Read all about her faulty logic here.
And for God's sake reach out to her office and let her know you support Democrat priorities made urgent by shoddy leadership through the past decades. Is she generally against Green New Deal basics? It would be good to know before the next election rolls around, no?
Bichotte quoted in the article, showing a shocking disregard for facts.
constituents. Right now, we’re not in favor of congestion pricing in its form as it is today. But we are certainly for fixing the issue of our roads and streets being overpopulated and fixing the subway. Subways need to be fixed! We need to find ways, alternative funding. The “millionaire’s tax.” That’s one way we can go about funding our broken subway system. You have to understand, everyone, the outer boroughs have been ignored for a very long time. OK? Low-income people of color have been dealing with our public systems for many many years, 30, 40 years. Completely ignored. We on the state level have been funding the MTA with billions and billions of dollars in capital. Fares have been increased. In my district, we had workers’ jobs taken away. Subway station workers have been closed down. My constituents are asking, “If we are increasing the fares, where is it going? How come we’ve been yelling for years — 30, 40 years to fund our MTA — and nothing has been done?” And now, people are looking to tax people who are mostly vulnerable. So there’s a lot of issues. Again, we all want the same thing. We want to move New York City more efficiently and expediently, but not at the cost of our working families.”
Just curious. Do an informal poll. How many people you know drive into Manhattan for work? We all wany higher taxes for the rich. They're not mutually exclusive.
9 comments:
I wrote to her expressing my opposition to congestion pricing and no, I do not drive into Manhattan to work. I am recently retired and feel it is wrong to ask me to pay $12 to get to the Holland Tunnel if I want to go to New Jersey. I have paid taxes and train/bus fares for almost 50 years but now I see more and more people farebeating. Just yesterday I was called various names because I called out a farebeater (white & well-dressed, wearing fancy headphones) at the Caton Ave. entrance to the Q/B. I have watched the B41 bus load up from the back door. I'm sick of it.
I wonder whether this is related to the many people in our hood who drive and/or own taxi and rideshare cars. Doesn't this cut into their livelihood/incomes?
Anon, sometimes it's important to put the greater good ahead of personal needs. Congestion pricing is designed to address two tremendous problems - transit infrastructure and air pollution, a known source of premature death. I, too, will have to personally sacrifice $12 if I want to take the cross Manhattan route to NJ, or bring my car to a Manhattan dealership for service, but that's life, and I'm a proud supporter of congestion pricing.
Fare evasion is frustrating but I am not sure how it's related to the pros/cons of congestion pricing.
Alex
I'm pretty sure the cost of entering the congestion zone would be paid by the rider. Fory When example, when you currently take a cab through the Battery Tunnel, you pay the toll, not the taxi driver.
I look forward to properly funded mass transit.
Thanks for supporting transit over the past 50 years. Future generations are counting on us to deliver them a properly funded, viable mass transit network that will last at least another 50. Cracking down on farebeating might help raise enough funds to pay the salaries of the extra cops needed to do such a crackdown. If we actually want to fund transit, Congestion Pricing is our best way forward.
Also, climate change is a good reason for us to practice what we preach.
nah cmon, MTA's top execs need to pay their mortgages in the burbs.
Amid all the talk about raising money for transit, I wonder why we hear almost nothing about bringing back the commuter tax. It was never all that much — half of 1%, I think — that was repealed in 1999.
I did find this from 2017:
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/11/opinion/new-york-commuter-tax.html?
I drive in occassionally for work. I'm all for it. The negative externalities of air pollution, congestion, and noise need to be addressed. It has shown to be effective in London. If you can afford a car in NYC, you can afford to cover for the pollution it causes. And I do hope this encourages more folks to take the subway. To the retired guy who drives to NJ, if you drive off-peak hours, you should be fine. And for the record, I'm also in favor of getting rid of "free" parking. There is a book called "The High Cost of Free Parking." Check it out.
Anon, I am with you. I take my car in for maintenance in Manhattan and I will surely pay the toll in the future. It's worth it to me.
Taking it a step further, I've recently come around to believing that our neighborhood needs resident only parking. Our area gets too congested with traffic from people driving to the park and circling around the neighborhood looking for a place to park. There are also too many people with cars registered in other states in the area, which drives up insurance rates for those not gaming the system.
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