A (small) part of the reason NYC has bad transit is because transit advocates seem to hate everything but bus & bike lanes.
Bike bridge? "Who needs it?"
Ferries? "Absurd waste of $$$!"
BQX Streetcar? "Gentrification."
It's transit damnit! With friends like this, who need enemies?

So much transit advocacy (which admittedly I used to be more active in) now just hates on the NYPD (not entirely w/out merit) & memorializes dead people (which has its place). But if transit advocates can't dream big and support wasting some public funds on transit, who can?

"This is New York City , we're not like _____" is supposed to be the stupid argument we're opposed to. I want crazy pedestrian bridges, streetcars, and ferries, damnit. Why can't we have nice things? Let other people talk us down. I also want clean subways that run 24 hours.