The Return of the Son of Congestion Pricing
The MTA has no money, and with subway officials acknowledging the system’s state of bad repair, everyone is focused on solving the MTA’s fiscal crisis. To that end, reenter congestion pricing. According to an article in The Times over the weekend, Richard Ravitch and his commission to save transit as we know it is seriously considering recommending congestion pricing as a dedicated revenue stream for the MTA.
On the surface, this move may be just the push congestion pricing needs to get over that legislative hump. No longer just a pet project of a very rich and very independent mayor, congestion pricing could be presented as the revolutionary plan to save the New York Metropolitan Area’s public transit system. Of course, Richard Brodsky is still predicting doom and gloom for any congestion pricing plan, but if pricing were to fail again, the legislature would continue to shirk its duties to the MTA and New York City. We could be in for one grand face-off between the Big Apple and Albany indeed.
Bring it on. I’d LOVE to hear Brodsky continue to spew his false populist bullshit in the face of the way the MTA budget crunch is likely to affect ACTUAL middle-class New Yorkers.