LIRR Conductors Now Checking Tickets Prior To Boarding in Penn Station

Long Island Morning Edition

Two days after a debate performance that has many Democrats panicked over their prospects in the November 5 election, President Joe Biden arrived at the Further Lane, East Hampton Village residence of Barry and Lizanne Rosenstein for a fundraising event on Saturday at 2:42 p.m. Christopher Walsh reports on 27east.com that the president and first lady, Jill Biden, arrived at Francis S. Gabreski Airport in Westhampton before transferring to Marine One, the call sign given to any United States Marine Corps aircraft carrying the president of the United States, usually a helicopter, to fly on to East Hampton Town Airport in Wainscott. From there, a large motorcade traveled via Route 114 to East Hampton Village and Further Lane.

Shortly before the president and first lady's arrival, Further Lane was closed to traffic amid a heavy New York State Police presence, along with police from Suffolk County and East Hampton Village.

At the Further Lane fundraiser President Biden said, “I didn’t have a great night, but neither did Trump."

Of Trump, Biden said, “The big takeaway was his lies.”

Around a half-dozen mostly youthful protesters from New York City, who cited the president's June 27 debate with Trump, urged him with signs and slogans to step aside, fearing a second Trump administration will be the outcome if he does not. Earlier, two men waving Trump flags stood on Egypt Lane, a few hundred yards from its intersection with Further Lane.

In addition to the Rosensteins, the host committee for the afternoon event comprised Nicole and Michael Fox, Stacey and Eric Mindich, Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick, and Tracy Pollan and Michael J. Fox.

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Long Island Rail Road conductors are now regularly checking passengers' tickets before they board trains at Penn Station. The pilot program began late last year for trains departing after Madison Square Garden events but has more recently been extended to the evening rush hour. The fare "gating" operation aims to address the growing problem of fare evasion, which costs the Metropolitan Transportation Authority about $700 million a year. LIRR officials, and some commuters, said the operation has been orderly and does not inconvenience riders, who flow through a barricaded ticket checkpoint at the top of the stairs leading down a platform at Penn.

Alfonso A. Castillo reports in NEWSDAY that Anthony Simon, who heads the LIRR conductors' union, said that while gating makes sense for special events that can attract big crowds for certain trains, trying to make it a part of the regular rush hour "is not achievable and a waste of manpower for the high traffic" at Penn.

"Conductors can better serve the riders as well as provide for their safety by being onboard trains where they belong," Simon said.

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For Long Island high school students who want to take a college-entrance exam this summer: Be prepared to travel.

There are only a handful of SAT sites for the Aug. 24 exam on Long Island, and they have been booked for weeks. The other college entrance exam, the ACT, is not given in New York in July. Joie Tyrrell reports in NEWSDAY that the New York City-based College Board, which runs the SAT, said it does not expect to add sites for the August date. It’s typically up to schools to host the exam, but that can be difficult in the summer months, educators said. Sites also must be approved by the College Board.

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Working people living in their vehicles appear to be a growing subset of the homeless population in America, according to authorities. Co-workers and employers may discriminate when they learn an employee is living in their car. A lack of personal hygiene and adequate sleep could cause a worker living in a car to lose their job due to a failure to present professionally. Lisa Irizarry reports in NEWSDAY that some experts interviewed for this story — part of Newsday's continuing “Feeling the Squeeze” series — say living in vehicles is becoming a new affordable housing option.

There are no statistics on how many working or unemployed people on Long Island or elsewhere have turned to living in their vehicles, experts on homelessness said. Additionally, they said, the working homeless who live in their cars are usually hesitant to make themselves known to agencies, co-workers and others because they’re embarrassed about their predicament and don’t see themselves as stereotypical homeless people.

“While on Long Island the number of persons living in places not meant for human habilitation is still much less than those in shelters, it is the area of the unhoused population that is growing the fastest in our region,” said Greta Guarton, executive director of the Long Island Coalition for the Homeless.

It’s harder to identify people who are living in their cars than others who are living in tents or encampments, Guarton said.

Steven Crawford, a chaplain and founder of Homeless Long Island — an outreach ministry for the homeless said, “About 40% of all homeless, according to HUD [U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development], live in their car, and from our calculations, based on our street outreach and calls we receive, about 10% of that number work,” said Crawford, whose outreach ministry was started in 2007.

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Weeks after Gov. Kathy Hochul abruptly pulled the plug on New York City’s congestion pricing program, state lawmakers have privately begun an informal campaign to persuade her to move ahead with the tolls, but make them less expensive. Dana Rubinstein and Grace Ashford report in THE NY TIMES that in a series of recent conversations, the legislators suggested to Ms. Hochul that she could bring back a modified form of the initiative, which would have been the nation’s first central business district tolling program.

If the governor agreed to reduce the yearly amount of money that the law requires to be collected from the tolls, she would have some cushion to alter the program — potentially lowering the proposed $15 charge to enter Manhattan below 60th Street.

The ambitious but contentious program had the twin goals of generating billions of dollars for the region’s transit system and cutting congestion in Manhattan.

But on June 5, less than four weeks before it was to go into effect, Ms. Hochul indefinitely paused it.

By that point, the state-controlled Metropolitan Transportation Authority had already allocated roughly half a billion dollars for tolling infrastructure in anticipation of the program’s June 30 start date.

Reducing the toll revenue target would require an act of the Legislature, which is not scheduled to meet again until January 2025. Ms. Hochul has the power to call lawmakers back to Albany for a special session, but such a move would be politically risky without assurances from legislative leaders of broad support.

Lowering the tolls would most likely mean less revenue for the transportation authority; lower tolls might also be less of a deterrent to drivers thinking of motoring to Manhattan — potentially undercutting the dual goals of revenue generation and traffic reduction.

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While Democrats debated about THE DEBATE this weekend, President Joe Biden made his pitch in Bonac on Saturday afternoon. The president and first lady arrived at the Further Lane, East Hampton Village residence of Barry and Lizanne Rosenstein for a fundraising event on Saturday at 2:42 p.m. Christopher Walsh reports on 27east.com that the Bidens first landed at Francis S. Gabreski Airport in Westhampton before transferring to Marine One, the call sign given to any United States Marine Corps aircraft carrying the president of the United States, usually a helicopter, to fly on to East Hampton Town Airport in Wainscott. From there, a large motorcade traveled via Route 114 to East Hampton Village and Further Lane.

Shortly before the president and first lady's arrival, Further Lane was closed to traffic amid a heavy New York State Police presence, along with police from Suffolk County and East Hampton Village.

THE NY TIMES reports that as Mr. Biden swung through the Hamptons to gobble up cash at the home of the billionaire hedge-fund manager Barry Rosenstein, he addressed his shortfalls onstage. “I understand the concern about the debate — I get it,” he said. “I didn’t have a great night.” On his way there, his motorcade passed a group of people holding signs that read, “Please drop out for U.S.” and “We love you but it’s time.”

In addition to the Rosensteins, the host committee for the Saturday afternoon event comprised Nicole and Michael Fox, Stacey and Eric Mindich, Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick, and Tracy Pollan and Michael J. Fox.