What Your District Loses Without Congestion Pricing

The Campaign for New York’s Future has some handy fact sheets on the transit upgrades outlined in the MTA 2008-2013 Capital Plan, broken down by city and state electoral districts. Since many of these projects will be threatened without the hundreds of millions in annual revenues expected from congestion pricing, some legislators may need to be reminded of what’s at stake.

Take Hakeem Jeffries. The Brooklyn assemblyman reportedly has no position on pricing at the moment, but not so long ago he stood with Richard Brodsky in support of the Westchester pricing foe’s $6.50 taxi drop charge "alternative."

In addition to system-wide and Brooklyn-specific improvements, here is just some of what residents of Jeffries’ district stand to lose without pricing:

  • 33 new buses on the B41 line
  • Structural overcoating on the B and Q lines between Prospect Park and Sheepshead Bay
  • Upgrade of the PA systems in the Bedford-Nostrand, Classon, Clinton-Washington and Fulton Street stations on the G line
  • Flooding improvements for the Crosstown Line
  • An 8.1% to 22.1% percent reduction in traffic jams

Check your district fact sheets to see what’s on the block in your neighborhood. And if you haven’t called your reps already, now is the time to pass this information on.

  • Call your representitive and tell them you want the improvements without the damn East River TAX!!

    Call them NOW. No to Trasit Taxes! No to destroying Brooklyn and Queens!

    No to Congestion Taxes!

    No to the bloated MTA!

    More Masstransit NOW without the tolls!

    They pretend it’s either more direct taxes to the MTA or No Transit. Tell the MTA to find its own funding and live inside the public budget!

    Ruben

  • JF

    Ruben, we need those tolls to get cars off our streets. Here in Brooklyn and Queens we’re swamped every day with cars going to and from the “free” bridges. Your fantasy that the MTA is somehow hiding all this money, when your friend Giuliani cut their budget every year he was Mayor, wouldn’t solve this problem even if it were true.

  • Mike

    This is a huge failure for the entire city and the surrounding areas. It’s amazing the amount of misinformation which is still circulating about this plan many months after it was first proposed. The only winners in this are the richest 5% or so of commuters – i.e., those who drive into downtown Manhattan every day. Average joes like the rest of us are going to be saddled with massive subway fare hikes just to sustain the current service levels. New York will continue to lose in the battle with London and other cities to attract international capital because we’ll be the only major international financial hub offering clogged streets and miserable air quality. This is a complete disgrace.

ALSO ON STREETSBLOG

The 2008 Streetsie Awards, Part 2

By Aaron Naparstek |
Biggest Setback: After being approved by an unprecedented civic coalition, the mayor and New York City Council, congestion pricing — the one policy measure that simultaneously reduces traffic congestion while raising money for mass transit and livable streets — died in an Albany backroom without even a vote. Lobbyists of the Year: Walter McCaffrey and […]

What Glick’s District Will Lose Without Congestion Pricing

By Ben Fried |
With the fate of congestion pricing likely to be decided over the weekend, we’re going to beat this drum some more this afternoon. Yesterday we heard that Assembly Member Deborah Glick’s office told a constituent the congestion pricing bill could lead to worsening air quality. (Because, you know, building mass transit infrastructure will cancel out […]