The fallout continued last week from Gov. Kathy Hochul’s decision to indefinitely postpone the planned start of Manhattan’s congestion pricing.
On Monday, Metropolitan Transportation Authority Chairman Janno Lieber said the loss of an expected $15 billion in the current capital plan would mean putting planned expansions on hold.
The new goals, he said, are to “fight like hell to make sure we don’t have to reduce service” and “basic stuff to make sure the system doesn’t fall apart.” Lieber said he would stay in his post, even though he only learned of Hochul’s decision the night before she announced it. He deflected when my friend Katie Honan asked if he felt like a sucker.
As my colleague Joseph De Avila reported in The Wall Street Journal, the average travel speed in Midtown fell to 4.5 miles an hour in May, the lowest ever recorded for the month, said Sam Schwartz, a former New York City Department of Transportation official who has tracked traffic trends in the metropolis since the 1970s.
“We are approaching walking speeds,” Schwartz told Joseph.
Hochul said she put an indefinite pause on congestion pricing because she was concerned about the rising cost of living and New York’s economic recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic. The move has big political implications and shocked some of the governor’s usual supporters. Check out this video from WNYC’s Jon Campbell showing just how big of an about-face this is for Hochul.
I talked about all of that on an episode of The Journal, a podcast produced by Gimlet and the WSJ. Click here to listen, and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.
As I told host Ryan Knutson, if there was ever a place in the United States where you could do congestion pricing, it's New York. First of all, Manhattan is an island, so half of the natural boundary for your congestion zone is formed by the East River and the Hudson River. You have the most highly developed public transit system in the United States operating in New York.
In 2022, Republicans took the majority of the House of Representatives. And they did so in part by winning gains in New York, which is a little counter-intuitive because we think of New York as this deep blue state. On a statewide basis, it is, but the political opposition is greatest in these swing areas outside the city where congestion pricing was least popular.
Indeed, officials in those areas from both parties welcomed Hochul’s decision.
A ROYAL VISIT: I was in the press pool last week when King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima of the Netherlands toured the Albany NanoTech Complex as part of a royal visit to Albany.
Being the pool reporter means you closely follow the principals, recording details of what they say and do. This report in the Albany Times Union references some of that frantic note-taking, and this package from Spectrum News gives you a feel for what the royal couple saw. And there I am in the background!
I wasn’t able to ask the king and queen any questions, but I have a nice exchange with the dozen-or-so Dutch reporters who were covering the trip. They told me that in the Netherlands, Albany’s namesake Beverwijk is today best-known for a store selling counterfeit handbags. I told them about how Princess Beatrix’s 1959 visit paved the way (literally — they bulldozed a neighborhood) for the Empire State Plaza.
THE QUESTION: This summer will mark the 25th anniversary of Woodstock ‘99. Which upstate New York city hosted that festival?
Know the answer? Drop me a line at jimmy.vielkind@gmail.com. Or just write with thoughts, feedback or to say hi.
THE LAST ANSWER: Singapore was the first major city to adopt congestion pricing.