Today: Dueling Congestion Pricing Press Events

State Assembly Member Richard Brodsky (D-Westchester) is releasing his report on Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s congestion pricing proposal on the steps of City Hall today at 2:00 pm. Billed as "the first thorough, independent, and fair-minded" analysis (Apparently, the Partnership for New York’s two-year study wasn’t thorough and Bruce Schaller’s massive body of research wasn’t independent enough for Brodsky).

Brodsky’s report is — big shocker — "sharply critical" of the Mayor’s traffic relief plan and suggests that "it would impose an unfair tax on lower- and middle-income drivers," according to the New York Times.

Prior to Brodsky’s press conference, Mayor Bloomberg will be detailing the mass transit benefits of PlaNYC and "the need for Albany to act by July 16th to secure up to $500 million worth of federal funds to implement short-term mass transit improvements and to set up a pilot congestion pricing program." The Mayor will be appearing at the New York Building Congress forum, 1:00 pm, at the Ritz-Carlton Battery Park.

ALSO ON STREETSBLOG

Brodsky Attacks Critics of His Congestion Pricing Study

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On the Brian Lehrer show this morning, Assembly Member Richard Brodsky brushed off reports of his parking industry campaign contributions and TA, RPA and Streetsblog’s substantive criticism of his congestion pricing study as a "personal attack." Here’s a transcript:  Brian Lehrer: Streetsblog, the website, reported yesterday that over the past five years you have accepted […]

Brodsky Sows Doubt, Misinformation at Brooklyn Pricing Debate

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Fred Siegel of the Progressive Policy Institute moderated Sunday’s debate. On Sunday, Temple Beth Emeth in Ditmas Park, Brooklyn hosted a classic congestion pricing match-up: Michael O’Loughlin of the Campaign for New York’s Future vs. Assemblyman Richard Brodsky (who, it turns out, went to shul at Beth Emeth until age ten). The crowd of 50 […]

Brodsky Represents NYC’s Wealthiest Car Commuters

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Here is a complete copy of Assembly Member Richard Brodsky’s "Interim Report and Inquiry" into New York City’s long-term planning and congestion pricing proposals. Brodsky, you may recall, is the powerful state lawmaker with the moneybag full of parking industry contributions. Brodsky’s 20-page report concludes: The Mayor deserves great credit for thinking seriously about the […]

From a Sea of Green, Bloomberg Works a Tough Room

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Flanked by dozens, if not hundreds, of citizen spectators in bright green "I Breathe and I Vote" t-shirts, Mayor Michael Bloomberg and city staffers this morning made the case for a three-year congestion pricing pilot program to a largely hostile cadre of state Assembly members. Seated alongside ten colleagues in the auditorium of the New […]

PlaNYC Testimony Live on NY1 Right Now

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Mayor Bloomberg is presenting his plan for a greater greener New York at the first in a series of Assembly hearings today, where he is pitching his congestion pricing plan, among other aspects of his proposal for a sustainable city. DOT Deputy Commissioner Bruce Schaller got a nice introduction at the start. Watch it live […]