Folks, these calls to your state legislators and other electeds with reports here are very valuable – please keep doing it and posting what they say here.

Dear Mr. [Steveo]:

I have not taken a position regarding congestion pricing and am reviewing documents provided to me by the Bloomberg Administration. I thank you for your calling.

Letitia James

(No reponse yet from Joan Millman or Eric Adams.)

(Find out who your reps are and/or their contact info here:
http://www.cmap.nypirg.org/netmaps/MyGovernment/NYC/MyGovernmentNYC.asp
)

In the end it may be hard to tell whether this proposal co-opts the liberals on civil liberties issues or co-opts the conservatives on environmental issues.

The police have conducted such oppressive video surveillance of bicyclists for so long, now its the motorists’ turn.

Also, what Xue said.

It’s a lot easier to demand change than to actually make change – so consider putting your obviously passionate interest in global climate change in a more productive direction than slamming as inadequate the most progressive activities by our current politicians to date.

“Climate change is a national challenge, and meeting it requires strong and united national leadership,” the mayor said to an appreciative invited audience at the American Museum of Natural History. “The fact is, the emerging consensus among scientists is that, to avoid serious harm, we must reduce our emissions by 60 to 80 percent by 2050. That means we can’t –- and we won’t –- wait for Washington. The time to act is now.”

Climate change was clearly the focus. How could it not be? We’re speaking of a threat to the planetary support system. Local quality of life issues are a sideshow in comparison. The program will be judged on the terms it originally chose.

He did not focus exclusively on greenhouse gases. If all you care about is global warming, maybe the political will is better spent elsewhere. But if you add to the greenhouse gases the asthma, crash deaths, etc., it’s definitely worth it.

I’m starting to get frustrated at rebutting single-issue environmentalists.

If the zone limit is at 86th Street, maybe it would be too much work to put an EZ-pass gate on Park Drive South. They might just have to close the park to cars.

“Scientists say British greenhouse gas emissions now higher than in 1990″
http://www.guardian.co.uk/climatechange/story/0,,1727885,00.html

The fact that this information about shipping and aviation emissions has been in the public record for over a year even debunks the notion that Bloomberg has good intentions for the environment, but is misinformed. He wants to become president by looking like he gives a damn about our future when he really doesn’t.

Re-arranging deck chairs on the Titanic aint gonna cut it, particularly when people like James Hansen of NASA say we’ve got 5 years to save ourselves. Aviation and shipping have gotta go down within the next five years, and there’s no way that’s going to happen under a growth-based economic system.

“A report by the Tyndall Centre [University of Manchester] said a UK government target of a 60% cut in emissions by *2050 is insufficient* and needs to be 70% by 2030.

But it requires a major programme of action within *the next four years*”

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/5347790.stm

What chumps.

Someone please stuff the “This is a tax on working people” rhetoric up their a**es. Everyone who rides a subway bus or commuter rail is already paying a “tax” to not pollute the air and not jam the roads.

I’m so glad that this is being talked about. NYC is always the first city in the US to get a clue about these things. Let’s lead the way for the rest of the US!

Also for the record, the Throgs Neck, Midtown tunnel, Triboro, Whitestone, and Verrazano bridges are all owned by a state authority, the MTA, which if I recall correctly, operates a big, heavily-subsidized commuter rail system somewhere on Long Island.

Also didn’t NYC-working Long Islanders get a big tax cut in the late 1990s with the repeal of the commuter tax?

Calculate the carbon footprint of your car: it is about 20 pounds of CO2 for each gallon of gasoline you burn. Then think about the recent report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change saying that, unless we act dramatically to slow global warming, drought will kill hundreds of millions of people in this century.

Maybe those poor, suffering people in Long Island don’t really have it so bad compared with the people who are threatened by drought. Maybe they should be willing to back policies that make them cut back on their driving a bit in order to slow global warming.

Plus, that congestion charge will be put towards projects that will make your train ride in to Penn Station much more pleasurable, in one way or another.