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Early Addition
Assembly Leader Sheldon Silver announced the State Assembly is rejecting congestion pricing. The controversial plan, a pet project of Mayor Bloomberg's, was approved by the City Council last week and had support from Governor David Paterson and State Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, making the Assembly's support the final, critical step to ensure $354 million in federal funds (which would have been directed towards the MTA's projects).
Bloomberg had been very vocal about wanting the Assembly to at least vote on the plan, but many Assembly members, especially Democrats, felt the Mayor had been alienating him with his reported donations to the State GOP and his war of words.
Per the Observer, Assembly member David Weprin told reporters, "Shelly just came out of our conference and said our conference does not have the support to bring this to the floor. I want to be clear that the conference was overwhelmingly against it" versus just Silver blocking the measure. Weprin also said Bloomberg should be commended for keeping the issue alive, “If it wasn’t for this mayor, it would have been dead a year ago. It’s because of the mayor it had any life at all.” That's hollow praise!
In 2005, Silver killed the Mayor's West Side Stadium plan.
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Secession?
You guys could call yourselves New York City-State
I have no dog in this fight, besides being poor but this is getting interesting.
what is it about bloomberg's pet projects that rubs people the wrong way?
that that $354mil is just a smokescreen, there are plenty of ways the city can get money from the Fed but they don't because of this administration.
More Food stamp money from the Fed is one example.
proving once again, he just doesn't care or just doesn't care about the poor or working poor.
The 2nd Ave. Subway: A Line for the 22nd Century
Time to secede. New York City....... the 51st State?
why the f*ck should anyone outside the city have a say in the matter
silver is a scumbag
I totally agree, Matty and Ace.
This city, the world's greatest, will never get its fair shake as long as it is outnumbered by small-minded provincial political hacks whose foresight is as short as their courage.
Commuters get a great deal - most freeloaders do - and they fought like hell to protect it. So now they will continue to reap the benefits of having a job in NYC without contributing anything back (unless you count the blocked crosswalks and CO2 emissions).
And while I'm ranting, has there ever been a more inept politician than Mike Bloomberg?
This is a disgrace. Who in their right mind thinks this is a tax or retrogressive act against the poor? Are people that stupid---fewer cars and trucks is a good thing.
This Silver guy is not a savior he's an ass.
Tis time to part!
Unbelievably short sighted.
Alright naysayers you've won. So...fare hikes or tax hikes, what's your poison?
Good.
You know who else wanted congestion pricing? The Nazis, that's who.
oh goodness gracious, how will we ever survive?
Silver is a goddamn disgrace.
this is precisely why the new york assembly is the most fucked up legislature in the country. untouchable, out of touch, self interest promoting scumbags - the lot of them, democrat and republican.
Oh Noes! Ha ha ha!
why the f*ck should anyone outside the city have a say in the matter
Half of the Assembly and the majority of it's Democrats are from the city.
silver is a scumbag
True and he also from Manhattan. Sounds like this was just a giant FU to the mayor.
Alright naysayers you've won. So...fare hikes or tax hikes, what's your poison?
either one, if a tax increase proves necessary. Congestion pricing is just an administratively burdensome way to raise revenue anyway, so if we need to raise the money, might as well do it in a way that's less expensive to implement.
watch the news and see how many single occupant cars they interviewed.
fantastic news. bloomberg lost another one. this would have been a disaster and ever dollar gained by CP would have been subtracted from the current tax revenue the MTA gets and wasted on other crap -- just like the lottery and cigarette taxes. You can promise funds from something in gov't go to a pet project, but that doesn't mean you cant shift the current stream somewhere else. its good people didn't fall for this trick for the 1000000th time. good bye and good riddance CP.
