The big story today will be the MTA Board's approval, at long last, of the congestion pricing toll, setting us up for a June launch.
Others previewed today's vote in fairly wan fashion (NYDN), but we added value with a definitive Komanoff piece about how the toll will likely achieve greater traffic and congestion reduction than even the MTA believes. The Daily News editorial page also added value with Alex Matthiessen's op-ed slamming transit workers union boss John Samuelsen's "betrayal" of congestion pricing. As did City Limits with Cody Lyon's pro-toll piece.
That said, we're still trying to get answers from the city about our questions from yesterday about the last-minute exemptions won by the Adams administration to enable city workers to congest our streets, pollute our air and endanger our kids. City Hall was mum, but we'll keep at it. (So will NY1.)
In other news from a slow day:
- We were horrified and saddened to witness the morose waste of Tuesday morning's cargo ship crash that caused the collapse of Baltimore's Francis Scott Key Bridge (NY Times). Fortunately, the Post did the "can it happen here?" story. Good news? It won't. And amNY said New York will benefit from Baltimore's loss.
- We were also saddened to learn more about how NYPD officer Jonathan Diller died. The Times reported that he had approached an illegally parked vehicle — always fraught for cops — when the suspect fired the fatal shot. We have long called for police to do more about scofflaws whose illegal parking makes streets less safe, so we share the city's grief when it ends in tragedy.
- There's more "vision" coming to Broadway. (amNY)
- The cleanup of the malodorous Gowanus Canal is behind schedule. (Gothamist)
- Like Streetsblog, The City wrote about a Lower Manhattan community board's bizarre decision to deny delivery workers some minor comfort after ferrying meals all over the neighborhood all day and night.
- Finally, the NYPD posted pictures of a supposed "ghost car" bust, but then didn't answer any questions we had about it.
Correction: An earlier version of this story misidentified Police Officer Jonathan Diller due to an editing error. We regret the mistake.
