Alternatives to the traffic congestion charge?

A local group opposed the congestion charge ("Study Gives Alternatives to City Plan for Traffic," William Neuman, NY Times, 2007-10-12) proposes alternatives:

Raising parking meter rates in Manhattan, creating more taxi stands and putting in place a series of other measures could achieve the same level of traffic reduction as Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s congestion pricing plan, according to a report by a group opposed to the mayor’s proposal.

“We’ve said all the way through that there are better ways to deal with traffic congestion,” said Walter McCaffrey, a former city councilman from Queens who is the spokesman for the group, Keep NYC Congestion Tax Free.

Mr. McCaffrey said the report was sent this week to the 17 members of a commission created by the State Legislature to study the mayor’s plan for an $8 charge on cars entering or leaving the area of Manhattan below 86th Street.

The commission is also required to consider alternatives to the mayor’s plan that could achieve similar results. The Bloomberg administration has estimated that its proposal would reduce the miles traveled by vehicles in the Manhattan charging zone by 6.3 percent.

The commission must make a recommendation to the Legislature by Jan. 31 on a plan to ease traffic congestion.

The report by Keep NYC Congestion Tax Free identifies 13 measures that, when taken together, it predicts would reduce traffic more than the mayor’s plan.

Chief among the measures is a proposal to increase greatly the number of metered parking spaces in Manhattan by putting meters on many blocks where parking is now free. The study also proposes raising the rate for on-street parking, doubling it in many areas and increasing it even more in the busiest parts of Manhattan.

The goal would be to create a higher turnover in parking spaces, in order to lessen the time drivers spend circling the block looking for parking. The report says that is a major contributor to congestion in parts of Manhattan.

I think we should do that anyway, but here's where it gets touchy:

Hugh O’Neill, the president of Appleseed, an economics consulting firm, which wrote the report, said that the goal of the study was to find measures that focused on specific causes of congestion. The report also includes proposals that the city could carry out on its own, without the Legislature’s approval, which is needed for congestion pricing.

The report calls for the city to eliminate many of the thousands of parking placards that city employees use to get free parking.

It's really amazing that the city would want to decrease the environmental effects of driving and then turn around and encourage its employees to drive. NYC has the most extensive rapid transit system on Earth; we could encourage our civil servants to use it.

Other proposals included more taxi stands and higher peak hour tolls. The mayor's office had no comment.

Racial bias in New York City

I've been hearing a lot about particularly racist intimidation lately. Often, you hear ethnic taunts and whatnot in New York. That's not so surprising when you consider all the different ethnic groups here. Overall, however, talk rarely rises to violence.

In the past two weeks, two really crazy things happen that you'd expect in the Deep South, not in New York. First, there was an outright racially motivated fight in Tribeca (NY Daily News: "Basketball team: We're target of racial bias attacks," by Juan Gonzales, 2007-09-19):

Two coaches and several players of the Manhattan Community College basketball team say they were the targets of separate racial bias attacks and robberies near City Hall.

They say it happened last week, the attacks were carried out by the same group of white men - and the NYPD has failed to properly investigate.

"I've been all over this country and the world playing sports," said Chester Mapp, 49, coach of the Borough of Manhattan Community College Panthers for 15 years. "But never in my born days have I seen the kind of racism I witnessed last week right here in New York City."

The first incident erupted around 8:30 p.m. on Sept. 11 outside the Patriot, a notoriously rowdy Chambers St. bar, as members of the Manhattan team were walking to the A subway station on Church St. after four hours of basketball practice at the school.

Several players told the Daily News a group of white men standing across Chambers St. outside the bar started yelling "n-----s" and "this is what slavery feels like." One of the men, they said, then threw a bottle at them.

Then, yesterday, a noose was found hanging around a black professor's door at Columbia University (CNN: Rally set to protest noose found at Columbia University by Sarah B. Boxer, 2007-10-10):

NEW YORK (CNN) -- A rally was planned for Wednesday afternoon at Columbia University to protest the discovery of a noose on the office door of an African-American professor.

The noose was found Tuesday at Columbia's Teachers College, said Joe Levine, executive director for external affairs at Teachers College.

The New York Police Department is investigating the matter as a hate crime.

