Megan Chuchmach reports:

The auditorium at PS 24 in Riverdale was packed Tuesday night, as Mayor Michael Bloomberg and his commissioners entertained an estimated couple hundred Bronx residents at a town hall-esque style meeting organized by the Northwest Bronx Democratic Alliance and the Riverdale Community Association.

There was no dancing or singing, but the Mayor did crack a couple jokes and laughed off the possibility of a run for President. All jokes aside, Bloomberg did what he came to do: answer questions and discuss issues ranging from community to city levels.

The night seemed to get off to a good start, beginning with a first question addressing Bloomberg's congestion pricing proposal, which has received a cool reception in the northwest Bronx neighborhood.

Bloomberg said the plan intended "to raise money to give people the mass transit that is the alternative to them driving their cars." When another audience member raised the issue of limited Riverdale parking, the pro-mass transit Bloomberg responded that fewer parking spaces mean less people buying and driving cars. Period.

Bloomberg admitted the issue of tolls was highly contentious in the plan, but said he didn't want to leave office without at least attempting to fix the City's gridlocked transportation systems.

"I don't know better than anybody else how much people will change their driving habits," Bloomberg said. "But I do know how much money it will bring in." The proposal, he said, brings in $354.5 million alone from the federal government, which chose the City as a pilot city to test the plan.

And, besides, he added, "If we're going to do something about the air that we breathe, then we've go to do something."

Other audience members raised the issue of ever-increasing Croton Filtration Plant problems, which Emily Lloyd, commissioner of the Department of Environmental Protection, said was a result of a soft dollar and intensive New York market.

Lloyd blamed the cost hike -- which, she admitted, has increased by about 130 percent -- on the rising prices of labor, copper and equipment.

"No, I'm not happy about the rising costs," Bloomberg said, before suggesting that a substantial part of the problem is people who neglect to pay their water bills.

Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz, a vocal anti-congestion pricing advocate who had been rumored to be hosting an anti-congestion pricing rally before the meeting but did not, characterized the excuses as baseless.

"Prices have gone up, but they haven't gone up that much," Dinowitz said after the meeting. "Labor has not doubled. Materials have not doubled. Nothing has doubled." He said Commissioner Lloyd failed to tell audience members the truth: Her Department is "incompetent to deal with the investigation." In September, Dinowitz similarly accused Bloomberg of lying about the federal government's deadline for congestion pricing funding.
Other residents voiced concerns about small businesses being driven out of the area by big box and chain stores and a lack of gifted and talented programs in the school district. They were part of the lucky. Six audience members' questions were randomly drawn. Bloomberg assured everyone that their other questions would be returned via phone or email very soon.

"Everyone will get a response," Bloomberg repeated.

Dinowitz said that wasn't enough.

"I don't like when you screen the questions," Dinowitz added. "It's not as open."

That didn't bother Marilyn Turner and Matilda Cascio, two longtime Riverdale residents who came after seeing a flyer in their buildings announcing Bloomberg's visit.

While Cascio voiced concern over Bloomberg's congestion pricing proposal, she admitted the Mayor made it sound "very plausible." Her friend agrees.

"He's the only honest politician in the country today," Turner added.
"He's socially conscious and he seems to want to leave the world a better place than he found it."

While Bloomberg's well-rehearsed responses to the issues raised were to be expected, Turner, who had never seen the Mayor live before, voiced surprised at something else.

"He's much warmer than he comes across on television," she said smiling.

-- Reporting and photo by Megan Chuchmach

DOT Commissioner Joan McDonald: "It's a very complicated agency, a huge bureaucracy with lots of moving parts and serious work to be done. If they took someone who has been here before, already had knowledge of the agency and who has a flexible approach and is sympathetic to pedestrian, traffic-calming and livable streets issues, that'd be ideal. That's Joan."

DOT Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan: "She'd be great and if it were offered and if she were really given a mandate, I bet she'd take the job, though, you've got to think it would be a serious pay cut." 

DOT Commissioner Emily Lloyd: Sources aren't saying anything! 

DOT Deputy Commissioner for Traffic Operations Michael Primeggia (above): "He still makes all of the decisions. You might disagree with some of them but he takes things seriously and works hard. He's not a bureaucrat."

Lloyd has been at the DEP since February 2005. One of her biggest challenges there has been overhauling the agency's deeply troubled water billing system, which is so flawed that millions of dollars in outstanding fees and fines have gone uncollected. From 1992 to 1994, a time when budget problems meant the city was struggling to meet its recycling goals, she was commissioner of the NY Department of Sanitation. She has also served as a top administrator at Columbia University, as director of business development for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, and as commissioner of Traffic and Parking in Boston.

Kent says that Lloyd would be an ideal candidate at a time when the DOT needs vision coupled with proven leadership ability. "She has great authority," Kent said. "We worked with her on the Port Authority, turning that from one of the worst public spaces into one that works pretty well. She's able to put a team together that can get difficult things done. She also has a sense of community and community responsibility, which is a skill that transportation people haven't really worked on."

A DEP spokesman said Wednesday that Lloyd was attending a conference on global warming in San Francisco and was unavailable for comment.

Insiders believe that Mayor Mike Bloomberg will look inside his administration for Iris Weinshall's replacement as transportation commissioner. But because Bloomberg will be out in 2009, top transportation people may favor state jobs: state transportation commissioner, Long Island Rail Road president or New York City Transit president. NJ Transit is seeking an executive director.. Two private-sector candidates could be Janette Sadik-Kahn of Parsons Brinckerhoff, who lost out to Weinshall for the job, and former MTA chair Bob Kiley, who implemented congestion pricing in London. Weinshall is leaving for CUNY in mid-April.

Sadik-Kahn was Mayor David Dinkins' Transportation Advisor. In addition to setting up London's congestion charging system, Kiley was chairman of the MTA in the 1980's.

Here are some other names that are flying around:

• Emily Lloyd
• Sam Schwartz
• Gary Toth
• Jack Lettiere
• David Woloch
• Michael Primeggia
• And then there's this one. It's not quite a "name" per se. More a question: Isn't there some deputy commissioner from London we could call?