On June 27, 2023, Gov. Kathy Hochul took the podium to warn New Yorkers that smoke and haze from wildfires in Canada would envelop the state and air quality could fall to “hazardous” levels.
“This could deteriorate very quickly,” she warned.
Another thing that deteriorated very quickly was her support for congestion pricing. Hochul’s decision to suspend the plan indefinitely was all the more startling because as recently as May 20 she was extolling its virtues.
“Walk around many major cities and it won’t take long to encounter frustrated drivers caught in traffic jams, cars spewing exhaust on overpacked streets. We determined the average New York City driver spends 102 hours a year stuck in traffic,” she said at the Global Economic Summit in Ireland, according to tweet from Gothamist reporter Jon Campbell. “That’s four days sitting behind the wheel of a car instead of sitting by your kid’s bedside, reading them a book, sitting around the dinner table or reconnecting with a friend. There has to be a better way.”
“It took a long time [to get congestion pricing approved] because people feared backlash from drivers set in their way,” she added. “But, much like housing, if we’re serious about making cities more livable, we must get over that.”
Likewise, overcoming congestion pricing foes was on the governor’s mind when she spoke at a press conference on Dec. 5, 2023.
“From time to time leaders are called upon to envision a better future,” she said. “To be bold in the implementation and execution and undaunted by the opposition.”
Congestion pricing was approved by the state Legislature in 2019 after years of battle. There were some concerns about how supportive Hochul was during the 2022 gubernatorial campaign because she said congestion pricing wouldn’t begin that year. She quickly clarified her thinking.
“I support congestion pricing 100%,” she said at a Democratic primary debate on June 16, 2022. “I’m not sure where the allegation came that I don’t.”
By August 2022, Hochul announced that congestion pricing was back on track after a few hiccups with the Biden administration. “The MTA is the lifeblood. We will be focusing on ways to generate revenues with congestion pricing,” she told The New York Times. In December of that year, she and Mayor Eric Adams co-signed a report , titled “Making New York Work for Everyone;” it said that both leaders “firmly support” congestion pricing.
Last June, federal transportation officials finally signed off on New York’s congestion pricing plan, and Hochul seemed pleased as could be, especially in light of all the sooty air blowing in from the Canadian forest fires.
“We are truly the first generation to feel the real effects of climate change,” she said. “And we’re also the last generation to do anything meaningful about it.”
Eddie Small contributed reporting.
Aaron Elstein , 2024-06-05 21:44:45
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