“If it wasn’t for this mayor, it would have been dead a year ago. It’s because of the mayor it had any life at all.”
well, the good news is, with summer just around the corner, the Mayor can turn his attention to looking the other way while Con Ed does its thing.
matty, please keep quiet and let the adults talk. thanks
ps.
don't you have better things to do in chicago than post on a nyc blog about ny politics?
brooklyn says
tanks for albany for not put a tax of brooklyn
brooklyn and i
Why not just implant E-ZPass's in people's necks?
It's not like Silver is some upstate mandarin lording his parochial interests upstate against NYC. The reason the Assembly is supermajority Democratic is because it's dominated by downstate and NYC districts. Sheldon Silver lives in and represents the Lower East Side. Secession is not a panacea for every event that doesn't go in favor of Manhattanites.
Congestion pricing is a means to raise revenue from certain activities. We could continue to have high property and income taxes in this city on those of us who take up less space by living in tiny apartments and taking the subway while we give away free land in parking spaces and multi-lane roads on America's most valuable island. And who gets this free land? Delivery people, yes, but they can just raise their prices. Who really gets free lands here?
A. people who live outside the city but work here.
B. People who live in the city who have the cash and space for a car (or three).
C. People driving THROUGH the city and not stopping in it. We got enough people with real needs clogging our streets to want to discourage through-drivers.
Screw you, Albany. Go stick your head back in the sand, where it's been since the 60's.
THANK YOU LORD SATAN!
i say build it then charge for it!
NYC powers that be have a nasty habit of promising something to get their hands on the goodies, then reneging on the promise then redirecting or keeping the windfall!
So, Taxing people who live south of 60th St is fair??
Um, How's that "help" NYC??
Yay!
There's plenty of money in the pipeline, and we shouldn't be taxed further to pay for their inefficiencies.
here's my plan for congestion pricing. Ban baby strollers, or maybe tax them based on size. Those things congest our city streets and subways.
Silver represents 64th District which is IN MANHATTAN!
"don't you have better things to do in chicago than post on a nyc blog about ny politics? "
no
How would the city residents suffer? We would suffer if the tax was passed. This was a win for the entire city and tr-state area to prevent Manhattan from becoming a gated community.
And who gets this free land? Delivery people, yes, but they can just raise their prices. Who really gets free lands here?
That's the point:
The rising cost to transport goods into the city just because gas costs so much is passed on to the consumer. Gas prices, plus a new tax = even higher prices on goods.
To all those who said this was good for NYers...
Mahattan should succeed, screw em!
Those outlying hood were to bare the brunt of Congestion pricing and the wealthy do not get to pawn thier smog on the outer boros!
f%ck that boston carpet bagger and his rich cronies that have displaced so many true NYers with all these wanna be LI and Jersey herbs...
I should send my 13 years old cousin after yall scared mofo....rub bitches run! get the F&%k OUT...
A tax increase would burden the wrong people. Congestion pricing actually imposed the cost of the negative externalities of auto congestion on the people responsible for those externalities.
sure, if those taxes wouldn't be passed on to everyone else. Of course, the largest share of the tax would be on commercial vehicles delivering goods into the city, those taxes, of course, would be passed directly to consumers. The richer people, lawyers and bankers, would pass those commuting expenses down the line as business expenses, and would eventually come out of our pockets in the form of higher costs for services. Taxis would pass that on to customers in form of higher fares. We're all going to pay one way or the other, don't kid yourself.
Commuter tax time?
so, what can Bloomberg do - WITHOUT the approval of the freaks in Albany - to make life unpleasant for the horrible commuting automobiles? Suggestions anyone?
Raise the price of street parking to very high levels?
Send in the police to hyper enforce any traffic regulations and fine the hell out of those who violate them?
Designate some streets as pedestrian walkways - shutting them to traffic?
what can we do apart from having this rammed down our throats.
I hate people who drive. UGH.
