Hoch has poked the bear.
Gov. Hochul scorned President Trump for killing congestion pricing, finally loudly and proudly standing up for the tolling program.
At a hastily called press conference-cum-rally in Grand Central Station, a reporter asked the governor — who herself had paused congestion pricing during the Biden administration — whether her full-throated criticism of the president meant her administration would embarked on a new era of standing up to 47.
“The bear has been poked,” she replied.
Hochul’s impassioned speech compared the Founding Fathers' fight against the British monarchy to today's New Yorkers standing up to Trump, a reference to the president rechristening himself "the king” on Truth Social and X after his Transportation Department withdrew its approval for congestion pricing:
Hochul went on to accuse Trump of attacking the sovereignty of New York State.
“At 1 p.m. today, the U.S. Department of Transportation emailed us a letter from Secretary Duffy announcing their attempt to end the congestion pricing program in the state of New York. At 1:58 p.m. President Donald Trump tweeted, 'Long live the king.' I'm here to say New York hasn't labored under a king in over 250 years. We are not subservient to a king or anyone else out of Washington,” said Hochul.
“If in some world they are successful [in cancelling the program], the next time you’re stuck in traffic, your train is delayed, think about this,” the governor added, holding up the White House's picture of a gloating president wearing a crown on a fake magazine cover.
The presser followed Department of Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy's announcement at around 12:30 p.m. on Wednesday that the feds had pulled approval for congestion pricing, a promise that Trump made on the campaign trail. In his announcement, Duffy said the White House was killing the toll out of concern for the “working class,” though he failed to mention the millions of working-class New Yorkers who rely on public transit, and the fact that the vast majority who work in the central business district don’t drive (not to mention that the ones who do are, on average, wealthier than their transit-using neighbors).
For now, Hochul said that the tolling cameras are still on — and will stay that way unless the MTA loses the legal battle against Trump that it began only 90 minutes after Duffy's announcement.
“We're in fight mode,” the Governor said. “We knew this could come; we filed a lawsuit within minutes. I'm very confident we'll be successful. And I also want to say the cameras are staying on. We are keeping the cameras on.”
At the press conference, MTA CEO Janno Lieber cited the many ways that the city is already benefitting from the tolls.
“Let me just take you through what's happened in the month and a half since tolling began,” said Lieber. “Speeds are up, up, up. The streets are safer. Half as many crashes. And that means pedestrians are not getting injured and killed.”
By all of the metrics available in the short time which the cameras have been turned on, the city is improving. Streetsblog found that bus drivers in the central business district are reporting dramatically less traffic and faster speeds, school buses are moving faster and idling less, crashes are down in the tolling area, Broadway is thriving, and more pedestrians are bringing their business to Lower Manhattan.
Advocates were shocked and pleased with Hochul’s bold support, saying that it gives them confidence that the governor will finally fight for the tolling program.
“I think the MTA leadership has been very vocal in favor of congestion pricing for a long time now. But the governor has obviously been very tepid on it,” said Brent Bovenzi, who attended pro-congestion pricing rallies after the governor paused the program last summer. “It’s great to see some backbone, finally.”
Another advocate, who lives in the congestion relief zone, said the toll has remarkably improved his quality of life.
“To be honest, before they turned on the cameras, it was complete mayhem,” said Christopher Sanders. “And then congestion pricing just kind of cleaned it all up. I was like, 'Oh my God, I'm shocked. It works so well.' I'm still shocked. It works so well.”
