Queens

A view of 35th Ave. in Jackson Heights, part of the DOT's proposed one-way pair for the neighborhood

The Post finds that Queens City Council Member David Weprin has been raking in campaign contributions from parking garage owners, all the while serving as one of the loudest critics of Mayor Bloomberg's congestion pricing plan. This ought to sound familiar to Streetsblog readers. Back in May we found that Weprin had taken in at least $20,500 in contributions from the parking lobby. The Post identified an additional twenty grand:

The Campaign for New York's Future has released a new poll, a glossy mailer that'll go out to 380,000 families, and a television advertisement focusing on the health benefits of Mayor Bloomberg's PlaNYC 2030. The Daily Politics has a nice write-up:

Bike to Shea A StreetFilm by Sean Clifford Running Time: 3 minutes 2 seconds

By way of comment on Mayor Bloomberg's congestion pricing proposal and, perhaps, in response to Transportation Alternatives' recent bike vs. subway vs. taxi commuter contest, the author of Queens Crap, a blog focused on local development issues, conducted his own rush hour comparison test. Here are his results:

As The Politicker's Azi Paybarah reported yesterday, the anti-traffic relief group, "Keep NYC Congestion Tax Free" re-released its report, "Congestion Pricing in the Central Business District: Let's Look Hard Before We Leap." Commissioned by the Queens Chamber of Commerce, the study calls into doubt the benefits of Mayor Bloomberg's proposed congestion pricing scheme, with some revised numbers from an earlier version they put out a few weeks ago. 

Some actual news came out of this morning's congestion pricing forum with London Deputy Mayor Nicky Gavron, the one event that Streetsblog's reporting team decided to skip this week. Queens City Council Member John Liu publicly stated that he supports congestion pricing. New York Times reporter Sewell Chan reports for the EmpireZone blog:

With one possible exception, no elected official has been more outspoken against congestion pricing for New York City than Queens Council Member David Weprin. A scan of the city's campaign finance database reveals over 20,000 reasons why that could be.

What a big weekend for public cycling events. This Sunday, more than 30,000 cyclists enjoyed perfect weather for the 30th anniversary of the Five Borough Bike Tour, a 42-mile traffic free ride through the city including a jaunt along the Gowanus Expressway in Brooklyn. It is the largest recreational cycling event in America.