585: Congestion Pricing...Benadryl for the city?

If you live in New York City and have a TV, you've seen the ads promoting Mayor Bloomberg's proposal to charge drivers to enter Manhattan below 86th street from 6 AM to 6 PM during the week. The most common ad features a young black woman talking about how she and her kids live near the 59th street bridge. She talks about how it's a nice neighborhood, but all of her children have asthma because of the poor quality of the air. According to her, Mayor Mike's new plan will help her and her family lead better lives.

First I'll discuss the ad itself, which I have a couple of problems with. Once again, intentionally or unintentionally, it conveys the idea that Manhattan is the only New York that counts. First, the woman in the ad is living in Manhattan, while this plan is supposed to help all New Yorkers, even those of us that live in the "outer boroughs". Obviously it's focused on Manhattan, but still, give another perspective at least. Second, she refers to the bridge as the 59th Street Bridge. If you look at the dedication plaque on the bridge itself, you'll see that it's actual name is the Queensboro Bridge. I'm sure most people didn't notice this at all, but it just shows you the mindset of the folks crafting this campaign.

Now onto the plan itself. I wholeheartedly agree that the city has way too much traffic in it and that traffic leads to pollution. I even think that it might not be a bad idea to charge to enter Manhattan. However, I think that the majority of traffic (and pollution) is caused by trucks lumbering around the city and spewing black diesel smoke into the air. I don't agree with the mayor's plan to charge cars to enter the "congestion zone". Some people need to drive into the city and charging them this fee is simply an extra tax that we don't need here. Let the trucks pay for it.

I also think that this plan is poorly thought out. The mayor wants to use the money from the congestion fees to fund transit improvements in the city. Don't you think that's something you should do BEFORE you implement a plan to take cars and drivers off the roads? If you've ever been to New York, you know that the buses and trains are crowded enough as it is during rush hours, especially on the east side. By adding this tax and forcing people to take public transit, the mayor will be adding even more people to an already overcrowded system. I wonder if his honor has ever had to wait while 4 or 5 trains pass by, each of them too full to even think about wedging himself into the doors? Somehow I doubt it.

Along those same lines, the city is working on expanding capacity, but it's taking a while. The Second Avenue Subway, 7 train extension and East Side Access programs won't be fully in place for at least another decade. Couple that with no new bus orders except those to replace aging vehicles, and I can't see how this will cause anything but overcrowding and frustration. The mayor also wants to have dedicated bus lanes on all major river crossings and city streets. Where is he going to put them? The roads are only so wide. Even if they do come up with a plan, again, it will take time and we'll have to suffer in the meanwhile.

Speaking of transit improvements, our dear Mayor might want to take his Mercedes above 86th street or...god forbid...the Bronx...to look at the air quality up there near the bus depots that store the vehicles his honor suggests that we all make more use of. If the city expands its bus fleet to accomodate the surge in ridership it covets, it will need space to store these behemoths while they're not out rumbling away getting 5 miles per gallon. If you want to talk about asthma, check the rates up by 125th street. So now we'll just have pockets of bad air in the city...seems like progress to me!

And what about those folks who want to avoid paying the fees by driving part of the way to the city, parking on residential streets, and THEN taking mass transit? Well the mayor has a plan for that too. Parking permits! Great idea you say right? Think again. The mayor's plan CHARGES residents to park in their own neighborhoods. Just as they currently do in Washington and Boston, residents of western Queens and Brooklyn would have to pay for the privilege of leaving their cars home. The fee for a permit would be between $25 and $35 a year.

I personally think this is insane. While it's not a lot of money, it's still unfair to ask people to pay to be able to leave their car on a public street in their own neighborhood because the mayor doesn't want outsiders parking there. Essentially it's asking us to reserve our own parking spot, and I find that incredibly stupid. What they should do is issue FREE stickers to people who live in a neighborhood and send out patrol cars to give out large tickets to those people parked there illegally. Giving someone a $200 ticket for parking in the wrong neighborhood would wise them up pretty fast. And what happens if you have a parking permit for Long Island City, but you want to drive to visit your friend in Sunnyside, a mere 5 minutes away? Do you need a dual-zone permit? Mayor Mike needs to address these issues if he wants my support.

The neighborhoods that will be affected by this proposed permit are: Manhattan above 86th street, Long Island City, Astoria, Sunnyside, Park Slope and Downtown Brooklyn.

Overall I think that the city DOES need some type of plan to alleviate traffic and pollution, but not this one. It's poorly thought out and will most likely be poorly executed. It's also poorly publicized. Despite all the commercials and media hype, I was unable to find one website, city-owned or otherwise, that includes a comprehensive listing of the plan's details. You can't ram this stuff down our throats and expect us to swallow without at least knowing what we're getting ourselves into. Good luck Mayor Mike, you're gonna need it.