Letter to the Editor: March 11

Response to “Cuomo and de Blasio are MIA concerning congestion pricing”

March 11, 2021 Brooklyn Eagle Staff

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This Letter to the Editor is a response to the opinion piece, “Cuomo and de Blasio are MIA concerning congestion pricing” from March 3, 2021.

It’s the author’s logic, the ability to understand his letter, and necessary details which are MIA.

First, the author states NEPA is “probably an environmental review.” Probably? Doesn’t the author know? A quick Google search reveals it to be “National Environmental Policy Act.” The author doesn’t care enough about his opinion piece to verify his facts?

Second, the author mentions the Traffic Mobility Review Board. It would be nice if the author told us what this is. A quick Internet check reveals it to be the panel that studies the issue of Congestion Pricing.

Another detail the author fails to disclose is that no member of the Senate or Assembly wanted to reveal a price for congestion pricing until after Election Day.

The author discusses “who will pay for what.” I assume he is referring to the price of putting congestion tolling infrastructure in place. It would be nice if he told us what he means.

The author then predicts the MTA will end up with only $6 billion. How can the author possibly predict this when we have no idea when (or if) congestion pricing will begin, how much it will cost to put the infrastructure in place, what will be the price drivers will pay, and what effect will it have on incoming traffic?

The author then states how placing your hopes on Buttigieg and Biden to fast track the process might not result in the NEPA process being completed until June 2021 or later. What exactly does “placing our hopes” have to do with the speed at which they will move?

The author then states that the $15,000,000,000 could have gone a long way toward solving the financial crisis. What crises? The MTA’s? Where did this $15,000,000,000 come from? No date of the completion of the project has been established, you cannot possibly predict what effect it will have on traffic and therefore revenue, you cannot possibly say who will pay the price of the infrastructure, no price has yet been established, yet somehow the project will bring in $15,000,000,000?

— Nat Weiner

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