Earth Equity News-April 9, 2008

A Sad Day for New Yorkers. By Charles Komanoff, Gristmill, April 7, 2008. "As previously reported, the pricing plan, proposed a year ago by Mayor Michael Bloomberg and subsequently improved by a 17-member state-mandated commission, would have charged an $8 entry fee on cars driven into Manhattan's central business district (CBD) during 6 a.m. - 6 p.m. on weekdays. Benefits included an annual $500 million revenue stream for mass transit (sufficient to bond at least $5 billion in capital improvements), a solid if unspectacular drop in traffic gridlock and pollution, and, perhaps most significantly, a first step toward knocking the automobile off its privileged perch atop the New York street pyramid. Not to mention establishing the principle that safeguarding 'the commons' -- our air, water and public space -- requires that we exact from ourselves a commensurate price for uses that damage or deplete it. Congestion pricing was backed by an unusually broad coalition of labor, business, enviros (the full spectrum from EJ to Big Green) and civic associations. Yet neither this broad-spectrum support nor the plan's extraordinary vetting over the past 12 months deterred legislators from both parties from citing 'unanswered questions' and assailing bogus inequities. Calling today 'a sad day for New Yorkers and New York City' and noting federal support for congestion pricing, Mayor Bloomberg blasted the legislature, stating that, 'Even Washington, which most Americans agree is completely dysfunctional, is more willing to try new approaches to longstanding problems than our elected officials in the State Assembly.' With so much going for it, what killed the plan? There will be time later for sober postmortems, but for now, here's my shoot-from-the-hip Top 10 list of what felled congestion pricing in NYC..." Charles Komanoff is the cofounder of the Carbon Tax Center.