Hakeem Jeffries Responds to Congestion Pricing Critics

From today’s Crain’s Insider:

Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries, who is holding a rally this evening for better G train service, is drawing fire from transit advocates because of his opposition to congestion pricing. Streetsblog commenters plan to confront him at the rally. “Simply because one did not support the mayor’s version of congestion pricing does not mean we shouldn’t do everything possible to improve mass transit,” Jeffries says.

“The mayor’s version.” One supposes this leaves open the possibility that there is some version of congestion pricing that Hakeem Jeffries wouldn’t have opposed. But despite their attempts to pawn off the coming transit finance crisis on Mayor Bloomberg, Assembly Democrats killed a version of congestion pricing that differed markedly from the mayor’s original plan. The final bill reflected the recommendations of the Traffic Congestion Mitigation Commission, which, lest anyone forget, was created with Albany’s blessing.