So a new poll came out yesterday that definitely was not good news for Gov. Hochul, who has earned the monicker Congestion Kathy ever since killing congestion pricing on June 5.
According to Siena Research, 45 percent of New Yorkers support Hochul's decision to pause the central business district tolling, versus 23 percent who opposed the move. That may sound like good news for the gov, but considering that a very strong majority opposed congestion pricing in previous polls, you'd expect that at least a majority would have supported her plan to kill it.
Plus, Hochul said she killed congestion pricing on behalf of "working-class" people who go to diners. But the poll shows that it was the wealthy who approved of her decision to wrest $15 billion from the MTA on behalf of drivers:
And there's a wealth of information in the crosstabs that show that Hochul's "pause" didn't have the political upside that she thought it would:
- Hochul's approval rating is down to just 38 percent.
- And 50 percent disapprove of the job she is doing as governor.
- Only 34 percent of people say Hochul "cares about" people like themselves — a number that drops to 28 percent among people earning less than $50,000.
The Post also covered the poll dip, which is ironic because the anti-congestion pricing tabloid should be cheering the flip-flopping governor.
- Gov. Hochul's pause on congestion pricing is going to hurt even worse than we thought. (Bloomberg)
- Late on Thursday night we learned that one of the lawsuits against congestion pricing has been dismissed, as Dave Colon tweeted:
- Residents of Harlem are pissed that they won't be getting a new subway. (amNY)
In other non-congestion pricing news:
- Everyone covered an update meeting last night in Brooklyn Heights on the city's ongoing idiocy of planning to spend $5 billion to completely redo one of Robert Moses's greatest mistakes. Seriously, look at these renderings: Is this what you want, New York? (NYDN, Gothamist)
- Meanwhile, Kevin Duggan covered the local pedestrian angle.
- On the plus side, get a load of DOT's plans for a center-running bus lane on the worst stretch of Flatbush Avenue! Better late than never, we always say. Then again, there's still public outreach to be done, so bus rapid transit may end up in community board hell. (Gothamist)
- Carnage in Staten Island. (NYDN)
- The DOT driver who killed a pedestrian in Bay Ridge last week was very sad about it. (NY Post).
- That said, the crash was part of an ongoing pedestrian safety crisis that we reported on exclusively yesterday.
- Crain's did a deep dive on the future of city transportation.
- And, finally, how often do we get our news from The Weather Channel, but when even weather forecasters can see the benefits of bike lanes, that's a W.
