Wednesday’s Headlines: Congestion Pricing Flushed Away Edition

Literally every reporter at Streetsblog handed in their resignation letter at just before midnight when the Times (“Hochul Pushes for Congestion Pricing Delay in Last-Minute Reversal”) and Politico (“Hochul considering congestion pricing delay amid concerns from Democratic leaders”) dropped the bombshell of the year.

Rather than recapitulate both outlets’ solid reporting, we ask you to please just read both stories … and then bemoan the cowardice of our political elite, who talk of all the things we need to do to arrest congestion, reduce pollution, make roads safer only to cower before some vague notion of political repercussions that are probably just a ghost anyway.

That said, it’s worth noting that the Hochul news broke after the Wall Street Journal editorial board opined against congestion pricing, as the rich tend to.

We’ll spend most of today depressed and muttering to ourselves why our decade-plus of coverage of the benefits of congestion pricing have failed to provide cover for politicians to look beyond the next election.

But by day’s end, we’ll get back on the horse and provide a full analysis of the shitshow, with Dave Colon’s byline on it. Why? Because we don’t judge a congestion pricing plan by how many times it gets knocked down — we judge it by how many times it gets back up.

And hopefully, it will.

In other news:

• The G train shutdown is coming. Crain’s provided a primer.
• The City Council is pushing for an expansion of Fair Fares. (amNY)
• The city is still talking about capping the Cross-Bronx Expressway. (Bronx Times)
• Here’s how you can complain about your subway stop. (Gothamist)
• Um, do we really want the company that owns TikTok to be developing an “auto infotainment system”? (Technode)
• Well, now we know what Assembly Member Jenifer Rajukmar was after. (NY Post)