Albany Rebuffs City Traffic Plan

NY Times ^ | July 17, 2007 | DANNY HAKIM and NICHOLAS CONFESSORE

[neverdem]

ALBANY, July 16 — Lawmakers on Monday shelved Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s plan to charge a fee to drivers entering the busiest parts of Manhattan, dealing a setback to the mayor as he tries to raise his national profile and promote his environmental initiatives.

The State Senate, which had convened in a special session, adjourned without taking up the plan after it became apparent that the votes for passage were not there.

Meanwhile, the Assembly speaker, Sheldon Silver, proposed sending the issue to a study commission that would also consider other ways to reduce traffic, and giving the Legislature until next March to act.

The developments suggested that passage of the mayor’s plan, or one resembling the original, was unlikely. Asked if congestion pricing was dead, Senator Martin J. Golden, a Brooklyn Republican who supports the plan, said, “It doesn’t sound like it’s alive, that’s for sure.”

Mr. Bloomberg had lobbied hard and backed an extensive publicity campaign to pressure lawmakers to approve his plan by Monday, the deadline for the city to seek as much as $500 million in federal aid. But legislators complained that he had failed to answer basic...

--snip--

In a tense meeting on Monday, testy exchanges erupted between the mayor and the Democratic state senators he was trying to win over. At one point, according to several people present, Mr. Bloomberg told the senators that his administration had sent plenty of information about his plan in the mail, and that it was not his fault if they had not read it.

“If the mayor came in with one vote, he left with none,” said Senator Kevin S. Parker, a Brooklyn Democrat.

“His posture was not ingratiating,” he said. “He says he doesn’t know politics, and he certainly bore that out by the way he behaved.”

[neverdem]

Bloomberg's powers of persuasion seem rather limited, even if this is Albany. He strikes me as just another moonbat.

[thefactor]

thank god. it would have been anarchy if this went through.

[samtheman]

This would have just pushed the traffic problem to nearby areas, just outside the “congestion line” where people would park to pile onto mass transit. Meanwhile, with the increased burden on mass transit, the only results would probably be higher fares and worse service.

This was a bad idea born out of panic for the need to get those matching funds.

Bloomberg proved he can’t plan his way out of a brown paper bag.

Presidential material? I don’t think so.