Monday’s Headlines: Sore Losers Edition

At some point, someone over at the New York Post will admit that congestion pricing is good for New York. For now, the paper's war continues on the, dare we say, increasingly popular toll.

Without conclusive data about the toll's impact, the fact-averse tabloid and its accomplices in TV news and politics are hammering every possible anecdote to make the policy look like a disaster — even as once-skeptical New Yorkers come around to the concept.

Here's a review of The Post's weekend coverage, which we provide you free-of-charge so you don't have to deal with the Paper of Wreckage's bandwidth-busting website:

• A puff-piece touting the New York GOP's fantasy that President-elect Trump will "kill" congestion pricing. Step one, per-U.S. Rep. Mike Lawler (R-Hudson Valley): "Work through how his administration can do so." (Gothamist offered a more skeptical take.)
• A dispatch from Upper Manhattan outside the tolling zone, which the paper claims, based entirely on anecdotes from drivers, has turned into a "parking war zone" as a result of the toll. Hint to city editors: The Upper Manhattan parking crunch ain't new. Perhaps the surge in car ownership in the city since the pandemic started has something to do with it.
• An entirely false report that congestion pricing has led to dire overcrowding on public transit. The story relies on a misleading year-over-year ridership comparison. While its true subway ridership is up 10 percent compared to last January, that trend preceded the tolls. Average subway ridership through the first nine days of this year was actually 10 percent lower compared to last month's average and just 75 percent of the pre-Covid average.

• A slew of fear-mongering subway-focused pieces, including one deriding Gov. Hochul for riding the LIRR with her security detail and another showcasing a viral video "safety hack" that advises women to ride the subway with a can of beans in a sock to protect themselves.
• Another bad-faith hit on bogeyman Janno Lieber for correctly noting that it is the city's responsibility to compensate FDNY firefighters if they have to pay the toll "to shuttle ... to other firehouses to plug gaps in staffing." (The piece repeated the absurd claim that the toll would slow response times, which makes no sense if traffic is lighter.)
• An actually decent exposé of Uber's craven exploitation of the hubbub around the new tolls to juice consumer costs and slash worker wages. The company, which managed to win much lower tolls than personal vehicles and trucks, is using congestion pricing "as a way to steamroll thousands of hard-working ride-share drivers out of fair pay," one worker leader said.

In other congestion pricing news:

• The Times provided a hefty dose of how New Yorkers actually feel about the new tolls: "Already a transformation." "Much easier to cross the street." "Buses miraculously arriving on time or (gasp) early." "Former congestion pricing haters are startled to find themselves reconsidering." You get the picture.
• Related: Bus times from New Jersey saw dramatic improvements in the first week of congestion pricing thanks to lighter tunnel traffic. (NorthJersey.com)
• Why do we need the toll in the first place? Because old MTA equipment sometimes blows up. (Gothamist, part I and part II)
• Ross Barkan declares, "Congestion pricing haters need to get a grip." (And he's from Bay Ridge!) (New York Magazine)
• CNN also looked into whether congestion pricing can survive the Trump administration.
• Residents of the Nutmeg State are unsurprisingly split on congestion pricing. (CT Mirror)
• Some Manhattan restaurants continue to delude themselves that a $9 toll makes a difference in whether customers decide to visit their dining rooms — as the delivery companies they rely on use the toll to justify new fees and higher prices. (Eater, NY Times)
• Even Newsday is spreading the gospel of the early signs that congestion pricing works.
• Will contractors, plumbers and electricians ever admit faster traffic is good for their bottom line? (The Guardian)
• Parents at one Jewish private school just inside the toll zone (ninth grade tuition: $57,230) are reconsidering how they and their kids get there. (NY Jewish Week/JTA)
• Congestion pricing got the CBS Sunday Morning treatment from Mo Rocca. (CBS News)
• Streetfilms' Clarence Eckerson made record time on his semi-regular trip to his hometown:

In non-congestion pricing news:

• Last month, an NYPD cop driving in a bus lane cop struck a woman and fled the scene. Her struggle to file a report with the department "was a textbook case on how not to deal with the public," according to the Daily News. An internal affairs investigation is underway.
• The MTA has ordered 265 more electric buses. (amNewYork)
• Zero vision: A driver who stuck and killed an 87-year-old in Canarsie on Saturday, before ramming into a parked car, was neither arrested nor charged. (Daily News)
• Here's one way to address the NYPD's long-standing drunk-driving problem. (NY Post)
• The four-month Far Rockaway subway shutdown has arrived. (Gothamist)
• One dollar driver van shot and killed another on Utica Avenue in East Flatbush. (NY Post, Daily News)
• Disgraced ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo has moved to Manhattan. Next stop, Gracie Mansion? (NY Post)