Finally Some Outrage

Can someone please explain to me why New York City must supposedly accept congestion pricing to recieve some absurd number of millions from the Federal Government? Something doesn't sound kosher, since when do the Feds stipulate that poor working shlubs must fork over $8 and $21 at a time to enter their own city?

I know some of my Manhattan readers readily aprove of this new tax on the middle class. Why not? If I chose to live in a smog filled and over crowded enviornment, I too would like the idea of less cars. But that is not the issue. Simply put, this is the City government being Manhattnocentric all over again. Same thing happens when the snow falls and its gets cleared in the city first. Same reason all roads lead to Rome. The money is being minted there and screw all of the little cogs in the wheel that make it all work. Well at least I was happy to see a few brave city council members vote against the proposal. How any single outer-botough politician voted for this is scandalous and needs to be investigated. Let's just hope someone in Albany can turn away from the bribery.

Speaking of cars, a buyer has been found for my blue car. I am torn. I really don't need two cars but this one particular vehicle has come to define me. It's old, has rust spots and belches noxious fumes but it's also tough, reliable and a thing of beauty to the right eye. I don't know, should I sell it? It might be my last chance to do so at a good price? Then again it costs virtually nothing to maintain but how long will everything keep from breaking down? And this is the year it becomes old enough to forgo emission inspections alltogether. What's your advice?

Congestion Pricing Redux

I didn't understand the mayors motivation concerning his congestion pricing plan until I stood on the corner of 55th and 3rd Avenue in Midtown at lunchtime and saw the mass of traffic slowly crawling towards the bridge. A good businessman looks at bad situation and thinks about how he can make it work in his favor. So instead of seeing an endless line of cars and polution, Bloomberg saw the potential for filling the cities coffers. He didn't get to becoming a billionaire without having a killer instinct for genereating revenue where it didn't exist before.

Here however is the rub, a city is NOT a business. People are not widgets in some economic model meant to be exploited by the administration. Citizens are not supposed to be looked at as cash cows, well not by the fuckers they elected. Eh, who am I kidding? He bought the election. In the end I think the calculations were something like $100 per vote. I never forgave the citizens of New York for being so stupid and corruptable. I couldn't vote for someone like that on principle alone. Someone once said that people deserve the government they get. Well, New York you voted for him twice now.

Congestion Pricing

Actually, if you live in Manhattan the idea of congestion pricing is nice. Chances are, you are well off and don't really care the few extra dollars your groceries and services will cost. You don't own a car anyway, but if you do, you can probably afford parking lots that charge a working mans rent in the outer Boroughs. So why not? Cleaner air, less noise, safer streets to cross all seem like admirable goals. Not bad.....if you have blinders on. Of course what the mayor fails to recognize is the adverse impact this plan will have on the rest of the city. Living in a Manhattnocentric universe one becomes oblivious to the plight of the common people. People in the Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island and the Bronx need their cars. They don't need yet another unfair tax on the middle class. Public transportation is not a convenient alternative to everyone. Speaking as a man who takes the BQE almost every day I don't want to imagine what that will look like if even more traffic is forced there. It's already a nightmare during the day.

My friend in London told me about how the same plan works there. It's great for the downtown residents but everyone living just outside the exclusion zone is miserable. The haves and the have nots all over again. I'll tell you, if the city really wants to implement this plan what are they offering in return to the people? How about some huge parking garages in places near transportation hubs? That would only make sense. You want to increase mass transit, and that is an overall worthy goal but you must help the process along. The function of the government is to help it's citizenry, not make life harder as city officials seem to continually do.