The Best Takes on Hochul's Congestion Pricing Reversal
The Best Takes on Hochul's Congestion Pricing Reversal
I spent an hour on social media so you don't have to
At a time of truly dispiriting politics, I never thought the person who would disappoint me the most would be New York’s Governor Kathy Hochul. Unlike politicians whose lies and bad behavior I have come to expect, I respected Gov. Hochul and was optimistic about what could be achieved with a governor who supported New York City. But I feel deceived and devastated now that she has killed congestion pricing with less than a month until the program was to be implemented.
I understand the concern that New York is still in the midst of a fragile recovery. But to me, an underfunded transit system and congestion are part of what’s holding the city back — not the expense of driving into the congestion zone.
As Partnership for New York City notes, while the congestion charge is visible to people, there’s a much larger though less tangible toll on productivity, health, and the environment from ongoing congestion in the city.
Indeed, it’s the willingness to reverse on the environment that really struck me. How is it that a year has passed since we all experienced the depressing and anxiety-producing wildfire smoke and we’re not willing to take meaningful action to address climate change?
A lot of people have pointed out that Hochul’s decision is all politics. She’s trying to save Democrats during an election year. But this does not seem like the right way to do that, and as NYC Comptroller Brad Lander pointed out, it didn’t work 25 years ago either. In the meantime, Hochul has just provided another reason for Democrats to feel demoralized by seeing yet another effort for a more sustainable and equitable world derailed — except this time, it’s a fellow Democrat who is stymying progress.
Others will point out that most of the people driving into Manhattan will get tolled and receive none of the benefit of the MTA’s infrastructure improvements that the tolls support. This is not entirely true — and I wish congestion pricing had instead been pitched as the “speed charge.” People would have been paying to drive to destinations in Manhattan with less congestion. It could have been pitched as an “upcharge” to drive in better conditions in the city.
There’s been a lot of focus on the class warfare aspect of congestion pricing and it portrays suburbanites as victims while ignoring just how many people use transit every day in New York and how they’re the ones who will have to suffer from lessened MTA funding, not the commuters who drive in.
Ultimately I feel confused: How is this Gov. Hochul’s decision to make, but yet the MTA board is financially responsible to sustain the MTA? I guess I’m still in the denial phase of the grieving process and am hoping that the MTA board can overrule Hochul.
My final thought is that even if one supported this “indefinite pause,” this roll out seems wildly out of control, not like the kind of coordinated methodical decision you’d want to see when juggling the fate of billions of dollars in the country’s largest city.
The whole thing is really galling and truly backwards. The city has hemorrhaged residents over the past four years, so in order to make the city more livable we're going to...prioritize suburban drivers, defund the transit system used by locals, and then impose a payroll tax on NY businesses? WUT.