The big noise in NYC this week is about the canceling of congestion pricing by Governor Hochul. It had to happen.
Sure, NYC is a traffic mess but whatever is wrong, congestion pricing was never going to fix it. The whole concept of congestion pricing was supposed to accomplish two things, reduce traffic and raise money for the MTA. Unfortunately, the clowns who thought this up never considered that the goals are mutually opposed. If you reduce traffic, then there are no cars to pay the tolls, and if there are enough cars to support the MTA there isn’t any reduction in traffic.
It’s really hard to believe that anyone in charge is actually looking to reduce traffic in Manhattan when you look at the disastrous moves that have been tried over the last few years. The COVID mess caused the city to allow restaurants to build out onto the roads cutting out one lane for traffic. Sure, it helped the restaurants but it increased traffic exponentially. Then bike riders decided that there weren’t enough sidewalks for them to ride on so, the city created more bike lanes increasing congestion even more. Five lane streets like Columbus and Amsterdam are now down to one lane. In case you haven’t figured it out that’s not the way to alleviate traffic congestion.
Yes, the MTA needs money to run public transit but more important it needs competency. They spend money like drunken sailors and don’t get much for their buck. A perfect example of the incompetency of the MTA is the 79 St. and Broadway, northbound stop. They have been working on it for two years and it still isn’t completed. There is no excuse for that, The George Washington Bridge was built in less than four years. It’s because the MTA doesn’t exercise control over their contractors or force them to meet realistic contractual deadlines. That’s what happened with the Second Ave. subway line and why it went years over deadline and cost billions more than it should have. If we want to move people in NYC, the MTA needs a complete overhaul with all new people and a reasonable budget. They need people who will take a realistic look at traffic in NYC and understand that “X” number of cars need “X” amount of space and that bike lanes, while a safety consideration for riders, are a safety hazard for everyone else, mainly because bike riders are not controlled the way car drivers are, and they need to be.
We have to realize that the restaurant business, which is essential to the city, should take place inside restaurants and not on the street and sidewalk cafes, while charming, should be attached to the restaurant interior so that waiters aren’t serving through busy sidewalk traffic.
The decision to drop congestion pricing was inevitable. The fact that it took five years to arrive at it is disgraceful, but Hochul finally drummed up the intestinal fortitude to close it down.
Maybe if Hochul and her political thinkers would stop trying to figure out the political results of their decisions and try to just figure out what works for the city and the people, they might come up with some ideas that that actually work. The result may even help them politically.
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The rescue of four hostages in Gaza this week came at a horrendous toll among the Palestinian civilians that surrounded them. Over two hundred seventy dead, sixty of them children, and over seven hundred wounded are staggering numbers to free 4 hostages. Commentators here and around the world were asking American and Israeli officials the question. “Was it worth it?” Maybe not but maybe those same questioners should be directing their ire at the leaders of Hamas because, all facts being equal, and they never are, the blame for all this still lies at the feet of Hamas. It still goes back to that childish post-fight cry. “They started it!”
I watched Martha Raddatz batter Jake Sullivan with the same question, worded many ways, to which there is only one answer. All the death, all the destruction is the responsibility of Hamas. There would have been none of this if it had not been for their monstrous, unprovoked attack on Israel. So, no matter how antisemites try to blame Israel’s tactics for the horrendous civilian toll , the blame will always lie with Hamas because “they started it.”
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Lindsay Graham was on Face the Nation this past Sunday and he sounded more rational than he has in a long, long time. That’s saying a lot for Lindsay who has been buried in the Trump sewer for the last few years. This time he was championing Ukraine in their fight against Russia, a far cry from how Trump sees things. Amzingly, he readily admits that it was because of the intractability of the House that we haven’t fed Ukraine all the weapons that they have needed to push the Russians out of their country. He believes that we should be grabbing all Russian assets available in world banks, including three hundred billion in Europe, to help finance the war in Ukraine. This has long appeared to be a viable means to help Zelenskyy and his people,
Lindsay also wants to declare Russia a state sponsor of terrorism which, realistically, neither Presidential candidate will endorse.
When Margaret Brennan pulled up a clip of GOP Senator Tommy Tuberville babbling that Putin doesn’t want to occupy Ukraine, Lindsay buried the idiot ex-football coach.
Then Lindsay explained his version of what the war is about. It’s about ten to twelve trillion dollars’ worth of earth minerals in Ukraine, which could make them a serious force in the economic future of the west if we keep Putin from grabbing them.
Unfortunately, Lindsay being Lindsay, he couldn’t hold it together for a whole interview without blowing the horn for Trump. He tells us that if we’re looking for someone to freeze a border and keep us safe it’s Trump. Yeah, just like he built the wall and stopped Putin from invading Ukraine.
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Donald Trump at a rally in Las Vegas:
“I don’t care about you. I only want your vote.”
That’s a direct quote. It may be one of the only true things that Trump has ever said in his entire life. He was too stupid to keep from saying it, let’s hope the Independent voters aren’t too stupid to believe him.
On the other side of the spectrum we have Joe Biden, the current President of the United States honoring the dead in Normandy who gave their lives for their country, the same noble dead that Donald Trump dishonored by calling them suckers and losers for their sacrifice. Is that the clown you want running this country next year?