New York Growth to Slow Without Train, Runway Work, Planners Say

(Bloomberg) -- New York's economy has been on a roll, but that could all come to an end. The area, which has added more than 800,000 jobs in the past five years, may take 25 years to add that same number again unless some radical changes are made, according to the Regional Plan Association. Here are a few of the group's 61 recommendations:

• Phase out Teterboro Airport in northern New Jersey, which is prone to increased flooding due to rising sea levels, and add two more runways at John F. Kennedy International Airport and one more at Newark International Airport.
• Evaluate shutting down New York City subways late on weeknights, when about 1.5 percent of riders use the system, to allow for longer periods of maintenance, and employ buses to make up for the lost service.
• Further extend the 7 line, which serves Hudson Yards, and the Second Avenue Subway, and add new lines along Northern Boulevard and Jewel Avenue in Queens to serve Jackson Heights, north Flushing and such “transit deserts” as Pomonok and Fresh Meadows.

The group's fourth regional plan is set for unveiling this morning at the New School in Manhattan, with officials including Connecticut Governor Dannel Malloy and Ras Baraka, the mayor of Newark, New Jersey, scheduled to speak. The 90-year-old nonprofit Regional Plan Association, whose chairman is RXR Realty LLC Chief Executive Officer Scott Rechler, advocates that leaders think of the metropolitan area as one region rather than an amalgam of clashing jurisdictions.

To contact the reporter on this story: David M. Levitt in New York at dlevitt@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Daniel Taub at dtaub@bloomberg.net, Christine Maurus

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