Congestion Pricing

Reader Sarah Ferguson reports that Assembly Member Deborah Glick (right), who represents Lower Manhattan, has come up with a novel twist on Richard Brodsky's call for further environmental review of congestion pricing. Read on for the full story, and keep making those phone calls. We want to know what else legislators are telling their constituents today.

Comrie is right -- $8 to drive into mid-Manhattan is nuts. The fee should be at least $40.

With mixed messages at best coming from Albany and time running out, state legislators need to hear from constituents who support congestion pricing.

Assembly Democrats met behind closed doors last night to gauge their collective sentiment on congestion pricing. According to the Post, only seven of the 36 legislators who spoke during the meeting expressed support, but the one who matters most, Shelly Silver, remains uncommitted: 

Assemblyman Jim Brennan, a Democrat from Brooklyn, has introduced a new congestion pricing bill, according to a statement released by his office. The bill contains some elements lifted from Mayor Bloomberg's original proposal, including:

Richard Brodsky is using this letter to rally opposition to congestion pricing.

For months, New York legislators have insisted that New Jersey drivers pay a bigger chunk of the congestion fee than the pricing plan called for. Now that the pricing bill includes such a provision (which still doesn't satisfy Speaker Silver), New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine is crying foul. The amendment he objects to stipulates that the Port Authority contribute $1 billion to the MTA capital plan, or else drivers who cross Hudson River tolls pay a bigger portion of the congestion fee.

Richard Brodsky may have lost on Monday, but today his colleagues in Albany are parroting his talking points. A tipster sent us this constituent letter from Assemblyman William Colton, who represents Midwood, Bensonhurst and Gravesend in Brooklyn. Incidentally, a glance at this morning's map reveals that the City Council members who represent those neighborhoods, Simcha Felder and Domenic Recchia, voted in favor of pricing.

This morning's Crain's Insider names Streetsblog one of the winners of Monday's congestion pricing vote in City Council. While we're honored, no one around here is spiking the ball or dancing in the end zone until New York's famously dysfunctional state legislature is done doing whatever it is they're going to do to the plan. Richard Brodksy is, for now, a loser who "overplayed his hand."