State Legislature

Constituents picketed outside the office of Ruben Diaz, Sr. yesterday to urge the Bronx state senator to get behind the MTA rescue plan, which includes new tolls on East and Harlem River bridges. Though some 140,000 people in his district use transit every day, and are facing serious service cuts along with steep fare hikes, Diaz is adamantly opposed to the tolls, which would affect a relative handful of drivers.

The headlines this morning were sobering for everyone who depends on New York City's transit system. Half-baked alternatives to the Ravitch plan are popping up left and right as bridge toll opponents dig in their heels, despite the whopping service cuts and fare hikes that loom for their constituents. With Senate Majority Leader Malcolm Smith bringing talks to a standstill, Streetsblog asked Gene Russianoff, senior lawyer for the Straphangers Campaign and veteran of many a fight over MTA financing, about what comes next.

As debate on the MTA rescue plan is reduced to stall tactics and race-baiting, the Campaign for New York's Future is organizing a Lobby Day citizen bus trip to Albany, set for next Wednesday, March 18.

It’s too early to know if Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver’s answer to the Ravitch Commission MTA bailout plan, which includes $2 tolls on East and Harlem River bridges, will make it through the state legislature. But, despite raising less money and reducing traffic much less than congestion pricing or peak-hour tolling would, the plan is a big advance and would provide a number of benefits beyond raising funds for transit. Streetsblog will look at the implications of the bridge tolls in more detail, but based on public comments and the Ravitch Commission report, here's a quick summary of what's in the offing if the plan passes.

A reader forwards this email from Assembly member Jim Brennan's office, apparently sent in response to the "Keep New York Moving" petition in support of an MTA rescue plan:

This afternoon, the State Senate is holding a hearing at Brooklyn Borough Hall to review the Ravitch Commission's MTA rescue plan. Albany has until March 25th to stave off major fare hikes and service cuts, a doomsday scenario that would spell disaster for transit riders and choke New York City streets with more auto traffic.

Just how bad are the service cuts and layoffs that transit agencies across the country will soon be forced to enact? Severe enough to weaken the national economy, the New York Times reports -- all while Congress pieces together a stimulus plan that does nothing to address the problem:

In response to the crash that killed two young children on a Chinatown sidewalk yesterday, Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer and State Senator Daniel Squadron have released a nine-point plan to improve safety on the neighborhood's streets. From Stringer's press release:

Last month the Brooklyn Paper asked around for some person-on-the-street perspectives about how to fund our transit system, and look what they found. Talk to Brooklynites who aren't ensconced in their cars, and you get some pretty consistent answers: No one thought drivers should get a free pass.