Congestion pricing is dead again

 

Eyewitness News 

  The U.S. Department of Transportation has pulled its approval for the MTA's congestion pricing toll program, but the MTA is vowing to take the decision to federal court to ensure the plan will continue.

In a release Wednesday, the DOT's Federal Highway Administration said it sent a letter to Gov. Kathy Hochul informing her that the department had rescinded the agreement.

"New York State's congestion pricing plan is a slap in the face to working class Americans and small business owners," said U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy. "Commuters using the highway system to enter New York City have already financed the construction and improvement of these highways through the payment of gas taxes and other taxes. But now the toll program leaves drivers without any free highway alternative, and instead, takes more money from working people to pay for a transit system and not highways. It's backwards and unfair. The program also hurts small businesses in New York that rely on customers from New Jersey and Connecticut. Finally, it impedes the flow of commerce into New York by increasing costs for trucks, which in turn could make goods more expensive for consumer. Every American should be able to access New York City regardless of their economic means. It shouldn't be reserved for an elite few."

Duffy said in the letter to Hochul that the plan is being terminated for two reasons:

1.) The scope of the CBDTP is unprecedented and provides no toll-free option for many drivers who want or need to travel by vehicle in this major urbanized area.

 

2.) The toll rate was set primarily to raise revenue for transit, rather than at an amount needed to reduce congestion.

MTA chair and CEO Janno Lieber released a statement that the MTA has already filed papers in federal court in response to the DOT's letter:

STFU Janno. You're done.

 

The President's Day Massacre

NY Post 

Half of New York City’s deputy mayors dramatically resigned Monday in a major blow to Eric Adams’ administration – as a top rival threatened the mass exodus could lead to his ouster.

The resignations of Adams’ four senior aides — led by First Deputy Mayor Maria Torres-Springer –thrust City Hall even deeper into uncharted territory as the mayor faces mounting questions about whether he can govern the city after his controversial reprieve from his historic corruption case by President Trump’s Justice Department.

The four deputy mayors — Torres-Springer, Deputy Mayor for Operations Meera Joshi, Deputy Mayor for Health Human Services Anne Williams-Isom and Deputy Mayor for Public Safety Chauncey Parker — resigned as dozens rallied in support of Adams unfolded in Rehoboth Cathedral in Brooklyn.

The rally contrasted with the growing calls for Adams to resign or Gov. Kathy Hochul to remove him from office in light of Trump’s DOJ moving to scuttle his criminal case — a move that many critics argue makes the mayor a hostage to the president.

 “I am disappointed to see them go, but given the current challenges, I understand their decision and wish them nothing but success in the future,” Adams said in a statement.

 orres-Springer, Williams-Isolm and Joshi issued a joint statement, citing the outgoing aides cited “the extraordinary events of the last few weeks” and “oaths we swore to New Yorkers and our families” as what led them to the “difficult decision” to leave.

Parker said the role was an “honor of a lifetime” but gave no reason for his departure.

City Comptroller Brad Lander, who is running for mayor in the Democratic primary, quickly fired off a letter to Adams demanding a “contingency plan” by Friday for how he’ll run the nation’s largest city.

He argued the leadership vacuum – as well as growing questions about whether Adams is beholden to Trump – could require him to invoke an obscure portion of the City Charter that sets up an “inability committee” with the powers to boot the mayor from office.

“In the absence of a contingency plan, the resignation of four or more deputy mayors, and the chaos created by the Justice Department’s actions regarding indictments against you, may well constitute inability to govern,” Lander wrote. 

“Should your office be unable or unwilling to formulate such a plan promptly, I will seek to convene a meeting of the Inability Committee.”

 

The five-person inability committee would consist of the city comptroller, corporation counsel, a deputy mayor, City Council Speaker and longest-serving borough president.

Other than suspension or removal by the governor, the inability committee is one of the only ways to remove a New York City mayor from office.

City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams, no relation to the mayor, said Monday that the resignations by the four deputy mayors showed the writing on the wall.

“(Eric Adams) now must prioritize New York City and New Yorkers, step aside and resign,” the speaker said in a statement. “This administration no longer has the ability to effectively govern with Eric Adams as mayor.”

 At least three of the exiting senior aides had signaled their intent to depart Adams’ troubled administration over the weekend, prompting a desperate Zoom meeting in which the increasingly isolated mayor tried to convince them to stay, or at least delay their exits.

 

At least one other deputy mayor — Fabien Levy, the chief mouthpiece for Adams — is also unhappy and eyeing an exit, multiple sources have told The Post.

“Rats jumping a sinking ship is always pretty bad,” one pundit quipped

Caption Indicted Mayor Eric Adams

The circle of life of the homeless industrial complex

Queens Chronicle 

 Elected officials representing Northeast and Eastern Queens are pleased that Gov. Hochul announced on Feb. 13 the closure of the controversial Humanitarian Emergency Response and Relief Center situated on the grounds of the Creedmoor Psychiatric Center in Queens Village.

Councilwoman Linda Lee (D-Oakland Gardens), Assemblyman Ed Braunstein (D-Bayside) and state Sen. Toby Ann Stavisky (D-College Point) issued a statement on the closure.

