Well, it appears the mayor's Congestion Pricing plan ran into a brick wall known as the New York State Assembly, despite all the love from Bronx council members. Here's more on Assembly Majority Leader Sheldon Silver's announcement that “The congestion pricing bill did not have anywhere near a majority of the Democratic conference, and will not be on the floor of the Assembly.”
Democratic Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz, who represents the northwest Bronx, was quick to issue a release praising the Assembly's rejection of the plan as a “huge victory for the people of the Bronx and all of New York.”
Dinowitz listed an army of reasons why he didn't support the project, saying, “Aside from disagreeing with the basic concept of congestion pricing, there were many specific aspects of the plan that were unacceptable. It was unfair and outrageous to charge people from the city the $8 but let residents of New Jersey off the hook."
Monday, April 7, 2008
Dinowitz Praises Death of Congestion Pricing
Labels:
Bronx,
Congestion Pricing,
Jeff Dinowitz
6 comments:
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Thank YOU!
ReplyDeleteAt least the government did one thing right! Bloomberg and his rush for personal agenda legislation has been defeated. It's about time!
Thank you Jeffrey for sticking up for us poor beleaguered Bronxites. We all know that Bloomberg's agenda is to keep out the supposed "riff raff" from Manhattan so the very rich in their limos. don't have to wait so long in traffic. He won't be happy until Manhattan is roped off from anyone making less than $1,000,000 a year.
ReplyDeleteI completely disagree! In fact, this plan would have benefited everyone in the city, as less traffic would mean better air quality. Also, it is the rich who have cars in the first place, with gas prices so high, and the poor are the ones who rely on the subway the most. This proposed plan would have significantly increased the MTA's budget, allowing for better service to all the working class people in all five boroughs, funded by the wealthy who drive their expensive cars. Bloomberg has done such a wonderful job as mayor -- too bad he's not running for president.
ReplyDeleteG.
I'm sure all the people who live near Broadway, the Major Deegan and the Grand Concourse are thanking Dinowitz for heading off an eight percent reduction in the cars traveling through their neighborhoods. What a victory!
ReplyDeleteI live in the Northwest Bronx. I'm a working class, union guy making under $40,000 year. I take both the subway and ride a bike to work. I can't afford to drive and wouldn't even if I could. Most New Yorkers use mass transit.
ReplyDeleteWe needed congestion pricing for improvements to the subway system, new Metro-North stations in the Bronx and particularly bus rapid transit (where bus drivers would have the ability to turn the light green in their favor). You can forget about those improvements now.
And now that it's been killed, none of congestion pricing's opponents have put forth any realistic alternatives to funding transit. They've proposed broad-based taxes, which are more regressive than pricing, and leaves no guarantee that the money will actually get spent on transit improvements.
Every complaint against congestion pricing has been addressed, yet our "leaders" still failed us. It was to be a 3 year trial. The poor with no choice but driving were going to receive a credit. The revenue was going into a lock box. We would have received either a portion of the NJ tolls or a lump payment from the Port Authority.
Prepare for a fare hike while the wealthy continue to drive into the central business district and hog public space with their autos while degrading our air. Thanks a lot Dinowitz, Silver and the other State Democrats. I'm a lifelong progressive, and I'll vote Republican before electing you guys again.
I live in northern Manhattan, outside the area that would have been covered by congestion pricing, so I would have had to pay to drive south--and I would have done it. Or I would have gone by subway or bus instead. Reducing car travel, improving mass transit—that's a solution, not a problem, and on a global level, not only a local one. The people who would have benefited most were the people who use mass transit most--the people our legislators were pretending to be protecting. There were details of the proposal that I thought were wrong, but the principle was right, and it was incredibly shortsighted to reject it.
ReplyDelete