The lobbying group opposing congestion pricing is considering ways to reform curbside parking as one alternative to the Mayor’s plan to charge drivers $8 to enter core areas of Manhattan.

The group, Keep NYC Congestion Tax Free (which now has a Web site), even approached Donald Shoup, a parking guru at the University of California at Los Angeles who advocates for higher metered rates, to commission a study. But the lobbying group seems to have dropped the idea after Mr. Shoup wrote back with an ambivalent answer.

“They asked me and I wrote back,” Mr. Shoup told The Observer via telephone recently. “I told them I’m a great fan of congestion pricing.”

Still, Mr. Shoup said raising metered rates makes a good deal of sense, and would be a necessary prerequisite for congestion pricing. His theory is that rates should be raised high enough to discourage idle trips. That would free up one or two spots on every block, creating a so-called “Goldilocks effect” that would reduce the number of cars trolling for spaces.

“I think that [New York City] has done everything wrong in terms of getting something done soon,” Mr. Shoup said. “It doesn’t make sense to introduce this very expensive congestion pricing system and keep curb parking free. It is easy to charge a parked car. It is hard to charge a moving car.”  read more »

Two New Jersey men have been charged with attempting to steal a combined $430,000 from Mayor Bloomberg, Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau announced today.

Odalis Bostic will be arraigned in New York Supreme Court today. He opened two bank accounts in Elizabeth, New Jersey under a fake company name, Laderman Development Company. In June, he obtained the mayor’s personal banking information and forged two checks under Mr. Bloomberg’s name. He deposited the checks into his bank account and they were cleared by Bank of America. The money was issued to Mr. Bostic’s accounts in the name of the Mayor’s financial manager, Geller & Company. Because of the size of the checks ($190,000 and $230,000), Mr. Bostic’s two banks put holds on the checks and the forgeries were detected.

While Mr. Bostic’s case was being investigated, officials discovered that Charles Nelson of Newark, New Jersey, stole $10,000 from one of the Mayor’s financial accounts on May 11, 2007. Mr. Nelson transferred $10,000 from the Mayor’s Bank of America account to an online E-Trade account. He then used a debit card to withdraw cash advances and make purchases from the E-Trade account.

Both Mr. Nelson and Mr. Bostic committed class D felonies and could face up to seven years in prison, according to Mr. Morgenthau.

Read the full announcement of the indictment after the jump.  read more »

The Bloomberg administration today announced a rather grim, yet probably necessary competition: design the sort of temporary housing New Yorkers would need following a catastrophe. The competition asks contestants to imagine a fictitious neighborhood called Prospect Shore that's just been hit by a Category 3 hurricane, leaving 38,000 families homeless.

The competition's sponsored by the the city's Office of Emergency Management, the Rockefeller Foundation and Architecture for Humanity; and the top 10 winners get $10,000 each to further pursue their projects.

More on the competition--called, ominously, "What If New York City..."--here and after the jump.  read more »

The dream of a Bloomberg-Hagel presidential ticket next year, as far as the Senator is concerned, is very much alive.  read more »

So, did Mike Bloomberg rule out at 2008 presidential bid on Dan Rather’s new HDNet show last night? You might just as well ask the age-old “If a tree falls in the woods…” question, since nobody I know seems to have HDNet-TV – or even knows what it is.

Rather sure thinks he got a scoop, though, boasting during a taping of Chris Matthews’ syndicated show that “Michael Bloomberg, mayor of New York, told me that he was not going to run for president. In a direct answer to a direct question, would he run under any circumstances, he danced around a bit and finally said ‘No.’” He then added that Bloomberg had also ruled out running for Vice-President and serving in a future Cabinet. (This may have been the longest a guest has ever spoken on Chris Matthews’ show without being interrupted by the host.)

Most news reports about the HDNet interview have emphasized Bloomberg’s statement – hyped by HDNet ahead of time – that “nobody’s going to elect me President of the United States.” That’s hardly a denial, though. If anything, it’s reminiscent of Lou Holtz’s days at Notre Dame, when even in the middle of an undefeated season, he’d swear up and down to the press that his team had no chance against, say, Temple. In other words, it shows that Bloomberg understands the value of appearing modest.

So what, exactly, did the mayor say last night? Buried on the clumsily designed site for Rather’s show is the most difficult-to-read transcript ever created. I’ve tried to clean it up, though, and here is the fruit of my agony – what appears to be the money exchange between host and guest:

Rather: Let’s get it out of the way. Are you running for President?

Bloomberg: No.

Rather: Are you going to run for President?

Bloomberg: No.

Rather: Any circumstances in which you would?

Bloomberg: Oh I don’t know. Any the answer – if I don’t say no categorically you’ll then read something into it. The answer is no. Look, I have my own beliefs. They’re not tailored to what’s politically popular. It’s what my parents taught me and what I’ve learned raising my two daughters that are the love of my life. I believe that certain things and if somebody asks me where I stand, I tell them. And that’s not a way to get elected generally. Nobody’s going to elect me President of the United States. What I’d like to do is to be able to influence the dialogue. I’m a citizen. I’m going to leave this country which I love which has given me enormous opportunities for my kids. I’m going to try to do what mayors across this country along with many governors are trying to do, address the issues that Congress seems unwilling to address.

OK, so he did say “no” to a point-blank question. But the hesitation before he finally uttered it seems just as telling. My hunch is Bloomberg won’t ultimately run – but I don’t think we’ve seen the last of the trial balloons, either.

Did anybody actually catch the interview? What did you think? And what is HDNet like, anyway?

UPDATE: Woops...Azi put the transcript up yesterday. Could have saved myself some work there.   read more »

The G.O.P. rebel plays footsy with the Mayor about sharing a presidential ticket.  read more »

The opponents of congestion pricing need look no further than the technical appendix to PlaNYC to bolster their claim that the $8 daily fee to drive into Manhattan south of 86th Street will likely be raised:

The city will ask for the power to set and raise rates, install infrastructure, acquire land as necessary to build out infrastructure, and operate and maintain the system.… In addition the city may contemplate increasing the congestion charge as this additional transportation capacity comes on line in order to encourage a greater mode shift to mass transit.

On the other hand, the report does not envision that the fee will even keep up with inflation. The report hypothesizes that in the year 2030, the $8 fee would be increased to $14, which, assuming annual inflation of 3.2 percent, will really be worth $7.23 in today's dollars. (City Hall spokesman John Gallagher says that the $14 figure takes inflation into account.)

“We definitely believe that by having a congestion pricing pilot, we are not only going to help our wholesalers go up to their destinations faster, but it is also going to help the people,” Mr. Fernandez said. “We were more concerned about helping our people, our consumers. In five or 10 years, if we don’t do something like that, we will not be able to work in downtown Manhattan.”  read more »

In a City Hall address on Thursday afternoon to unveil a new budget, Mayor Bloomberg noted Manhattan’s office market as a barometer of the city’s overall economic health:  read more »