@tadhog what are you talking about Free Land? roads are already paid for (and suck to boot). if you want to raise prices on parking, go right ahead. That makes a lot more sense than congestion pricing, and would be much easier and cheaper to implement.
i find all of you calling for taxes and other ways to destroy the city humorous. Especially during tax time. Do yo realize the amount of money NYC takes from its people and even non-residents? DO you realize we are the #1 taxed people in the nation by a huge margin. WHat do you actually get for that money? Promises that never come to fruition? Corrupt city council? Tons of non productive people sucking in city revenue? If transportation was really an issue they can use the 100s of billions they already take and use it for transit. It clearly is not. This was just a money shell game as I stated before. Get some new money from this pocket, take away the current money and use it for some other waste. WHat people don't realize is all these taxes are a large part of what makes NYC so expensive to everyone and why business continue to leave with their jobs. Instead, we try to bribe them to stay with incentives -- why not reduce all the waste instead? oh yeah, too many special interests and too much corruption.
prove to me that nyc subways during rush hour can realistically handle just a dozen more people per subway car and ill gladly pay...
I once again will be voting agaist Quinn and for Silver.....Real Nyers know why this was bad for NYC.....losers know how to whine and complain.......
Here's the amount NYC takes in taxes from non-residents.
Zero.
No commuter tax in NYC.
BTW, I live in Brooklyn and the failure of so many to see how this would actually help the outer boros is astounding (particularly since many nabes were going to get resident permit parking). Perhaps it would be wise to turn our wrath to Mayor Bling, who with this many misinformed citizens of his city, obviously did a lousy job of educating and selling this thing.
Having said that, I'm still down for secession. Then we can ban single-occupancy vehicles in Manhattan AND raise tolls as we see fit.
If the city needs money take it from the bloated non productive politicians salaries.
Thank God.
You guys weren't so pissed at Shelly when he killed off the west side stadium plan, huh? Good for him, I'll send him something for Purim in a few weeks.
How to get more money for the MTA? Hmmmm, I don't know...maybe an additional 1 percent tax on millionaires! Oh wait, the Mayor didn't want that. Hmmmm.....
+1 for 51st state.
Tim, you are wrong non-residents pay non-resident income taxes.
Now when MTA fares go up AGAIN next year, we will all know who to blame.
brooklyn and i wrote:
Assuming you mean "a tax on Brooklyn," no. A tax on Brooklyn people who DRIVE INTO MANHATTAN, which represent a VERY SMALL MINORITY. How are people still this dense?ihateallbrokers wrote:
Build it with what money?Bottomless Chips wrote:
What money in the pipeline? You mean the $17 BILLION deficit the MTA now has to deal with?eyekantspel wrote:
I'd rather have fees be imposed on the basis of actually using resources (such as Manhattan street space, which is a limited resource) than indiscriminately by raising, say, city income tax.GM wrote:
Sounds like a good plan to me. Good luck getting it passed.Tim N. wrote:
It astonishes me as well. The bounds of stupidity never fail to amaze.DWM2008 wrote:
You mean the same as what you've been doing? Except, you know, in coherent English?Ugh. I'm the asshole who screwed up my hyperlink. Sorry.
Dear Progress blockers,
Please, when the 2nd Ave subway stalls, don't complain. When the MTA raises fares, please don't complain. When you don't get the extended service on the line near you, don't complain. When you're stuck waiting for an emptier subway car during rush hour, please, don't complain.
P.S.
The next time the US Government hands out money, please don't ask for a hand out, and then have the nerve to complain when you don't get it anyway.
yep, all single occupant cars were interviewed.
how bout a carpool initiative? like what was done the weeks and month post 9/11.
They didn't hand out money! They took the funds that they were already supposed to supply and created this ridiculous competition pitting cities and residents against each other. Why you may ask? So that they can provide 0 funding to NYC and other cities for transit in the future and let them pay themselves. BTW, fares would go up anyway, just like they have, 2nd ave would stall or not stall not based on a few hundred million for a multibillion dollar project. This was a scam all around under the pretty disguise of environmentalism. We've already been told the last fare increase will not go to improvements -- how gullible can you be?!
Great. Tim N. is on another of his "fuck the suburbs" rants.
