Michael Bloomberg

With congestion pricing stalled in Albany gridlock, what's next? What immediate measures can New York City take to reduce traffic congestion without having to go through Albany to implement them? How else might New York City reduce traffic congestion while raising a bit of money for transit, bicycling and pedestrian improvements? Back in May, Transportation Alternatives executive director Paul Steely White suggested that parking policy reform in this Gotham Gazette essay:

Mayor Bloomberg had harsh words for New York State's Democratic leadership at today's press conference in Brooklyn. Here is an abbreviated transcript of some of the question-and-answer period with the press:

Press conference at 11:30 am today. Here is the Mayor's statement on the New York State legislature's failure to act on New York City's congestion pricing plan: 

On Tuesday afternoon the Parks Dept. seized dozens of bikes parked at the Forest Hills train station

The other day I noted that one of the most destructive pieces of misinformation floating around the New York State Assembly is this line from Assembly Member Richard Brodsky's congestion pricing report:

Then: "Honk No" to Mayor Bloomberg's plan. Now: Stop honking and pay $8. Bloomberg's West Side stadium foes are now his congestion pricing friends.

Sounding frustrated, Mayor Bloomberg said in his radio address this weekend that it would be "absolutely ridiculous" for state lawmakers to leave hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funds to another city by rejecting New York City's congestion pricing plan.

Westchester Democrat Richard Brodsky has emerged as the State Assembly's leading critic of Mayor Bloomberg's congestion pricing plan. Later today Brodsky will release a report on the steps of City Hall characterizing the Mayor's congestion pricing plan as a regressive tax that puts most of the burden on poor and middle-income drivers (and ignoring the fact that only 4.6% of New York City residents drive to work in Manhattan's Central Business District and most poor and middle-income New Yorkers use transit).

City Hall and the New York State Assembly may be headed to the biggest showdown since Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton met on the dueling grounds at Weehawken (crossing the river back then was free but you had to use a row boat). Erik Engquist and Anne Michaud report in today's Crain's Insider: