"Albany is disgusting and useless. There's really no point in New York City staying part of the state."

Yes, New York City should become its own city-state of Gotham, taking Nassau and Westchester Counties with it.

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&ll=40.709792,-73.681183&spn=0.811967,1.834717&t=h&z=10&msid=116444341505082638663.00044cabf47400b802cec

And a big sarcastic "thank-you" to all the class-warriors out there who insisted CP would be an "unfair tax on the middle-class!" As a middle class stiff myself, I'll be grateful for all your obstructionism of my behalf the next time I have to wait more than 20 minutes for a G
train... or see yet another over-crowded, over-burdened F train pass me by...

Albany is disgusting and useless. There's really no point in New York City staying part of the state.

The Democrats are ideologically bankrupt and are not a force for good in the State of New York.

Want to have a cheap huge house in an environmentally unsustainable low-density suburban neighborhood? Pay the price in the form of more time on the bus/train or huge fines should you choose to drive and commit the slightest moving or parking violation. Or do like the rest of us do and get a compact yet comfortable shoebox apartment with good transit and cycling options. The city needs to send the message that when it comes to suburban living, you can't have your cake and eat it too. Do that and we'll also see affordable high-density housing in close proximity to Subway/PATH sprout up at a lightning pace.

For born and bred Manhattanites with asthma like myself, this "fundamental right" that Silver, Glick, and other faux liberal traitor dems are trying to preserve is injurious enough. Suburban SUVs don't just road rage around our island and shit asthma-inducing pollution into the air we breath 24x7, though. Adding insult to injury these vehicles bring with them drivers (and occasionally passengers) who, stemming from their distorted perception of reality, have values and priorities entirely antithetical to our own. No time to enumerate the most common suburban attitudes, but suffice it to say racism, classism, "Support Our Troops" gas guzzlers, and the God-given right of excessive resource consumption factor prominently. This is not to stereotype everyone who lives in suburbia, but is more an observation of the mindset that suburban living tends to encourage and of a recognition of the beliefs out of which suburbia grew. The city should do less to accommodate that lifestyle, congestion pricing or not.

Bloomberg and Quinn: You can start by reigning in Ray Kelly and our out of control police department. Stop harassing cyclists and start punishing unnecessary driving instead. Make it clear that pedestrians, cyclists and buses are the prioritized users of our public spaces and that the rights of the motorist are subordinate. Investigate and penalize pro-car cops who turn a blind eye. Eliminate placard abuse and issue placards in only the most unusual of circumstances. Replace street parking with green space and car lanes with automated, bollard-protected BRT routes. (and partner with private bus companies to add service that the MTA cannot afford to offer)

http://reformny.blogspot.com/2008/04/secret-assembly-within-public-assembly.html

Actually, I get the impression Shelly would have gone for CP in a lukewarm fashion but just couldn't wrangle his people.

Anyway, before any Streetsblog newcomers accuse me of being anti-anti-congestion, I still support other efforts to decrease car use in the city just so long as they affect all car users and not just those who can't afford to pay. As for MTA funds, how about a one percent tax on millionaires?

If "the youth" are out to vote for a certain presidential candidate this year, it will increase the effect that sites like this one can have in the election. I haven't paid much attention to local politics until this disaster; now I'm sick from watching it. Not voting. Not even voting on congestion pricing. And this is apparently the norm. But we won't be shy about voting in November, and campaigning and donating before that.

As registered Democrats, most of us get to vote twice against the jokers that did not take a position (like my rep). This is the year for any transportation-minded Democratic or Republican hopeful to get into the Assembly. Hey, that's another way to dethrone Silver the Congestion Pricing Strangler: deprive his ideologically bankrupt state party of its Assembly majority.

Take a look at the next Manhattan parking lot you pass and tell me the owners of all those Mercedes, BMWs and Lexus SUVs can't afford $8.

If the pro-congestion whiners had any more vision and fortitude, they would have worked with the administration to plan congestion pricing within Downtown Brooklyn, or Flushing, or other appropriate areas of the City.

But instead, they did nothing. They don't really want to do anything about traffic congestion. They want to continue to sit in their cars and breath in the ever-increasing exhaust fumes.