JMH
There is no Free way for a car from Brooklyn to get there from the US mainland.....
Those in Mahattan have free access to Brooklyn Queens and the Bronx......The transit taxes on those working families FAMILIES, are already unfair and disproportionate.
The Outer Boros were not given any guarenttee on residential Parking permits, (which should and could be implamented Immediately with little or no cost with outragous revenue potential). As this was a just a tool in this Bloomy ponzi scheme, it should be usurped by Sheldon to come to the rescue of congestion related issues.
The selection of the location of the areas to be charged for was a dead issues since its inception. You think those unaligned unpaid Assembly members from Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx were gonna help the man who is help the repukes running against them? They stood with Silver, and forget about it with the SI reps in the Stae Assembly....
Why did Bloomy astro turf over the Entire East River park from Manhattan bridge to 14th street and then again in various location on the West Side? Arborcidal Bostonian now think cancerous rubber is better then grass and trees,...A greener NY doesnt mean astro Turf....
NJ was about to go ape shite and guarenttee a long outdrawn battle in Federal Cout, and the commuter tax was thrown out bu the Federal District court how many years ago? You must not read).
To all those CBOs and the community groups that supported this, the pain and blowback will be in the donation area...We used to give $100 a year to many of those who supported this plan....at least to five of those listed....so I guess that money can go to Silver.
Whateva, any uneducated fool can moan or complain, the plain solution is residential parking permits, period. That is a part of the plan that does not need any approval. They do it in Phila and Boston with great revenue streams. Plus all those license plates from Out of State would Disappear...
This was, as most of PLANYC is, Horrible management leadership and political showmanship on the part of the Mayor...Once the education mayor, but that didn't work out, Then the Olympic Mayor, a definate friend of the Rich man, and no one writing on this blog would have benfited from any part OF PLANYC, but unike the last two elections, Bloomberg could not buy a legacy that would help cover up the way he has really destroyed this City...Which just isn't Manhattan...
Dear "XxSuntoucherxX",
Because the only way to fund a 2nd avenue subway is to Tax people living below 60th?
Um, no.
P.S. next time your elected officials wait till the 11th hour for US Government hands out: Vote 'em out of office, Ok?
The City Council waited this long in order to play it safe. By waiting, the ones who voted for it will blame the assembly, The ones who voted against it will play the "No New Taxes!" game. Either ways, all those politicians declare "Victory".
If they want "Congestion Pricing" they need to come up with something that doesn't make living below 60th an expensive privilege and add some more fairness to it.
Silver Vs. Bloomberg. Battle of the High Powered Jews, neither of whom gives two fucks about anything but money and getting what they want.
Great, now that that's out of the way.
Can we start talking about REAL plans to reduce congestion?
I suggest;
-> One lane of every avenue, seperated by Jersey Barriers, as a bicycle lane. This would make driving less desirable, bicycling more desirable, would not reduce parking, and would not cost much.
-> Police Stations be required to outfit bicycle racks in the front of the stations, with a camera pointed at the racks. This will encourage more bicycle use.
Encouraging bicycle use will take some strain of our mass transit systems, without feeding more money to the MTA. We don't need new taxes to encourage bicycle use.
The MTA needs to be solely held responsible for the current and future state of our subways and busses. The MTA needs to be fixed.
Everyone stop pointing fingers at people who drive, at people who wear backpacks, people who lean against poles, etc, for how crummy your commute is. Start pointing your fingers at the MTA. They need to address our crowding issues, but they need to address their constant misappropriation of funds first.
How about we start bugging Bloomberg to reconsider the extra tax on people with incomes of 1 million, if we really need some funds?
What prevents the City from passing a commuter tax on its own? Is there a State or Federal law that would prohibit such a move?
If the goal is to reduce congestion during peak weekday hours, then perhaps there are other alternatives:
- raise street side parking to high rates during the peak hours
- enforce a law that prohibits cars parked on the street to park there more than an allotted time (some countries have traffic cops marking tires with chalk, etc.)
