Et tu, Brute?

Image from the Royal Shakespeare Company's Julius Caesar

Congestion Pricing has been smothered by the democrats of the State Assembly. They are scum. This proves that Democrats, are not progressive they are just cowardly republicans who lack the vision to actively commit evil. I am so pissed off right now.

The Democrats killed the bill in a closed session. If we were in a modern state, I would propose a recall.

From the New York Times article:
"It takes a special type of cowardice for elected officials to refuse to stand up and vote their conscience on an issue that has been debated, and amended significantly to resolve many outstanding issues, for more than a year," Mr. Bloomberg said. "Every New Yorker has a right to know if the person they send to Albany was for or against better transit and cleaner air."

I would like to call this short-sightedness on the part of the Assembly, but it's not. If they were just short-sighted they would have nothing to fear about resolving it in an open session. Protecting themselves from public opinion is a dirty, shameful act. Being publicly opposed to congestion pricing is a far more noble way of acting than this back-room farce.

Hopefully some other city can use the money that the DOT was going to give New York if the bill was passed. But I don't see who would use it better - 1/4 of US public transportation users are in the New York metropolitan area.

So What should you do?

Find your assembly members and lodge your complaint.
New York State Assembly

Send your support to Mayor Bloomberg.
Office of the Mayor

Support the organizations that backed Congestion Pricing.
Transportation Alternatives
Straphangers Campaign
Environmental Defence Fund

The System Works

Source: Creative Commons image on Flickr by adamgreenfield

Tonight the New York City Council, passed a resolution to recommend congestion pricing to the state. The state has a week to approve it. The bad news is that my councilwoman Diana Reyna voted against this. Suffice it to say, I will not be supporting her for reelection.

Congestion pricing will charge auto commuters to enter Manhattan below 60th Street, and all of the proceeds will go directly to improving the transit system. If congestion pricing goes into effect it should reduce Manhattan auto traffic by 10% during the weekdays, as well as reducing city asthma rates by 10%. Streets should be saner, and public transportation will be better.

Check out the article in the New York Times to see if your councilperson voted yes or no and to read what Bloomberg had to say.

Congestion Pricing

Saturday I will be in Williamsburg with Transportation Alternatives getting people to write letters to their representatives in support of congestion pricing in New York City. If you are a New York resident, you should check out why we need congestion pricing.

The deadline to pass a bill is Monday March 31st. If we can get this through there will actually be less cars on the street in Manhattan, more subway cars, more buses, and even dedicated bus lanes to make that slow form of transportation faster.

If you see someone who looks like they might be having people write letters on Saturday, stop and write one to your representative.