As he begins his seventh year in office, Governor Andrew Cuomo is turning to construction on several major transportation projects. As Josh Robin reports, it has some saying it could be among the governor's most lasting legacies, but there are major ifs about whether all his infrastructure dreams can come true.
He rode the Second Avenue Subway, gushed about the new Tappan Zee Bridge, broke ground at LaGuardia and dreamed about a revived Penn Station.
Wednesday, before a influential crowd, Governor Andrew Cuomo said the backhoes are just getting warmed up.
"We can grow," Cuomo said. "The blood that is in our Founding Fathers is in our veins."
And after a modest start, Cuomo's heart seems to be beating for growing more. He's all but calling himself a master builder. A state-paid video even had a tribute from the biographer of New York's original, and controversial, power broker, Robert Moses.
Other observers agree Cuomo deserves credit.
"He is willing to kind of really put his legacy at stake on this," said Thomas Wright of the Regional Plan Association.
A legacy that Cuomo is now announcing includes a reshaped Kennedy Airport, connecting terminals and rejiggering chronically clogged roads around it.
"The Van Wyck Expressway. Well, let me not say anything about the Van Wyck Expressway," Cuomo said.
It would see more lanes, along with the Kew Gardens Interchange.
The AirTrain link at Jamaica Station could also be dramatically spruced up.
The cost? Up to $10 billion, with officials seeking private investment.
If it all sounds too good to be true, Cuomo is even talking about more: getting you directly from Manhattan to a terminal at Kennedy Airport not in a taxi, but on a train. And you won't even need to transfer.
You may have heard this song before. Kicked around for years, a one-seat train to the plane technically never arrived, with a transfer always required before you got on the plane.
It's only being looked at, but the AirtTrain could ride on LIRR tracks. A direct link from Lower Manhattan has also been explored, then dismissed as too complicated and costly.
With other airports offering real one-seat rides, Cuomo tells us it's worth another look.
"That is the optimum," he said. "I think it's possible. I know it's difficult. But we are New York. We're all about doing the difficult."