- add a tax to cars that park in garages that are in the designated zone
- others?
The merits of congestion pricing aside, and the Silver-Bloomberg political considerations aside, this much we know:
Motorists living in NJ, Long Island and Connecticut will never, with a capital NEVER, assent to subsidizing NYC mass transit. Never.
Now let's get on with my dedicated bus lane idea on 1st and 2nd Avenues.
www.forgotten-ny.com
great news...I wont have to pay an expensive toll to travel around my OWN city, let alone get the rest of friggin country.
The LIRR is fairly decent and while trains do tend to get packed, there ARE more than enough running "when it matters most" that it isn't too much of a hassle.
Parking at the stations, however...
I don't want to get started on NJT/PATH, what a terrible mess that is. -_-
No commuter tax in NYC.
No? Funny, I thought there was a something like a 20% parking tax? And tolls to get here from Jersey?
This city, the world's greatest, will never get its fair shake as long as it is outnumbered by small-minded provincial political hacks whose foresight is as short as their courage.
One more time: 2/3RDS OF THE STATE SENATORS ARE FROM "DOWNSTATE". Upstate passes nothing without downstate support. In fact, I'm sure the Upstate senators couldn't really give two remote shits about congestion pricing. Their votes would have gone to whatever side offered them the best "we'll vote for this if you vote for that" packages.
If you really think that upstate gets the better end of the upstate/downstate separation, you're highly misinformed. There's a reason upstate is falling apart and downstate is not.
calling a "toll" a "tax" is like standing in the barnyard pointing at the "cow" yelling "look at the pig!"
@#39 upperwestsidegirl:
I dunno... how about reinstating the commuter tax? Rudy really gave THAT one away!! They use all of our streets (roadways, parking, etc.), befoul our air, depend upon our sanitation & fire departments, and our other public services when they are in "our house," yet they pay for nothing?? Doesn't seem quite fair, now does it?? They make their big fat NYC salaries and then slink off to NJ, LI, etc. and spend their money locally, near their own suburban homes and schools.
Just as the (it can't happen soon enough for me!!) repeal of the Urstadt law would return (rental real estate's) "home-rule" to NYC (the 5 boroughs & Westchester, interstingly enough), so too should WE be able to dictate under what terms most commuters use OUR city's streets and services. Albany already does a fairly exemplary job of screwing up most of NYState; we need none of their continued (and legendary) dis-functionality and petty squabbling (further) polluting our local politics and legislation, to say nothing of our streets and/or air quality. Home rule. Yeah. Let's keep try keeping local legislation LOCAL!! Wow. What a concept.
BTW- A related anecdote: Early Koch era, just before Peter Ueberroth had successfully wooed the IOC to select LA for the 1984 Summer Games, he attended a fund raiser in Manhattan. Stuck in traffic, inbound from JFK, a "reporter" (memory fails me) queried what HE thought might solve some of New York's serious traffic/pollution problems. Off the top of his head, he began by positing nighttime truck deliveries (especially to assorted light industrial neighborhoods and to Midtown), then went through a laundry list of common sense ideas (all based on the concept/conceit of our 24 hour city). His final suggestion (well before London had instituted it) was a wildly sliding fee-scale (the amounts based on vehicle occupancy) for river crossing tolls, in combination with congestion pricing. [NB: With the very first transit strike (1980) you couldn't even get into Manhattan without 4 people in each car. My boss drove a 280-Z and lived in Whitestone. He didn't come to work at all for over a week!! NO exceptions were made!]
Imagine what he might have come up with had he more than a moment to think about it!! All these many years later (like almost 30!!) the SAME ideas are (still) being tossed around. Hmmmm... Why not just TRY it? If it doesn't work out, abandon the plan. Nothing ventured nothing gained. Or learned.
How exactly has anything been promised in this plan except for a charge of entry into the central manhattan business district?
