producing bridges, damages which go well beyond the toll booth and impact everything from job creation to families putting food on the table.

Under the current Port Authority toll schedule, four- and five-axle trucks coming into Staten Island with E-ZPass pay a toll of anywhere from $45 to $67.50; trucks with six axles can pay as much as $81, plus $13.50 for each additional axle. Those same trucks without E-ZPass will pay $114. Meanwhile, passenger cars now pay anywhere from $9.75 to $14 in tolls.

As soon as the Port Authority moved forward with those toll increases, two major shipping companies announced they were moving out of the New York Container Terminal to Port Newark. One of those companies, APL, was responsible for 37 percent of the terminal’s production.

Those companies were not alone. At least three major trucking and warehouse companies from across Staten Island fled to New Jersey. Victory Van left Stapleton, Colavita Olive Oil closed its enormous warehouse in Tottenville and RPM Warehousing & Transportation abandoned Port Ivory for Bayonne.

Beyond the impact on those three Staten Island neighborhoods, every time someone in the borough or anywhere in New York City goes to the supermarket they find themselves paying a little extra to offset the toll for that product coming back across the bridge.

While the toll increases undoubtedly hurt Staten Islanders, there have been many other less obvious slights and oversights to borough residents. Somehow, the Port Authority has always found an excuse for its inability to deliver for Staten Island. I remember several years ago they put out a beautiful brochure on all Port Authority facilities, except they failed to include the one in Howland Hook.

When I called to find out how something like that could happen, they apologized and said they “overlooked it.” Unfortunately, when it comes to Staten Island, the Port Authority talks a good game and makes promises, but only ends up delivering excuses.

What better example of such marginalization than the current work to raise the Bayonne Bridge and the construction of the new Goethals Bridge?

Both are worthy and necessary projects. With a new, larger class of ships scheduled to arrive with the opening of new Panama Canal-style locks, the Bayonne Bridge had to be raised 64 feet to allow them to pass into New Jersey’s ports.

That project was the perfect opportunity to include the infrastructure for a West Shore Light Rail link to the Hudson-Bergen Light Rail in Bayonne. It might have been a bit more expensive, but the rail link would have been a godsend for Staten Island, shaving the commute for thousands of Staten Islanders from Tottenville to Elm Park, and easing the morning traffic from the West Shore Expressway to the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel.

Of course, when pushing the project, Port Authority officials made sure to announce the plans “did not preclude the use of mass transit.” Now that construction on the bridge is well underway, and of course running behind schedule and over budget, the new, 72-foot-wide deck is simply too narrow to accommodate a rail line or even dedicated bus lanes.

Yet another opportunity lost.

But I am also an optimist. I believe that when one door closes another one opens. So as long as we were raising the Bayonne Bridge, the Port Authority should have raised the new Goethals Bridge as well. It would have allowed for the future development of a port on the hundreds of acres of land below and south of the bridge. It didn’t happen.

Staten Island needs a voice on the board.

James Molinaro is the former borough president of Staten Island. He currently oversees the Staten Island office of Pitta Bishop Del Giorno & Giblin LLC.