To politicians in Queens, Brooklyn and New York's suburbs, it was an effete measure that overwhelmingly benefited wealthy Manhattanites. To Mayor Michael Bloomberg, it was to be the pinnacle of his legacy.
Yesterday, New York's State Assembly shot down the congestion pricing plan that would charge drivers $8 to enter Manhattan south of 60th Street.
The merits of the proposal aside, many lawmakers believe that Bloomberg's hamhanded tactics doomed the legislation. The Mayor's transportation commissioner, Janette Sadik-Khan, had reportedly told the Assembly, "You're either for this historic change in New York or you're against it." Many saw that as arrogant. Worse, it was revealed that she was pulled over by state police for speeding and improperly using her lights and sirens on her way to the capitol. "When [she] was coming up here telling me I can't drive," said Bronx Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz, "she was busy being driven in a city-owned car by a chauffeur, speeding, getting a ticket with her lights and sirens on."
What does this bode for other American cities? Read after the jump.
Mayor Bloomberg's high-handedness might be overstated. There was plenty of blame to go around, beginning with an overemphasis on climate change, which is an awfully big problem for a little island to tackle. There were too few benefits and too high a perceived cost to surrounding areas. And London's current fight with automakers, most notably Porsche, suggested to many lawmakers that the legal entanglements would reach farther than the legislation suggested.
Mayor Bloomberg called the defeat "a special kind of cowardice." What's particularly troubling, is that congestion pricing had the support of U.S. Transportation Secretary Mary Peters, admittedly a dubious honor, but one that suggested congestion pricing might have federal support for other cities.
Photo: wwarb, licensed through Creative Commons