What exactly was rhe MTA's contention for guarentteed service improvements?
Other then the statistically insignifigant project traffic reduction through the central business district, why has the term "enviormental impact statement" related to uncertified studies provided for by so called "community groups?
Why ask why, just investigate the funding sources for this endevour from the grass roots...the dirt will fly from City Hall to Sunset Park...
When you dont own a car, or have you in this city, why would you be against this plan, simply put...it is in the details of the initial items required by the Federal grant...Screw it it, it only paid for camera on every corner of said district..screw big brother and the lies of Mike Bloomberg and his paid for band of sold out community based "quasi-enviormental" elitest policies that have made New York as stale and decayed as it has become....
Stoonad from fucking upstate should go all stay upstate and fuck cows or whatever the fuck they do.
And you people expect the MTA to magically right their wrongs with this (now not-happening) money?
Ha.
I think somebody got Jewed here.
Let's do what we can to give Bloomberg an early exit.
I dunno... how about reinstating the commuter tax? Rudy really gave THAT one away!! They use all of our streets (roadways, parking, etc.), befoul our air, depend upon our sanitation & fire departments, and our other public services when they are in "our house," yet they pay for nothing?? Doesn't seem quite fair, now does it?? They make their big fat NYC salaries and then slink off to NJ, LI, etc. and spend their money locally, near their own suburban homes and schools.
You do realize that commuters pay New York State tax and that some of that tax gets spent in New York City, right? Right? As for "using our streets" "sanitation" "fire" etc. I think we use those things too and more than the commuters do.
Of COURSE it's Silver to come out with the news. What the hell has this stupid prick done for NYC lately, besides deliver the knives that stab our city in the back?
War of words: Assembly tells Bloomberg millionaire's tax would've raised even more for mass transit
http://blog.silive.com/cityhallinsider/2008/04/war_of_words_assembly_tells_bl.html
"We had in our Assembly budget a plan for a tax on individuals who earn $1 million a year or more ... which Bloomberg summarily rejected," Weiller said, noting $5 billion would have funded mass transit projects. "So it is absolutely not appropriate to suggest that we have not brought good ideas to the table ... for how to improve transportation in the city of New York."
Some interesting comments from Staten Island residents
http://www.silive.com/news/index.ssf/2008/04/clock_ticking_for_congestion_p.html#comments
There were many lawsuits in the queue if this tax passed.
It is really a shame that this is getting shot down. Less cars in the city would be a great thing. You don't need cars to get around in NYC...mass transit baby!
...And if you do need that car, well then that's your problem for choosing to live in culturally dead suburbia/exurbia.
snowman, you are definitely not a native New Yorker and an elitist smug snob.
I live in BK, brotha.
...And what exactly is elitist about mass-transit???
Snowman for most parts of the city you need a car. Go live in Queens.
Steven, if the congestion pricing plan was enacted you could still cruise around "most parts of the city" in your Pontiac Aztek to your heart's content...it would be in Manhattan below 60th street during business hours where you would have to start making choices. Low and behold you might just decide to park the car somewhere and hop on a bus or subway. We do have the most extensive mass-transit system in the country after all... observe if you will: http://www.columbia.edu/~brennan/subway/SubwayMap.gif
To all those who support mike bloomberg and his HIS congestion pricing. If they think the mayor is here to stop traffic and pollution in the city there are as smart as george bush jr.Think about it,he wants to build a stadium holds 50,000 60,000 people with there cars of course.He allows the city to keep on building new buildings everyday.After 911 i do not trust any form of govn or media for that matter.Any one who does needs to really look at all the lies they been telling us,all the bullshit they been feeding us.Bloomberg is a billionaire he dosnt give a rats ass about the working class of this city or the averge joe.Saying congestion pricing works is like saying if gas was $10 a gallon that no one would drive there car anymore, its just plain stupid.We all know that we would still drive our cars,why because we have to we have to feed our familys.So to mike bloomberg supports look at what hes really trying to do.GOD BLESS ALBANY
charging a fee of $8 is extreme. do you really think this will help alleviate traffic congestion? do cigarettes at $8 a pack stop smokers from smoking?
