To better clarify, I feel this battle around the spending on NY subways is trivial compared to the fundamental infrastructure issues in other cities (for this example, Boston).
How so? Do you ride the NYC subway? The MTA is more an employment agency than an agency of change. For example, they have been working on the 2nd avenue subway, phase 1 only (a total of 3 stops) since 2007 and it's still not done. Projected completion is now December 2016. This two mile section of track is billions over budget and years behind schedule.