Recent Streetsblog NYC posts about Albany Reform

State Sen. Martin Connor Secretly “Supported” Pricing All Along

By Ben Fried | May 21, 2008 | 20 Comments

With state primary campaigns ramping up, Observer political reporter Azi Paybarah seems to be everywhere with his video camera. In this clip from a debate held by Democracy for New York City, he captures State Senator Martin Connor, who represents lower Manhattan and parts of Brooklyn, in an unprompted admission of legislative cowardice. While fielding […]

Dick Gottfried Blames Bloomberg for Pricing Non-Vote

By Brad Aaron | May 20, 2008 | 21 Comments

Care of the Politicker, here’s 38-year incumbent Assembly Member Dick Gottfried explaining to the Chelsea Reform Democratic Club, whose endorsement he wants for his re-election bid, how democratic Shelly Silver’s house is in comparison to the state Senate. All things considered, it’s a jaw-dropping spiel. Then, at about the three-minute mark, an audience member asks […]

Revenge of the Free Riders

By Aaron Naparstek | May 15, 2008 | 21 Comments

From Transportation Alternatives’ Spring 2008 magazine: The biggest hurdle congestion pricing faced was the simple fact that the people required to enact the legislation were the ones who stood to pay the most because of it. On Monday, April 7, Sheldon Silver walked out of a closed door meeting of State Assembly Democrats and announced […]

Daily News to Congestion Pricing Opponents: “Your Fault”

By Brad Aaron | May 14, 2008 | 15 Comments

With higher gas prices pushing drivers onto the city’s trains and buses, the Daily News today blasted Speaker Sheldon Silver and Assembly Dems for passing up the billions of dollars that congestion pricing would have brought to MTA coffers. The trends prove that the theory of congestion pricing was valid: When the cost of driving […]

Driver’s Remorse: Tardy Brodsky Delayed by “Accident”

By Ben Fried | May 14, 2008 | 6 Comments

A tipster who attended last night’s MAS event about Moynihan Station sent us this delicious tidbit, in which some small measure of justice is served for Westchester Assemblyman Richard Brodsky’s contribution to the killing of congestion pricing: Scheduled to appear at a panel discussion on the fate of Moynihan Station beginning at 6:30 pm Tuesday […]

Electeds Go to the Mat for Cheap Gas

By Brad Aaron | May 14, 2008 | 7 Comments

Desperate to look as if they’re responding to motorists complaints and prayers, state and federal electeds continue to scramble for a quick fix to ever-rising gas prices. In Albany, Senate Republicans have adopted the state gas tax "holiday" as their issue of the moment. Since the largely-ridiculed measure is going nowhere in the Assembly, Joe […]

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