Comments on: Brodsky Sows Doubt, Misinformation at Brooklyn Pricing Debate

By: Heffron

Heffron — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 19:40:03 +0000

But I love fried dough and tube socks.

By: Larry Littlefield

Larry Littlefield — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 11:42:59 +0000

How about rationing traffic by doing construction during the weekday, saving OT, rather than on weekends, which is when I drive?

By: Hilary

Hilary — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 03:53:06 +0000

Street fairs are too random and too local to reduce VMT. I’d like to know what the impact of the marathon is.

By: Angus Grieve-Smith

Angus Grieve-Smith — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 03:39:37 +0000

Mark, if you could find a way to do it without fried dough or tube socks…

By: Mark

Mark — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 03:23:09 +0000

The street fairs make traffic really good — they eliminate it. I’d love to have them every weekend. Close Broadway on the UWS every Sat and Sun? Pinch me, I’m in heaven!

By: Dave

Dave — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 00:24:58 +0000

Hilary:

NYC already does that by having those dreaded street fairs…makes traffic REALLY bad.

How about rationing access by stopping the lane reversals on bridges and tunnels weekday mornings and evenings. Would actually save money on overtime and seems a no-brainer.

By: Hilary

Hilary — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 23:29:27 +0000

Instead of rationing cars, we might counter-propose rationing roads. The city simply closes them to vehicular traffic for given periods. This is a concept that Brodsky will understand, as it is done with great success in Westchester with the Bronx River Parkway on Sunday mornings. We should be able to easily determine when and where we can do this to achieve the 6.8% reduction in VMT.

By: anonymous

anonymous — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 23:14:03 +0000

People don’t understand what NYC would be like without cars- how it would sound, look, and smell and what an improvement it would be. As long as people like Brodsky can keep the discussion to accounting and inconvenience, we will lose.

By: Anne (www.sustainableflatbush.org)

Anne (www.sustainableflatbush.org) — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 21:05:27 +0000

We clearly had the Wizard of Oz in our midst on Sunday. The first statement out of Brodsky’s mouth was a flagrant lie: “the Mayor wants to charge YOU $8 to ENTER Midtown Manhattan”… no mention of HOW you get there!!

Though I think the audience was by no means uncritical, this man has been pulling strings from behind the curtain for many years and knows what he’s doing. O’Loughlin made a convincing argument and even pulled a few good punches (including mentioning the commuter tax repeal), but he didn’t go so far as to use Dave’s point 1 and 3. [And Larry, though Brodsky did confess to using non-tolled bridges to drive to the debate, that was the extent of his admissions.]

Ironically, I think Brodsky played to the audience’s skepticism toward the very government he is part of, by stating that “lock boxes don’t work” (lots of knodding heads in the room) and that the numbers used by the pricing commission are not “real data” (then quoting the same numbers a few minutes later to support his own argument). The guy is a brilliant dissembler. As Agent 86 would say, “Too bad he didn’t use his skills for niceness, instead of evil.”

By: Dave

Dave — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 18:38:48 +0000

Where is the official rebuttal to Brodsky? Come on Mike, respond to him and mention the facts:

- Brodsky panders to the wealthiest set of commuters into Manhattan who can drive to Manhattan for free. Why don’t the Jersey pols mention that?
- Brodsky supported the commuter tax repeal that irreparably damaged the city’s finances.
- Brodsky gets a lot of money from parking garage operators in the city. Conflict there maybe?

It’s one thing to try to do the best for your constituents but Brodsky does too much. Come on Mayor Mike, put him in line!

By: Larry Littlefield

Larry Littlefield — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 18:29:12 +0000

(They remained especially reluctant to believe that a dedicated funding stream for transit would not get raided for other purposes, with or without a lock box.)

Hey Brodsky, are you prepared to admit that you and your associates are a lying cabal who suck out more in taxes than anyone else and provide as little in public services and benefits as possible?

It’s the unwinable argument. “If you give more money to the government, you are giving it to people like me and my backers. We’ll screw you again.”