Gray's bottom-up depiction of the money jungle starts with Leo's family and friends — including his uncle Frank James Caann), a subway-parts contractor who greases palms in Borough Hall; his best friend, Willie (Joaquin Phoenix), who's in on the graft; and his cousin Erica (Charlize Theron), who comes between them.
"I am not quitting here," Mr. Koulmentas said as he watched insurance agents, contractors and subway engineers scurry around the diner in the hours before the wrecking crews arrived.
Riding a southbound express train in lower Manhattan, a slight of build navy contractor rode that subway car into gun lore history -- his name was Bernard Goetz dubbed -- "the subway gunman" -- defending himself and every other scared New Yorker to ride the underground.
Aaron Donovan, a spokesman for the transportation authority, said that a contractor on the subway project, Cruz/Tully Joint Venture, was responsible for accidentally turning off the gas.
But when state contracts for billions of dollars are on the line, representatives for this subway car company or that contractor can woo or threaten state officials without anybody in the public having the slightest clue.
The Building Trades Employers' Association, a group that represents contractors, has paid for subway advertisements and a Web site directly appealing to union members to agree to concessions, angering union leadership in the process.
The dream of a Second Avenue subway lay dormant until April 12 , 2007 when contractors for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority again broke ground — to extend the Q line from 63rd and Lexington over to Second Avenue and up to 96th Street.
Mr. Donovan was cleared in 1987, after a nine-month trial in the Bronx, of stealing $7.4 million from a subway-construction project while he was a contractor before joining President Ronald Reagan's cabinet.
One night, Willie invites Frank to accompany him to the Queens subway yards, where trouble breaks out between competing contractors.
