Metadish, Fresh from NYC

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Most of us weren’t even born when these political hippies with fat ties and goofy looking sideburns all stood around holding shovels and pickaxes in an eerily uncomfortable way, breaking ground for what was supposed to be construction on the 2nd Ave. subway line. Even then the politicians joked, “whatever is said about this project in the years to come, certainly no one can say that the city acted rashly or without due deliberation.”

Apparently no one totally grasped how ironic those words would become.

On Thursday, Gov. Eliot Spitzer will descend down into an unused part of the partially completed tunnel and symbolically take another pickax to an unfinished wall marking the start of yet another attempt to bring the subway to 2nd Ave. After all, what could possibly go wrong with this new plan.

And the plan is more measured. The goal is to build a first section of the subway with stops along Second Avenue at 96th, 86th and 72nd Streets and at 63rd Street and Lexington Avenue. It is intended to operate as an extension of the Q line and is expected to open in 2013. Once further financing is secured, later phases of construction will extend the line north to 125th Street and south to Lower Manhattan.

Financing seems more secure than in the past with plans to secure about a third of the funding from the federal government. Ok, who’s taking odds on this train being finished in any of our lifetimes?

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