Alison Fox

Councilman Ben Kallos, whose district includes the East 80s, said he would have preferred the subway to open years ago, as it's been planned since the 1920s, but now is better than never.

But Kallos said he thinks while "100 years is a long time to wait for a subway," when the line finally opens it will be a welcome sight.

"The Second Avenue Subway will [lure] a lot of the riders from Lexington over to," said Kallos. "Businesses that are now here will have the benefit of more traffic, both foot traffic and subway traffic. The neighborhood will get Second Avenue back."

The latest challenge to car services like Uber came out of City Hall Monday when an Upper East Side council member introduced a bill to create a free city mobile app for yellow and green taxis.

The bill, introduced by Council Member Ben Kallos, would create a universal E-Hail App for the more than 13,000 yellow cabs and 6,000 green cabs throughout the city, he said in a statement.

"City taxis need an app of their own to compete, and New Yorkers should be able to e-hail a cab in the rain without having to worry about surge pricing," Kallos said, adding that the "city must modernize to be able to compete."