Gondola: Thy Name Is Boondoggle
8th June 2016
As if we need any more evidence of profligate waste in the transit industry, Chicago, Austin, and other cities are considering aerial trams, also known as gondolas. Portland’s infamous aerial tram, which opened in 2006, cost 500 percent more than the original projection, carries a mere 3,200 round trips per day, and collects fares that cover just 22 percent of its operating costs. The economic development that was promised if Portland taxpayers helped build it went to Florida instead.
The most famous aerial tram is, of course, the one from Manhattan to Roosevelt Island in New York City, an expression of the deep desire by the Crust of the Other Left Coast to live in Switzerland but still have access to Broadway and Fifth Avenue. It is perhaps not insignificant that before Roosevelt Island was ‘gentrified’ it was called Welfare Island.