Sick Over Congestion Pricing

I’m all stuffed up, can hardly breathe.  Sneezing, coughing, racing through a box of tissues like an unlicensed e-scooter flying up Amsterdam Avenue.

I’m sick…over congestion pricing.  

For those of you unfamiliar with what is soon to be foisted upon us, here’s a little primer.

The congestion pricing plan was first hatched during the Bloomberg administration.  Mike Bloomberg, being the Anglophile that he is, looked at the way London implemented congestion pricing and said, great idea, let’s do it in New York.  Let’s charge drivers that cross the imaginary line into the city’s so-called central business district.  We can raise billions of dollars for mass transit and reduce traffic and air pollution at the same time.  What a smashing idea!

The plan was initially approved three years ago by Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State legislature, but the start date kept getting pushed back due to Covid, opposition from the Trump administration and Federal Government red tape.  

Now, the plan is back in the fast lane and virtual public hearings are scheduled for later this month.

Here’s what the congestion pricing poohbahs promise; the subways will run better because the money raised by congestion pricing will fix the signals, tracks and tunnels.  

The thinking goes like this; with better running subways and a higher cost of driving into Manhattan, more people will leave their cars at home and use mass transit.  More people using mass transit means more money for the MTA.

The advocates also claim, based on the London experience, that congestion pricing will reduce the number of motor vehicles entering Manhattan’s core by up to 20 percent and that allows buses to move faster.

It’s all a virtuous circle, you jerks.  

So what’s the cost?  Well, several scenarios are floating around, ranging from $9 to $23 per day.

Leave it to New York’s politicians who never met a cash cow they didn’t try to milk.

The rich people will moan about congestion pricing but they’ll pony up.  

Who will bear the financial burden in this congestion pricing scheme?

The people who can least afford it.

The workers who have to drive into Manhattan.  The folks who can’t shlep their tools, machinery, equipment on the subways and have to drive to their jobs. The people who have to visit loved ones in the hospitals, or have to go to doctor’s appointments.  That’s who’ll be hit the hardest.

And I have this nugget of news for the geniuses behind congestion pricing. People won’t abandon their cars to ride a filthy, dangerous and scary subway system.  They’d rather pay the added toll than risk their lives underground.

You know what the MTA is really good at?  Squandering our money, and now we’re about to give it billions more.

Let me remind you what the New York Times uncovered in 2017.  The Times found that the estimated cost of extending the Long Island Rail Road to the East Side is $3.5 billion for each mile of track, seven times more than any place else on Earth.  It found that politically connected unions, construction companies and consulting firms are soaking the MTA and have caused construction costs to soar.  

Before we slap another financial burden on the people of this region, how about first taking a good hard look at the MTA and rooting out corruption.  

Before we add yet another excuse for people to leave for Florida, let’s crack down on the epidemic of fare-beaters that are robbing the system blind.  Do you know that a third of all bus riders don’t pay the fare?  Do you know the MTA has lost $120 million bucks to fare-beaters in just the first three months of this year?

And congestion pricing isn’t going to close the MTA’s $2.5 billion dollar operating budget deficit that’s looming in 2025.  Service will have to be cut, and ridership will go down, down, down.

Oh, and shame on Governor Kathy Hochul for claiming congestion pricing will also save the planet.  Already, Bronx Congressman Ritchie Torres is warning that traffic on the Cross Bronx Expressway will increase, exacerbating the prevalence of asthma in his borough where it is already the highest in the nation.

Hey Hochul and friends, we voted you into office (well, not Kathy) but don’t think we’re total idiots.  

How about making a subway ride pleasant again, free of fear and filth?  How about telling your politically connected buddies to stop ripping us off?  How about ditching your plan to tax the already overtaxed? 

Stop the money grab!

Make life in NYC great again!

PS:

I’m hitting the road to experience life outside of bizarro world.  I will be back with more pithy commentary after Labor Day.  

Stay safe, rock on and LFGM!