New NYU Wagner Dean Polly Trottenberg makes the pitch for public service

At the beginning of August, Polly Trottenberg started the next chapter of her storied career in public service – this time helping the next generation. As the new dean of the New York University Wagner Graduate School of Public Service, Trottenberg was selected for the role in July based on her deep policy and leadership experience. Trottenberg is a former New York City Department of Transportation commissioner, former deputy secretary of the U.S. Department of Transportation and former acting administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration. She spoke with City & State about her new job, congestion pricing and Wagner’s mission. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

As the new dean of the Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service, the school states that it “prepares public service leaders to translate ideas into actions that have an effective and lasting impact on the public good.” What does that mean to you?

As you know, I’ve had a lifelong career as a public servant and … I have gotten to work with an incredible group of Wagner alums, participate in some of the teaching and lecturing here at the school and know some of the faculty. I particularly (want to) mention (professor) Mitchell Moss, someone I’ve been close with over the years on the transportation front.

How are you transitioning into this dean role? What are your priorities?

It’s an exciting transition, and I’ll just tell you this … I feel pretty thrilled and lucky to come to this extraordinary school, and this extraordinary university. It is an incredible thing to have a university of this breadth and global reach and incredible faculty, students, alumni, etc., in New York City … and (while) at the school, a chance to be also connected on the ground with all the amazing things happening in New York. And a look at the big challenges, too, right? If you’re in public service, in public policy, you run to the fire. You run to some of the pressing challenges. … What are we doing on housing policy? How are we handling all the challenging criminal justice questions? Right now, what does the fiscal, financial picture look like?

The city has changed a lot since you were Department of Transportation commissioner.

I’ve missed it, being in this incredible universe. … New York City, there’s always challenges and political drama, but the city is just … it feels just so vibrant and so extraordinary right now.

How do you feel about congestion pricing?

I worked on congestion pricing in multiple roles throughout my career, but particularly when I was city transportation commissioner here, helping to get that legislation passed up in Albany, and then helping to start that implementation process, which was a partnership between city DOT, state DOT and the MTA … then, obviously, U.S. DOT in the last administration, to work through the federal approvals process and all that environmental work. It took a while and was exhaustive, but I think it has held up well, as a result. It’s worked better than people even expected on almost every measure you can think of. It has reduced congestion. It has improved travel times. It has raised revenue for the MTA. It has made the streets safer. It has reduced the number of people having noise complaints. And I think for a lot of folks who completely understandably had their doubts about it, the public opinion, the polling has shown that people have continued support for it. Now, I would always acknowledge it’s charging people, and that can be a hardship for folks. I don’t want to pretend that everybody, everywhere, loves it, and that people haven’t been affected by it; they have. But for me, part of what’s exciting about it is it shows that you can do big, bold things and they will produce some big results.

Air traffic control is a national problem. You were briefly the FAA’s acting administrator. Should we worry about LaGuardia and JFK?

I would say in the last administration, we started to put more resources and focus on upping control of recruitment, retention, etc. And the current administration is clearly doing the same. You mentioned Secretary Duffy. He’s made it a big priority. 

On the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, what about the Penn Station redevelopment and through-running trains? Is that radical redesign something you’re in favor of? I have faith that my old friend and colleague Andy Byford (special adviser to the Amtrak board of directors for the redevelopment of Penn Station) will help us get to the right answer.

Any solutions for fare evasion?

To be fair to the MTA, this is a challenge that transit systems all over the country face, particularly in the aftermath of the COVID lockdown. Actually, it’s interesting down in Washington with WMATA, they installed all new fare collection systems, and they were (still) incredibly easy to hop over. So the system has had to go back now and retrofit. So just to give the MTA a little grace, they are not alone in this challenge.

How does Wagner support workforce development in public service?

That’s part of Wagner’s mission. … Look, it’s challenging, complicated times for public service, but … one of the things I got to do when I was DOT commissioner was open restaurants, which I like to joke was one of the scariest things I did, and one of the most popular. … (The) challenges of COVID made that possible, remember, the restaurants were shut down, they were on the brink of bankruptcy, many of them, and it enabled us to just toss out, at least on an emergency basis, the very complicated system that New York City had for whether you could even put chairs on the sidewalk. … It was another kind of big and bold experiment, and it saved a lot of the restaurants. So I would say in any challenging moment, there’s still incredible opportunities to be engaged in public service.

How do you make public service appealing to young people?

The good news is Wagner does reach them. Wagner has an incredible student body that comes every year, because I think there are a lot of people who … think it’s an incredibly rewarding and important career. It’s the pitch I’ve always made to all the young people that I’ve come across in my career. I’m biased, of course, but there’s no career more satisfying than one where you’re serving the public, where you’re serving people. When I think about some of the things that I’ve gotten to see in the course of my career, one of the things I think about a lot was back when I was commissioner here (and we launched) Vision Zero to make the streets safer. That can be challenging work. You have years where you see fatalities go down and then you have years where you don’t, and there’s a lot of heartbreak. I would always say to the team, “Some of what you did today … saved somebody’s life. Someone got home to dinner with their family, who wouldn’t otherwise.” What could be more rewarding and important than that work? So that’s always a deep motivation. The work is some of the most intellectually challenging. You meet the most remarkable people. You work on the most incredibly interesting problems, and you impact people’s lives.

Academia faces funding pressures. Is Wagner affected by the Trump administration cuts?

I wouldn’t say that it’s impacting Wagner. … No question, (these are) challenging times for academia, but I would say this about NYU. It’s an extraordinary universe. It's got amazing leadership. President Linda Mills, Provost Georgina Dopico are doing a great job of steering the school. Look, it’s not just academia that’s facing challenges. I have friends and all kinds of jobs … journalism is facing challenges. The public sector is facing challenges. So it’s a challenging time in a lot of sectors, but again, also a time of opportunity, a time when you can take a fresh look at things and maybe be really innovative, try some new things, so we’ll see. Challenges, but opportunities.