Friday’s Headlines: Fraud in Plain View Edition

On the streets beat, we’ve seen every manner of ways that people try to evade tolls and speed cameras, but we always marvel at the audacity of a person driving around on public roads yet claiming to be unbound by any of their rules.

We’re talking about the “private property” folks who claim they can’t be ticketed for anything because the state has no rights over their car.

A friend sent us another example of this, a car that had just passed under the congestion pricing gantries near Columbus Circle. The photo is at the top of this post. Here’s the front of the car — no plate or registration sticker:

In other congestion pricing news, again, the Post continued to cover every burp and very predictable fart of congestion pricing:

• The Post wrote about plate-covering cheats (again) — picking up on our story from last month about the very same light-diffusing letters and numbers. (Guess they’ll follow our “private property” tip next.)
• Speaking of scammers, the Daily News and Patch wrote about how many of them were caught (though to hypocritical opponents of congestion pricing, these are heroes, not toll evaders).
• And there are other scammers trying to trick drivers into paying “late fees” on tolls. (Gothamist)
• As long known, companies would pass along a small portion of the fee to each customer. In Thursday’s Post “exclusive,” the company discovered that FreshDirect is adding 50 cents to every delivery in the congestion zone. That’s an exceptionally small price to pay on food that’s already marked up for the convenience of not having to walk or bike three minutes to the store — and may discourage some orders and, therefore, some deliveries, thereby reducing congestion even more.
• And amNY joined the chorus of people singing about congestion pricing’s obvious benefits in the early days. But we shouldn’t declare victory just yet; as Komanoff reminded us, there will be a bounce-back in traffic once drivers see that they really do get something for the $9.

• The paper also reported that subway ridership is up.
• Hell Gate had a great drive through the congestion relief zone. So did our reporter, Sophia Lebowitz, though she was on a bus!
• The readers of BroadwayWorld have spoken: Congestion pricing works!
• And, finally, in this section, we don’t think members of the City Council should be berating or derogating fellow citizens for merely expressing an opinion, in this case, a fairly anodyne one. Sure, there is Council Member Bob Holden mocking our publisher, but we feel the same way whenever a lawmaker berates a regular person, as Holden’s “Common Sense Caucus” pal Vickie Paladino is fond of doing. It’s not right and we’re calling it out as a violation of basic decency from an elected official:

In other news:

• The mayor offered some proposals in his State of the City address — most notably, a “Manhattan Plan” for housing that could have begun on Day 1 of the Adams term, not day 1,104, as the Daily News and The City reported — but there was almost nothing in there for the livable streets crowd. This was the only thing:

• The City discovered yet another flaw with 311: it’s hard to report concerns about lithium-ion batteries.
• I’m personally glad that the Times re-upped the story of when President Jimmy Carter visited Charlotte Street in the Bronx.
• We won our battle with the governor’s office over the release of her schedule in the month before she paused congestion pricing, so have at it, sleuths! All we found so far was a dinner with Cindy Adams (hardly the “diner” customers on whose behalf Gov. Hochul said she was working).
• And, finally, here’s our hero of the week: A firefighter getting to work on a skateboard (though the congestion pricing haters in the comment think it’s all about them):