Congestion Pricing- Aftermath

Congestion Pricing (the plan to charge drivers from outside of Manhattan's business district $8 for driving south of 60th Street) died in the both the State Assembly and State Senate. Mayor Bloomberg's delusion that if it were brought to the floor for a vote from the full Assembly and State Senate and would pass, is on the cusp of insanity.

If in reality there was such groundswell of a desire to throw a regressive tax on themselves the constituents of the Assembly Majority and the Senate Majority wouldn't those sitting in the majority want to record the vote even if the congestion pricing plan eventually lost? How much confidence does Bloomberg have in the MTA? These are the same people that contiually announce that they have operating budget surpluses, but cannot seem to make ends meet to get get service improvements, projects done, or avoid a union strike (come on! Peter Kalikow must have an IQ of a cocker spaniel to brag about supluses while trying to give away the West Side Rail Yards to the Jets for a song and all a couple months before TWU's contract was due to be renegotiated in 2005.) The only thing that Bloomberg had a right to complain about is that the State Legislature should have figure out how to keep $330 million of the $340 million from the Federal DOT that were supposed to go towards transit improvements without the congestion pricing (or get by implementing drastically waterdown version of the congestion like charging only livery cabs at 2 in the morning.)

Bloomberg Heading To Albany

The Daily Politics: Bloomberg Heading To Albany

Bllomberg could avoid a contentious fight with Speaker Silver and Assemblyman, and Senators from the city who oppose the the congestion pricing by thoroughly enforcing traffic laws. After a week of every commuter that drives into Manhattan getting a ticket for not using their turn signal, not driving within the painted lanes, and every other infraction that regular occurs when one drives into Manhattan would certainly give incentive for the commuters who drive to look towards mass transit as the alternative to getting $50-$125 tickets.

Bloomberg running for Prez, & what the candidates are riding around town in

Politics1 - American Politics, Elections, Candidates & Campaigns

Mayor Bloomberg relaunched his campaign website as well as Chuck Hagels' appearence on Face the Nation stating that Bloomberg would be a great candidate to run with in independent run for president.

HYBRIDS: The AP asked the leading Presidential candidates "What car or cars do you drive?" The answers showed a surprising number of hopefuls in both parties said they drove hybrids as their personal vehicles. The hybrid drivers: Hillary Clinton, Chris Dodd, John Edwards, Sam Brownback and Tom Tancredo. Dennis Kucinich drives a compact, but not a hybrid one. Joe Biden drives a classic 1967 Corvette. Mitt Romney prefers a Ford Mustang convertible. Bill Richardson drives a Jeep. Mike Huckabee and Duncan Hunter prefer large SUVs. John McCain and Barack Obama drive luxury sedans. The most surprising answer came from Rudy Giuliani: "I don't drive." No answers were reported from the other hopefuls.

Giuliani's answer is telling of his problem in the GOP primary: he is first and foremost a New Yorker before he is a Republican. If Giuliani and Bloomberg fail in their presidential runs it will occur because the rest of the country is so far behind NYC that the city should start looking into breaking off into a Singapore-like City-State. Maybe the city should keep the counties that lead up to the Canadian border because the Adirondack State park was the idea of a Manhattanite (Teddy Roosevelt) and the city needs the reservoirs in Ulster, Putnam, et al counties. Western NY can be appended to Pennsylvania (if PA wants economically backwards cities like Buffalo, Rochester, and Syracuse) .