For years, New Yorkers have been preparing for the L train to be completely shut down for a period of 15 months to perform essential repairs necessitated by damage from 2012’s Hurricane Sandy. Now, an abrupt about-face has been made.

The governor has overturned years of public work for a solution so simple it was concocted in three weeks by an unpaid team of university professors. If it works, it’s a scandal that the MTA—whose mismanagement of megaprojects is legendary—never proposed it in the first place. If it doesn’t, it will go down as the ultimate symbol of the governor’s rash micromanagement of public works projects and his desire to seek “innovation” above tried-and-true methods.

If you live in New York City, this will either be very good, or horrifyingly bad. If you don’t live in New York City, it will likely at least be entertaining.

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