Damn good question.

Back when we were doing it ourselves, I was amazed how many would-be parents were choosing to have their babies in Manhattan. I wouldn't have wanted that long a trip under the circumstances. Every now and then, one would end up giving birth stuck in traffic on a bridge (something congestion pricing would help!) It is as if my fellow 718ers thought giving birth in Manhattan would confer Manhattan citizenship on their child.

Basically, all the outer-borough hospitals are now partnered with the big Manhattan ones. The need to travel to the CBD for health care should be limited to very rare and specific services.

One possible issue here -- the hospitals in bedpan alley around Stuyvesant Square could be worried about losing business to those above 96th Street, among those who MUST drive and WON'T pay. How many such people are there, however.

As a real New Yorker, I'm wondering what hospitals they're talking about? All the "Big Name" hospitals (Sloan Kettering, Columbia Presbyterian, Mt Sinai) are above 60th Street.

If folks from Brooklyn, Queens, The Bronx and America don't think their hospitals are good enough, well then I don't think congestion pricing is their problem.

Lack of (what they consider) adequate health care is. (write your congressman)

In fact, one of the prime benefits of congestion pricing will be to allow ambulances to get people who REALLY need to get to a Manhattan hospital to get there before they die.

Sorry if charging Aunt Millie $8.00 extra because she needs to schedule an appointment with Dr. Snuffulupugus in Manhattan to get her hangnail removed instead of Dr. Cookie Monster in Bay Ridge sounds harsh...

Just kidding, its not harsh, and I'm not sorry, its only $8.00.

I'm sure Aunt Millie pays her Manhattan doctor WAY over $ 8.00 more per visit than she would in The Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens or America. So, obviously, she can afford it.

The key goal: get this passed in some form that brings in a bunch of dough and reduces traffic. If that involves some reasonable give-and-take, so be it.

I'm told that the Bloomberg administration has (haughtily, in my view) declared the kind of exemption Kellner wants out of the question. That's a great way of winning friends and influencing people. Or is it, with friends like these...?

I don't have a problem with the disabled (meaning cars with handicapped plates) getting an exemption.

But not everyone making a "hospital visit" is disabled. How would you possibly enforce a hospital visit exemption?

Meanwhile, there is a comprehensive 24/7 service for people who can't use subways or buses due to disabilities, called Access-a-Ride
http://www.mta.info/nyct/paratran/guide.htm

We who can use mass transit will benefit from easier crossing of wide streets, faster buses, and of course cleaner air and less noise, as will everyone else.

The impoverished, disabled, outer borough regular car commuter sounds like a made-up obstacle.

http://www.mta.info/mta/ada/paratransit.htm

I'm guessing that people who use these services would not pay the congestion charge. Perhaps these services could be exempted from the charge?

http://www.nyc.gov/html/doh/html/pr2008/pr022-08.shtml
OBESITY AND DIABETES RISING FASTER IN NYC THAN NATIONALLY
New York City Adults Gained More than 10 Million Pounds over a Two-Year Period; Empty Calories from Soda and Other Sugary Drinks Contribute to City’s Obesity Epidemic
The City’s rates of obesity and diagnosed diabetes both increased by 17% from 2002 to 2004. By contrast, the rest of the nation experienced just a 6% increase in obesity prevalence and no increase in diabetes diagnoses.

But--isn't it SO AWESOME that this guy flipped? I'm willing to look the other way on this, and a lot of other annoying but trivial things, if it means the Upper Driving Sides will support congestion pricing.

As usual, see Portland (City Commissioner Sam Adams)
http://www.commissionersam.com/node/1423
Bicycles, Cars, Obesity, Land Use, and Healthcare Spending: What's the Connection?

The handicapped who do drive will have nowhere to park if the number of placards continues to rise.

By the way:
Chunk of Antarctic Ice Collapses

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: March 26, 2008

A chunk of Antarctic ice about seven times the size of Manhattan suddenly collapsed, putting an even greater portion of glacial ice at risk, scientists said. Satellite images show the runaway disintegration of a 160-square-mile chunk in western Antarctica, which started Feb. 28. It was the edge of the Wilkins ice shelf and has been there for perhaps as many as 1,500 years. The rest of the Wilkins ice shelf, which is about the size of Connecticut, is holding on by a narrow beam of thin ice. Scientists worry that it too may collapse.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/26/us/26brfs-CHUNKOFANTAR_BRF.html?scp=2&sq=antarctica&st=nyt

Given that persons who are disabled -- at least those in wheelchairs -- are largely shut out of the subways (which have a dangerous gap between platform and car and often-broken elevators in the stations that even have them) and completely shut out of taxis (unless they can transfer from their chairs easily and fold them, which many cannot), you'd think there'd be just a touch of empathy here for a group that in fact does not have the same transit options as the rest of us. But I guess not.

Do we know how many low-income people with cars don't have a credit card and therefore can't easily get an EZ-Pass? They can still get one, BTW.

All this pandering to the poor and disadvantaged is ridiculous unless we quantify that there is a large population impacted. I bet there isn't.

The rich can afford garage prices -- the company often pays for it so it doesn't count as taxable income.

The political class and associated interests gets the on-street spaces via placard.

Everyone else can take the subway, at least until it falls apart.

Kellner and the others want to recreate the system of favors in the new system that they have in the old. Such favors are the entire basis of political careers in New York. There really is nothing else there.