The apparent target, Madonna Constantine, 44, is a professor of psychology and education at Teachers College. She co-wrote the book "Addressing Racism: Facilitating Cultural Competence in Mental Health and Educational Settings."

The noose apparently was placed on the office door sometime before 9 a.m. ET Tuesday, Levine said.

Police received a 911 call concerning the noose about 9:45 a.m. Tuesday. They were told it was on the fourth floor of Teachers College.

Security cameras monitor the entrance to the building, but there are none in the hallway where the noose was discovered, Levine added.

The building, which is open 24 hours a day, is accessible only to those with a Teachers College ID card or other credentials, he said

Staten Island hipsterfying?

NY Times by Cara Buckley (October 7, 2007): "Bohemia by the Bay."

Within the past few years, a small but growing number of hip young things have begun staring in the face of the island’s lack of coolness and embracing it, to the delight of local boosters. A report released in the spring by the Center for an Urban Future, a public policy group, recommended denser development near the ferry to attract more young professionals and artists. But a good many are already there.

It's a long article with lots of anecdotes (something I often don't like about the Times). Needless to say, it'll be interesting to see if it continues with Williamsburg now pricing out the middle class.

Hidden costs to the congestion charge?

NY1: "MTA Finds Hidden Costs In Mayor's Congestion Pricing Plan" (October 8)

MTA officials say Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s congestion pricing plan project would wind up costing hundreds of millions of dollars more than originally thought in transit service upgrades.

A commission created to evaluate the plan estimates the agency would need to spend more then three quarters of a billion dollars over the next five years. That money would go toward new buses, subways, and station renovations to accommodate the thousands of commuters, who are expected to take public transportation to avoid paying $8 to enter portions of Manhattan.

The MTA's concerns come as the agency is trying to raise support for a fare hike on trains, buses and subways.

The commission's recommendation on congestion pricing is due in January. The measure requires support from City Hall and Albany.

NY Times: "M.T.A. Says Mayor’s Plan to Ease Traffic Will Cost $767 Million to Accomplish" (Robert D. McFadden, October 8)

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority, in a report to a commission created to evaluate the mayor’s plan, estimated that expanded transit service and capital improvements for city and suburban riders who would give up their cars to get into Manhattan over the next five years would cost $767 million.

The total, the authority said, comprised $284 million in 2008 and 2009 for 367 new city and suburban buses, 46 new subway cars and many station renovations and service enhancements; $163 million for other subway and bus improvements from 2010 to 2012, and $320 million for two new bus terminals in Queens and Staten Island.

...

Citing congestion pricing projections provided by the city, the authority said 78,000 motorists in the city would shift to mass transit, while only 2,500 from the Mid-Hudson region served by Metro-North and 3,500 served by the Long Island Rail Road would take trains. It said it was premature to estimate how many of the 170,000 commuters who crossed bridges and tunnels each day would give up their cars.

I wonder why this comes as a surprise actually. We knew we'd have to upgrade service sooner or later. It just now happens to be sooner.

This puts NYC in an interesting dilemma though. Much of our rail transit actually runs at capacity, which means that adding more people to the services means overloading the system.

There is, however, the obvious fact that this "unfunded" spending will at least be made back. It's times like these when it's responsible for the City or State to take out debt.

Upstate's brain drain

Professionals, teens consider 'brain drain' by Jake Palmateer (October 4, 2007)—a symposium on how Upstate New York young people often simply leave their hometowns.

The trick, he said, is getting them to return.

"We don't know how to do that," [Former Daily Star publisher Daniel B.] Swift said.

One way may be to concentrate on making their high school years positive and fulfilling, he said.

That way, when they are at the stage in their lives were they are settling down to raise a family, they may consider doing so in their hometowns, Swift said.

One observation that came from high school students regarded their feeling of self-worth coming from a mostly rural area of the state, Robinson said.

"It's a variation of the small fish, big fish issue," Robinson said. "They want to be noticed. They want to be important."

Better communication with high school alumni could also help draw them back to this area, he said.

Maps of Publicly Installed Surveillance Cameras in New York City

I found it in an op-ed about alleged police misconduct (especially during the GOP Convention in 2004). Click here. The article also mentions how a police helicopter caught a couple in an "intimate moment" on a rooftop.