Well, it’s been well south of 30 days since New York City axed its congestion charge initiative to bill drivers $15 at peak hours to take their cars and trucks south of 60th Street. In that time, we’ve seen protests, counter-protests, and a whole lot of belly-aching from both camps, myself included. But little was I aware at the time, and shame on me for that, that the funding for a highly-touted Subway extension project was irrevocably tied to Manhattan’s congestion charge scheme. A plan that ostensibly no longer exists.
Indeed, portions of the construction to extend SAS line tunnels from 96th Street to 125th Street and Lexington Ave will continue at a trickle while work to find funding for above-ground construction related to the project drags on. But if this current work stoppage is any form of litmus for the affair, chances are good this is just the start of the headaches to come. Whether team car or team mass transit, everyone’s getting tossed around, screwed over, fleeced, ripped off, and downright bamboozled. But my big question on the matter is simply, why?
Why, in that name of all that’s good and holy, is the financial health of one New York City public works project hopelessly, and irreparably tied to continuous implementation of another? Is there a reason it seems like city officials plan proceedings to pit pro-car and anti-car New Yorkers against each other deliberately, ultimately ensuring both sides feel their needs and opinions mean as much as toilet paper to the folks in charge? Do the City of New York and the MTA even want to complete these projects?
Forgive me as I don my foil hat and doomsday prepper MRE rations, but am I wrong for thinking it all feels fishier than the pollution-ridden striped bass right out of the Hudson? Not that I’m an expert on New York State public works funding or anything. But even so, it feels like there should be a lot more than one primary source of funding for the Second Avenue Subway that isn’t directly tied to a congestion charging plan that was under active litigation for months before Governor Kathy Hochul pulled the plug indefinitely.
Photo: MTA
Of course, the federal government did agree to throw NYC $3.4 billion to finish the Q-line linkup in East Harlem. But let’s be real. In New York City, that amount of money can keep a project going for the construction site equivalent to about five minutes. In total, this grant only accounted for roughly half of the SAS extension project, leaving the rest of that $3 billion and change bill at the feet of cabbies, delivery van drivers, independent contractors, carpoolers and rideshare jockeys that make up the bulk of Manhattan’s automotive traffic.
Of course, there’s the occasional cheeky twerp like me who cuts through Times Square to take the toll-free Queensboro Bridge instead of the Throgs Neck or Whitestone to Queens on trips from New Jersey. But most other people? They don’t drive in New York unless they have a damn good reason to do so. I.e., because their livelihood is on the line if they don’t. These people would’ve been hit the hardest under the congestion charge plan that would’ve gone into effect this month. But those plans are dead now; the SAS extension seems destined for years, if not decades, of delays, and New York’s terminal congestion problem is no closer to being solved than it was 20, even 30 years ago.
This brings me back to my original point. Do you ever get the feeling that New York City leadership is just dragging us along at this juncture? In short, do you understand they don’t really want to complete the congestion charge plan or the SAS extension? Is it better for those in charge if both issues are kept in stasis as political footballs while proponents of pro-car or pro-train legislation are used as pawns to keep the whole shebang going in perpetuity for generations? No shade to one side or the other of the political aisle, as this kind of thinking is a blight of bipartisan proportions.
As I’ve said time and again, until I’m stuck talking to myself in a semi-conscious delirium, there can and should be a solution that satisfies SAS extension funding without bending necessary commuters over the knee for a spanking to make it happen. You can find ways to ease Manhattan’s automotive traffic without penalizing drivers for having the gall to drive their work truck into Manhattan from Queens to fix a renter’s leaky drain pipe. But if you ask me, the current state of affairs is how it is because the whole thing was just one big psychological operation, a psyop, if you will.
Photo: Chris Buecheler from New York
Because if the congestion charge plan is dead in the water, then the people who tout it as the coming of authoritarianism in NYC politics will simply shut up and go back to work. Better still, if the MTA can drag its heels on the SAS extension for long enough, they can justifiably call it quits one day, brick the whole thing up, and turn it into another of NYC’s many abandoned/ghost stations.
I have to stress that I have no concrete evidence that city leaders deliberately poison public works projects for personal or political gain. But if you’ve lived in New York City for long enough, you learn this city is built on generations of greased palms and shady business practices quite unlike any other megacity in the world.Is it really a stretch of the imagination to think this might be the case? Have I just said the quiet part out loud?
It wasn’t perfect by any stretch, just Google who Robert Moses is if you don’t believe me. But there was once a time when a contractor driving into Manhattan felt just as comfortable in their commute as one taking the LIRR into Penn Station, save for the occasional gridlock. But hey, some would trade a packed train car full of sneezing masses for being stuck alone, in solitude, with the radio blasting in their own vehicle. To each their own, right? That’s the beauty of New York, at least it used to be. You used to have a choice in the matter without being gaslit into thinking they’re some kind of boogieman out to get the other team.
Photo: MTA
Is it all just another cog of a culture war machine that one side or the other can never hope to truly win? I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. But what do you folks think? Are you a team train girly or a team car king? Let us know in the comments down below.
