CHIEF!! I choose not to go down the path of this argument... I plea the fifth

Start pleading to your elected officials to oppose congesstion pricing.

Bro, CP will not surface on the GT city council agenda in the near future

It will be back!

Congestion Pricing deserves to die the violent death it suffered in Albany, New York, because, plain and simple, it is just another form of TAXATION.

Mayor Bloomberg thought he could pull wool over our eyes when he argued that the $354 million federal grant would go towards the MTA if Albany had approved CP, but what Bloomberg has not admitted is that for a major transportation entity like MTA, that $354 million is a drop in its budget bucket. That money would be sapped up in nanoseconds by contractors who do not deliver quality or quantity, but the $8 toll fee would remain forever and could likely go up with time.

The first fall-out from this rejection by Albany will be the MTA's declaration of new increases in fares, cutting back or freezing new hires, and demanding union give backs when the MTA and the 38,000 employees union start new contract negotiations later in the year.

Comm, while you are correct that the $354 mil was a drop, it was the first drop to enhance the system in preparation for CP. The bill if enacted would have allowed the monies collected from CP to go directly into the MTA’s coffers. What was woefully wrong about CP was that the committee did not look beyond traffic volumes to the other problems causing congestions; problems like double parking, pedestrians going against lights, construction etc.

Growth in Manhattan will take placed and it will become more densely packed…the idea behind CP is a good one but the plan needed to be enhanced further. I think Silver was wrong.

Petal29,

Let's be practical. If you live in New York and are familiar with Manhattan, you will know there are 14 'avenues' running north to south from the East River to the Hudson River, and many, many 'streets' run east to west from lower Manhattan all the way up to Harlem.

The Congestion Pricing plan calls for charging drivers entering Manhattan below 60 Street, so are we talking here about each of the downtown avenues plus Broadway that intersect with 60 Street will have manned or unmanned by toll booths or will each be equipped with cameras like those that take pictures of your car’s plate when you run a red light?

I read yesterday where it was stated that cameras were being considered as part of the plan, so that if you did not pay the $8 within four days, you will be sent a $65 ticket in the mail, so maybe this was one way of working the system. No one knows for sure.

Second, with 60 Street being the entrance and exit road for the Queensboro Bridge, I am sure drivers would love nothing better than to beat the system by crossing the Queensboro Bridge @ 60 Street and then turning north or away from lower Manhattan, looking for parking wherever this can be found and then taking subway trains into lower Manhattan. They will be minutes at most away from their vehicles, but then areas above 60 Street will eventually become congested, leading to extension of CP beyond 60 Street. It will never stop.

I conclude by contending that CP would have been a form of taxation that would have driven up prices for goods and services below 60 Street and threaten existence of lots of struggling small businesses. MTA, meanwhile, needs to reduce its top heavy management, consolidate its multiple office operations and give out jobs to its internal departments instead of ‘outside contractors’ who make a financial killing off the MTA.

I could go on about this but don’t have the time right now…there will be no toll booths in the city…that’s ludicrous and everyone coming off the bridge would have been tolled.

Anyway just came on to say that Shelly Silver is actually proposing a tax on all income earners above the 100K mark. It will NOW be a tax and we will all be paying for those commuting into Manhattan. Fair? I say not…

Yesssssssssssssssss
Thank all of you for your support
When I returned from Guyana last evening that was the first thing my wife greeted me with.

This afternoon I have to attend the NYS Messenger Courier Association.

May God bless Mr Silver and all others who stopped Mr Bloomberg in his tracks..

quote:

Originally posted by Chief:
Yesssssssssssssssss
Thank all of you for your support
When I returned from Guyana last evening that was the first thing my wife greeted me with.

This afternoon I have to attend the NYS Messenger Courier Association.

May God bless Mr Silver and all others who stopped Mr Bloomberg in his tracks..

Was that wife #1,2,3,4 or 5?

Rumor has it that you were in GY lobbying for polygamy.