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RonX (not verified) says:
From day one, congestion pricing was nothing more than a thin pretext for raising the already-stratospheric standard of living for the Manhattan rich by dissuading working- and middle-class people from driving into Manhattan---indeed, from coming at all.
After all, which drivers were going to be dissuaded by the proposal? Upper East Side i-bankers making $1 million a year? Westbury lawyers making $500,000? Uh, no. Its effect was going to be limited to working-and middle-class people.
The bottom line is that the hypocritical liberal elites like to think of Manhattan as their personal country club and don't want the unwashed masses from the Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens, Staten island, Long Island, and New Jersey to clog up their streets. Well, too fucking bad.
I couldn't help but laugh when I heard Bloomberg invoke environmentalist rhetoric while stumping for this sham. What a joke. If he's so concerned with auto emissions, why is he driving around in a gas-guzzling, ozone-depleting Chevy Suburban?
What crock of shit.
If congestion pricing were TRULY about limiting congestion and exhaust, why were for-hire vehicles (read: limousines) excluded from the charge? Limousines take up an inordinate amounts of space; get terrible mileage; slow traffic through their inability to switch lanes quickly; and spend most of their time idling or occupying multiple parking spaces. The answer is clear: because the people who ride around Manhattan in limos are the same people who helped concoct this fucking plan in the first place; it was drawn up for THEIR benefit.
Kudos to Silver for not allowing these people to turn Manhattan into a gated community.
From day one, congestion pricing was nothing more than a thin pretext for raising the already-stratospheric standard of living for the Manhattan rich by dissuading working- and middle-class people from driving into Manhattan---indeed, from coming at all.
After all, which drivers were going to be dissuaded by the proposal? Upper East Side i-bankers making $1 million a year? Westbury lawyers making $500,000? Uh, no. Its effect was going to be limited to working-and middle-class people.
The bottom line is that the hypocritical liberal elites like to think of Manhattan as their personal country club and don't want the unwashed masses from the Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens, Staten island, Long Island, and New Jersey to clog up their streets. Well, too fucking bad.
I couldn't help but laugh when I heard Bloomberg invoke environmentalist rhetoric while stumping for this sham. What a joke. If he's so concerned with auto emissions, why is he driving around in a gas-guzzling, ozone-depleting Chevy Suburban?
What crock of shit.
If congestion pricing were TRULY about limiting congestion and exhaust, why were for-hire vehicles (read: limousines) excluded from the charge? Limousines take up an inordinate amounts of space; get terrible mileage; slow traffic through their inability to switch lanes quickly; and spend most of their time idling or occupying multiple parking spaces. The answer is clear: because the people who ride around Manhattan in limos are the same people who helped concoct this fucking plan in the first place; it was drawn up for THEIR benefit.
Kudos to Silver for not allowing these people to turn Manhattan into a gated community.