"We will begin immediately to prepare for the installation of needed equipment to make our traffic plan a reality." Mayor Bloomberg

From the above statement, it is clear talk of setting-up a commission to study the plan is meaningless. They are going ahead with the toll booths not waiting for any study results or even legislature votes. What a farce!

If only. Read any comment thread on this weblog. Let me guess... you own a car, live in the congestion zone, and consider yourself middle class? Only two of these things are possible at once.

The point about "Red" Ken is well taken. There are two chief differnces. One structural, where Red Ken lives and breathes in a Parliamentary system with relatively strong parties so that when he acted he was able to bring along a majority in London city government. Bloomberg world is entirely different, he is an "independent". In a sense this makes him a Kris Kristofferson adherent "freedom's just another word for nothing left to loose". Like many of us Bloomberg is a captive of his own character. When he went to Albany without the overt support of the City Council (Christine Quinn hiding in the bushes until the last minute) he did so as a Republican (In Name Only perhaps) leader of a Democratic city. And, the concept was that the purity of thought that his millions allow him and the propoganda purchases he can make would bring the parties apparatchiks along. Hasn't happened yet but we hold our breath.

Second, there are the practical expectations created by the exercise of electoral democracy. Red Ken ran for office with congestion pricing as part of his program. At the time he said that his Administration was on the line and would stand or fall with congestion pricing, so important and central it was to his politics. Bloomberg on the other hand opened up NYC to big box stores with their attendant parking lots and exit ramps (even WalMart he welcomed), left the Hudson Yards development with 26,000 extra parking spaces, and has failed to fully fund the MTA capital and operating plans while accumulating a 5 Billion Dollar surplus. Now, as he sheds his Republican skin, thin as it may in fact be, approaching the end of his term, he has discovered the crucial synergy between urban density and mass transit.

He won the last election 70/30. If he had sold CP during the election he would have still won, maybe 55/45, that would have been a swing of 15 points but he would have been able to declare a mandate for it. As is he is making lots of headlines but probably plowing the field for the pro-congestion political forces that will follow him. And, he would have actually reinforced his independent thinker image by sailing against the wind and making difficult positions work for the citizens. Shoulda, coulda, woulda.

It's enough to make a cynic wonder if this wasn't the plan in the first place. After all, Brodsky's report is based on testimony at the Assembly Hearings -- and Shelly Silver is the guy who signed off on the list of witnesses.

But perish the thought, what with Albany's long tradition of integrity and above-board policymaking.

His congestion rationing idea benefits people with 2 cars (mainly suburbanites) and is also hugely discriminatory to anyone who has a one day need to have a car in Congestion Zone but happens to have a plate with the wrong day. What does that person do? At least under Congestion Pricing, that person would be able to bring their car in as long as they paid the fee.

Interestingly, Bloomberg is following a policy (congestion pricing) that was also followed by "Red" Ken Livingstone, who definitely wasn't doing it as a secret plot to allow the rich to take over London. Both men are known as people who haven't given up their principles. Whether that's true or not is a matter of opinion, of course.

I think my visceral response to Brodsky comes from that first Legislative hearing when it was clear that he either didn't read the report on congestion pricing or did and wanted to fabricate shortcomings and red herrings and sow fear, uncertainty and doubt. I can understand someone who just hears about the plan secondhand voicing such fears but someone in charge of a committee who reads a report should really do their job better.

And as to jmc "This is why we need independent, self-financed candidates for office, like Bloomberg." call for more aristocracy in a country that is rapidly hardening and deepening its class system. The only reason you can't vote for Mayor Mike again is that term limits were bought by another "independent, self-financed candidates for office" (read spoiled rich kid Ron Lauder).

What we need to pass this legislation is not more well meaning rich people but some politicians with skin in the game, committed to actually improving the transportation system, willing and able to run for office with that program. Right now term limits stands in the way of that. Bloomberg may be independent but he has shown a tin ear for NY politics in this whole episode. This should have been part of his last campaign for office, it wasn't. And, he may have fumbled the issue so badly that the next Mayor will ride into office on the four wheeled back lash.

Who does this guy think he is to even offer an alternative to NYC traffic policy when he represents Westchester? We surely did not vote for him.

Self-serving fat cat.

I say we implement his congestion rationing program with one day for even numbers and one day for odd numbers, and we give Brodsky a license plate that ends in the chinese characters ?? (undermine,ruin,corrupt).