Today’s Headlines

  • Silver Shifts Congestion Pricing Plan Into "Park" (News)
  • Lawmakers Insist Mayor’s July 16 Deadline is Fake "Pressure Tactic" (NYT)
  • US DOT Says "No Flexibility" on July 16 Deadline (Daily Politics)
  • Public Health Leaders Call on Albany to Take Action (YouTube, Politicker)
  • Thank Albany When Subway Fares Are $3 (Villager)
  • Oil Expected to Hit $80 per Barrel (Guardian)
  • Manhattan CB7 Says Move Congestion Pricing Border to 60th Street (Gothamist)
  • Spitzer Takes a Dig at Bloomberg Trip to Idaho CEO Retreat (Post)
  • Tour NYC’s First Chartreuse Bike Lane… (StreetFilms)
  • …And Let the Complaining Begin (Sun)
  • Chrysler Buyer Says Fuel Economy Standards Would Kill US Auto Industry (NYT)
  • Vespa Gives NYC Scooter Owners Free Parking (NYT)
  • Its CarBQ Season in Red Hook (Gowanus Lounge)
  • Craig Newmark of Craigslist Says he Likes Streetsblog (Sblog)
  • jojo

    One day, Sheldon and Brodsky and all those crooks will have to answer to this coming generation.

    Are you ready?

  • Manhattan resident

    A reverse commuter in the upper west side (CB7) asks why she should have to pay to drive to a job in Connecticut that is not near the train station. She and her employer have made choices to locate themselves in places that make driving necessary. She and the employer should have to pay the consequences, not us. I’m sure both derive numerous benefits from their choices: the employer does not pay NYC taxes, she probably does not pay full NYC taxes, she may park her car for free on NYC streets, she probably parks for free in Connecticut. And she will now be able to enjoy a higher quality of life with less congested streets in her city neighborhood. I don’t think she is the poster child for those deserving exemptions.

  • My Letter to Speaker Silver:

    Dear Speaker Sheldon Silver

    I’m very concerned that the Assembly will not be convened in Albany to at least take a vote on the Mayor’s PlaNYC sustainability plan including congestion pricing. This is a once in a generation opportunity to bring order to New York City’s traffic congestion nightmare and fund all the mass transit projects that would add capacity to encourage more ridership on environmentally friendly transportation.

    Please consider your legacy in this matter. When you are no longer Speaker, no longer in the Assembly, this moment will be long remembered as your defining moment – a moment when we could have taken action to reduce global warming, improve public health, build the infrastructure to last for generations of future New Yorkers and simply do the right thing for the public good.

    When future historians look back and figure out the pivitol moments that caused New York to be a second-rate city, while other US and world cities moved forward, this will be the moment they will look to and you will be the single person that stood in the way. And for what? More congestion? More traffic? Less economic activity? Less mass transit improvements? An unsustainable relationship with oil and the automobile?

    I ask you to stand up for a sustainable future for New York City and to preserve New York’s status as a leader in urban planning. I ask you to pass legislation that will bring Federal aid to the city for short term transit improvements before instituting congestion pricing as a continuous stream of revenue for the city to fund mass transit improvements. I ask you to stand up for future generations that will live in your district, (assuming it is not 5 feet under water).

    Glenn McAnanama
    President, Upper Green Side
    PO Box 656
    New York, NY 10028

  • Niccolo Machiavelli

    Maybe we are on the cusp of a new transporation politics peopled by the bright, young, committed environmental activists pumped by Al Gore’s movie. But, for the time being the old politics is still in charge. Maybe the new politics has learned from this experience and instead of turning cynical and disengaging they will go out and organize in support of the politicians that supported them (Quinn, Thompson). I feel though that in the short term the Mayor’s failure to put this program across will only embolden the negative auto-centric politics of reaction. A lot can change between now and the next Mayoral election, hopefully that change will be positive.

  • jrivero

    do you mean quinn the pedi-cab slayer and thompson the fence-sitter. call me crazy, but i don’t feel too enthusiastic about supporting any of the political hacks who supported the mayor’s plan only after they calculated the way in which the political wind would be blowing. not that it would matter anyway since we’re subject to the whims of an amoral and irresponsible assembly speaker who is the worst of the worst in a legistlature that is itself the worst in the country. if anyone sees a silver-lining in any of this, please let me know. i could use some right around now.

  • jrivero – I agree, there are few heros in this unfolding mess that we face after Tuesday. The Silver lining for me is that this places even more pressure on the Mayor to implement something else that he has total control over like revoking placards and market pricing street parking, free metrocards for all civil servants, car-free central park and prospect park, creating more solid bike infrastructure and implementing BRT more widely, etc.

    But these are just incremental improvements that make common sense and should be popular anyway (except to drivers). Congestion pricing is an indispensible tool to curb congestion and without it, it is hard to see how traffic will be contained or money raised for mass transit in the future.