Comments on: Pay Back: Richard Brodsky Proposes Road Pricing for Westchester

By: galvo

galvo — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 15:07:15 +0000

good april fools joke!
i am worried that a lot of mr brodsky mentality concerning public transit is true though.
has anyone heard of any proposals in westchester or rocklnad for public transit improvements to midtown?
you would think if they were progressive they would be working on adding bus rapid transit routes into Manhattan central business district.
saw mill parkway is a straight shot to 59 street. BRT along the length of the saw mill
seems to be a workable solution. The height of the parkway buses is not an impassable obstacle. short school buses and access a ride vans currently use the saw mill parkway, i think i have seen full size school buses also on the Saw mill parkway. Custom Multiperson passenger vans definitely could run the length of the parkway.
The saw mill parkway speed limit is currently 50 mph through most of Westchester,initiating BRT from Rockland to midtown via the saw mill parkways could solve lot of congestion problems and not turn the bordering neighborhoods into parking lots.
Instead of fighting congestion pricing why not start affordable methods for the people in central westchester and rockland to get to midtown.
westchester and rockland need to get on board and develop people movers.
the banning of buses on the parkways is a dinosaur mentality, many of the restrictions were implemented to keep the poor car-less people from utilizing state parks such as harriman.
the thinking need s to reversed, private cars in the state parks should be curtailed and full public transit to the state parks implemented.

By: Ian D

Ian D — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 06:16:39 +0000

Remember last years’ April Fools post? It turned out to have almost come true!

So if the minds of Streetsblog were able to peer into a crystal ball last year, then what’s that say about Brodsky’s Westchester plan? Mid-’09 implementation, anyone?

By: Doc Barnett

Doc Barnett — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 03:12:44 +0000

I know, right? Let’s be smart and never dedicate funding to anything, because we are so streetwise and replete with abbreviated cliches.

By: Shirley Temple

Shirley Temple — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 01:37:21 +0000

Ho ho ho, man, this reminds me of when they said the revenue from fare increases was going to be used for mass transit improvements.

What’s next? Congestion Pricing revenue used towards mass transit improvements too?

Ha ha ha, fool me once!

By: Komanoff

Komanoff — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 20:24:09 +0000

Thanks Mike (No. 19). The problem might have been that the respondents were reacting to a one-sentence summary read to them by the Newsday editor. Still, in their shoes my first question would have been, What is he proposing to do with the revenues? (duh)

By: Mike D

Mike D — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 20:04:44 +0000

Komanoff, I liked your op-ed and was surprised by the stupidity of the opposition. Clearly, you addressed the regressivity issue with the sales tax cut.

By: Congestion Pricer

Congestion Pricer — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 19:56:00 +0000

BRILLIANT!!!

(referring to the April Fool’s joke, of course)

By: Clarence

Clarence — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 19:38:36 +0000

Wow, this is just awesome! Amazing that Brodsky has come around!!! In other news, this morning I ran into David Weprin on a bike and he told me he wasn’t waiting for the $8 fee to start his bike commuting.

By: Komanoff

Komanoff — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 19:28:52 +0000

I wuz fooled too. Maybe I was extra gullible 'cause a dozen years ago I made a similar proposal, for real, for Long Island in a Newsday op-ed. You can read my pitch and the semi-hysterical reaction here.

By: ianqui

ianqui — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 18:04:53 +0000

Good job, streetsblog! (Of course, it’s almost not a bad idea…)

By: Will Fisher

Will Fisher — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 17:31:09 +0000

And here I was braving all the April’s Fools jokes well from the blogs I read. This is the first one to actually get me. Kudos to Streetsblog for really fooling me.

By: ddartley

ddartley — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 17:19:42 +0000

I love it. And I believed it almost all the way to the end.

By: rhubarbpie

rhubarbpie — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 16:43:15 +0000

Dave:

The Democrats don’t have the majority in the State Senate, mostly due to districting deals over the years that have pretty much ensured that the Republicans would control the senate and the Democrats the assembly.

With a fair amount of luck and a lot of hard work, the state senate could go Democratic in the next election or two — there’s a one- or two-vote majority right now for the Republicans — but this is getting increasingly unlikely.

And, as always, be careful what you wish for: Malcolm Smith, the Democratic Senate minority leader, is no prize, as the Working Families Party has just discovered (not a shocker to the rest of us, but apparently to them).

It will be a bit harder for the Republicans to stay in power if Bruno is indicted, but that’s not something to count on either, though he is under FBI investigation. Nothing to do with prostitutes, other than the everyday prostitution of his office.

By: Dave

Dave — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 16:32:48 +0000

Bruno is a republican majority leader in a democratic controlled state senate. Am I completely off-base in thinking this will lead him to be shown the door?

Can someone who knows the convoluted and inefficient workings of NYS politics help? CQ?

By: AHT

AHT — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 16:30:14 +0000

“New York City? Who needs it?”
– please. Without the salaries all the commuters of Westchester are earning in the city and taking home, there wouldn’t be any call for the baristas, nanniess and maids. Brodsky wants his cake and to eat it too, and we all know how well that always works.

By: Peter

Peter — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 16:27:18 +0000

Brodsky does know that the parkways through Westchester can’t accomodate buses anyway, doesn’t he? The bridges are all too low.

It was an intentional move by Robert Moses to discourage poor people who couldn’t afford cars from moving upstate.

By: fdr

fdr — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 16:18:32 +0000

Dave, you keep talking about when Bruno leaves office. Where do you think he’s going?

By: Josh

Josh — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 16:13:34 +0000

Heh. Great work.

By: rhubarbpie

rhubarbpie — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 16:08:39 +0000

Funny! Almost as good as Council Member Fidler’s argument that the congestion pricing initiative will be a tax on the poor — his sound bite keeps getting repeated on WFUV. He’s kidding, right?

By: Larry Littlefield

Larry Littlefield — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 15:57:28 +0000

I’m serious, even if he isn’t.

Exclusionary zoning in the suburbs means more and more of the working class commutes out from the city. Bad transit to pedestrian-unfriendly office parks makes that a lousy, time consuming, expensive ride.

This is a serious issue, one the Long Island Regional Planning Commission has been thinking about for some time.

Sure, put an $8 toll on the outcommuters who drive, and use it not only to maintain the parkways but also to subsidize vanpools and more direct buses from the subway end to suburban employment centers. And push future commerical development to the vicinity of the train stations — or back to where the workers are in the Bronx and Queens.

Anybody here think those are bad ideas?