Dueling Videos: Weprin and McCaffrey vs. New York’s Future

Azi Paybarah at the Politicker shot this video of Queens City Council Member David Weprin’s anti-pricing rally yesterday. Sharing the podium with Weprin is Walter McCaffrey of Keep NYC Congestion Tax Free. Can you count the distortions relayed in this nine minute reel?

After the jump, Azi gets a response from Michael O’Loughlin of the Campaign for New York’s Future.


Azi has another video in which Weprin explains that the City Council actually doesn’t support pricing, despite last week’s 30-20 vote.

ALSO ON STREETSBLOG

Anti-Pricing Council Member Has Pro-Parking Industry Fans

By Brad Aaron |
With one possible exception, no elected official has been more outspoken against congestion pricing for New York City than Queens Council Member David Weprin. A scan of the city’s campaign finance database reveals over 20,000 reasons why that could be. It may not be a significant amount in relative terms, but since taking office in […]

Congestion Pricing: The Public Conversation Begins

By Aaron Naparstek |
The New York Sun has the first of what will be a littany of congestion pricing stories coming out in the next few months. Finally, with city and state elections out of the way, New York City is about to embark on a substantive discussion of its transportation, traffic congestion and long-term sustainability issues. Some excerpts below: While Mayor […]

David Weprin: The Parking Garage Industry’s Valet?

By Jason Varone |
The Post finds that Queens City Council Member David Weprin has been raking in campaign contributions from parking garage owners, all the while serving as one of the loudest critics of Mayor Bloomberg’s congestion pricing plan. This ought to sound familiar to Streetsblog readers. Back in May we found that Weprin had taken in at […]

Weprin Survey Finds 61 Percent Like Bike Lanes, Even in Eastern Queens

By Noah Kazis |
Several surveys this year by top polling organizations have found citywide support for bike lanes. And in Park Slope and the Upper West Side, questionnaires put out by local elected officials have shown consistent neighborhood-level approval for new bike infrastructure. Now, another member of the City Council has found widespread enthusiasm for the city’s bike […]

Bloomberg: It’s Up to Albany to Revive Congestion Pricing

By Ben Fried |
If congestion pricing is going to resurface as a viable option to relieve traffic, help plug the enormous gap in the MTA capital program, and keep transit fares from ballooning in the years ahead, it won’t come from the Bloomberg administration. Testifying in Albany on Andrew Cuomo’s budget proposal today, Bloomberg said he won’t get […]

Odds and Ends

By Aaron Naparstek |
New York and six other cities have their federal grant application presentations online here at the Transportation Research Board. Contrary to congestion pricing opponents who claim the July 16 federal deadline is a ruse. Patrick Decorla-Souza at the FHWA confirms that all of the "other applicants either already have statutory authority, or the granting of […]