JMH,
This country has been in a deficit forever, yet we pay federal income taxes, state income taxes, sales taxes, tariffs on our good, estate taxes, capital gains taxes...and so on.
So there's plenty of money in our government's pipeline, so to speak, it's how efficient they are with it.
Snowman:
If you knew anything about the history of this area, you'd realize that these so-called 'culturally dead suburbs/exurbs' hold prominent cultural significance during the formation of not only New York, but the United States itself.
I don't give a fuck where you're from and I don't give a fuck that you live in oh so hip Brooklyn, but don't shit on what you don't understand.
..Moving right along..
As excitable as DWM is, he's got a point about the political hackery behind this whole Congestion Pricing. He's spot on about how it was presented to all the mouth breathers that have moved here in the last decade and just how easy it would be to con all the granola eating wannabes from places like the Upper West Side (who have been bitching about this stuff before 80 percent of you knew that Houston street wasn't actually pronounced like the city of the same name) into going along with it.
I will say though, I do admire the idealism in all the newcomers though..believing that both the city government of New York City...and the MTA..would actually use this money in a noble fashion.
Whoever it was above terming it as 'turning Manhattan into a gated community' was so spot on it's not funny.
Well if the 'burbs were as culturally whatthefuck as NYC is/was, then NYC wouldn't be NYC, now would it?
Asshole.
"If you knew anything about the history of this area, you'd realize that these so-called 'culturally dead suburbs/exurbs' hold prominent cultural significance during the formation of not only New York, but the United States itself."
I didn't say suburbia/exurbia was insignificant, nor did I mean to imply that it was *entirely* devoid of culture either - just not close to what nyc has to offer.
And as to your suggestion that I don't know anything about the "history of this area"?.. history was actually one of my majors, and I took numerous urban studies courses. I would guess that qualifies my opinions on the matter at least as far as yours are qualified.
What was your major PH? Design? Computer science? I see from your profile that you are a IT Engineer...
Commuter tax was repealed in 1999, in a movement led by none other than Shelly Silver.
So a tax that would help pay the salaries of the NYPD and FDNY, who protect the people coming into the city, and the DOS, which pick up their garbage, doesn't get paid... or rather, gets paid more by the folks who live here.
Sounds like freeloading to me. Fair is fair.
And you people expect the MTA to magically right their wrongs with this (now not-happening) money?
Ha.
fucking signed. there's optimism, and then there's total naivety.
If only Sheldon's state ws the same as congestion pricing, then we would get it.
He's a thug,and a crook. The sooner he is gone form elected office, the better all NYC'ers will be, not just his trial lawyer scum buddies.
#87 - ...says the guy who said Bloomberg is a great mayor.
Uh huh.
"#87 - ...says the guy who said Bloomberg is a great mayor." ~The Edge
I've liked a lot of Bloomberg's initiatives...He certainly has not been just another politician.
"Well if the 'burbs were as culturally whatthefuck as NYC is/was, then NYC wouldn't be NYC, now would it? Asshole." ~The Edge
The Edge, no one is forcing you to live in NJ. That is a choice you've made. Don't take it out on the world.
#92- Yeah, because I really want to pay $2-2.5k/mo for a 400sq/ft closet to live in.
I like having a yard so my dog can run around in and a large measure of privacy. Oh, the inhumanity of it all...
When will it end?
The problem I had with the congestion pricing plan was that they planned to charge two-wheeled vehicles (motorcycles & scooters) $4 per day to enter the zone. In London, they recognized that having more people on motorcycles or scooters lowers traffic congestion and made them exempt from congestion pricing. And let's be honest, the congestion problem is not caused by commuters driving to work, it's cause by one thing: commercial vehicles.
And cabs.