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Bloomberg Won't Fight For Congestion Pricing This Time
By
Garth Johnston
Published Feb 8, 2011
Modified Feb 8, 2011
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By
Garth Johnston
Published Feb 8, 2011
Modified Feb 8, 2011
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Oh who will fight for the nonexistent congestion pricing plan? Though the recently revived idea has received some love from the Working Families party, it is not seeing much from anybody else. Yesterday in Albany, for instance, Bloomberg reiterated that while he likes the idea, it isn't something he'll be putting his muscle or his money behind again. “I’m not going to come back and fight that battle,” he said. Meanwhile, critics are readying their arguments against the idea, just in case.
State Senator Tony Avella, for instance, had his district's problems with the idea ready to go when we caught him on the phone. One reason not to add "another tax on the most taxed area in the country," he says, is that "nobody drives into Manhattan for the pleasure of it."
And when it is pointed out that the push for congestion pricing in the past has been as a means to help improve mass transit, he (sadly legitimately) points out that "just because there is another tax throwing money into the MTA doesn't mean that the service is going to improve." And anyway, his district doesn't have much access to the subway: "we have to take the bus to get places." Also? He thinks "it is discriminatory to charge people for going between boroughs." After all, "we all live in one city."
Tagged
congestion pricing
david weprin
tony avella
TRAFFIC PRICING
Garth Johnston
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