“Our offices have received confirmation from the Governor’s administration that the Creedmoor HERRC will be closing — a long-awaited and welcome decision for our community,” said the electeds in the joint statement. “For the past year and a half, residents have shown great patience while enduring the placement of a humanitarian shelter housing over 1,000 single adult males.”

The Governor’s Office said it will support the Eastern Queens’ community when it comes to public safety, affordability and quality of life issues in a statement.

“The State of New York stepped in to support the city’s effort to shelter tens of thousands of migrants by offering state-owned land to shelter these individuals,” said Matt Janiszewski, a spokesman for Hochul’s office. “Governor Hochul believes it’s entirely appropriate that the Creedmoor HERRC is one of the first shelters to close and did not offer the city a renewed lease at this site.”

As previously reported, two Cuban fugitive brothers, one who had a gun, were found at the tent city last year. Some of the migrants have utilized a playground meant for students at PS 18, which is across the street from the shelter. The Services Now for Adult Persons senior center is also on the Creedmoor complex, and some seniors have been intimidated by the men. 

“Since the shelter’s inception, our offices have consistently urged both [Mayor Adams] and the governor to acknowledge and address the community’s legitimate concerns,” the Northeast and Eastern officials continued. “In our joint letter to both administrations last month, we specifically requested that Creedmoor be prioritized for closure due to its detrimental impact on the surrounding area. With two social services centers and an elementary school nearby, it was evident from the start that this location was unsuitable for such a facility ... we look forward to seeing this transition take place beginning in March.”

Community Board 13 leaders also welcomed the news that what they called the wrongly sited HERRC was closing.

CB 13 members had problems with the site also being near a Little League complex and the Cross Island Y.

“Queens Community Board 13 thanks City Council Member Linda Lee, State Senator Toby Stavisky, Assembly Member Ed Braunstein and Borough President Donovan Richard for their staunch advocacy on behalf of our community throughout,” said CB 13 Chair Bryan Block, District Manager Mark McMillan and Land Use Subcommittee Chair Corey Beark in a joint statement via email. “This removal cannot happen too soon!”

 Queens Chronicle

 

Parents recently grew concerned when reports emerged about a permit being filed for a shelter at 118-08 Jamaica Ave., an empty lot in Richmond Hill.

Per the permit listed on the city Department of Buildings database, the building is proposed to be five stories tall with 12,407 square feet of space for the facility, which would include 129 beds.

The proposed shelter, to the dismay of many residents on neighborhood Facebook groups, is within walking distance of the Richmond Hill Library, PS 51, PS 90, Richmond Hill High School and the future elementary school slated to be built at 120-08 Jamaica Ave.

At Tuesday night’s Community Board 9 meeting at Queens Borough Hall, resident Paul Trust spoke on behalf of the Richmond Hill Block Association.

“We understand that at this juncture, a permit has been filed and no decision has been made regarding the fate of this property,” Trust said. “It is vital that the safety of the community remains a top priority.”

He said the corridor and the nearby intersection of Lefferts and Jamaica avenues have been “problematic.”

“Just recently, one of our members was accosted at Lefferts and Jamaica Avenue by a gentleman who became aggressive and shouted expletives when he asked for money and wanted more than the dollar that was given,” Trust said.

The architect on the permits is listed as Michael Kang, and the owner of the property is Gunnveet Sandhu.

According to both public records and Trust’s testimony during the public forum, Sandhu is part of the Sandhu Group, based out of Inwood, NY.

Back in December, during testimony at a City Council meeting, Councilmember Susan Zhuang (D-Brooklyn) expressed concerns about the group, which she said accrued multiple violations and fines totaling more than $140,000 across its developments.

The Sandhu family was charged with bribery in the third degree and a Class D felony, Zhuang said at the time.

The Sandhu Group declined to comment on the permit filed for 118-08 Jamaica Ave.

Hey, I know that pit.

Congestion pricing forgot to fix this

 

 

NY Daily News

The MTA’s plan to fix the ailing East New York Bus Depot, which has been without a functioning fire sprinkler system for nearly three years, has been pushed back again, the Daily News has learned — a delay that could cost the agency $5 million in overtime.

As previously reported by The News, the MTA has been struggling to fix a 2,000 foot underground pipe at the facility since 2021, when the line responsible for feeding the sprinkler system from the city main failed to hold pressure.

Since then, countless attempts to patch the pipe and plug the leaks have failed, though repair crews have flooded the facility’s boiler room and uncovered asbestos piping beneath a storeroom in the process.

A plan to replace 2,000 feet of leaky subterranean piping with an above-ground loop, first reported by The News, had initially been scheduled for completion in August 2026.

But sources with knowledge of the facility said this week that that date has now been pushed back to late June 2027, nearly an 11-month delay.

A contract for the work, which had been due to be awarded this month, has not yet been solicited — the award is now scheduled for June of this year.

“This project will be awarded and commenced in 2025, as anticipated,” MTA spokesperson Kayla Shults said in response to questions about the reason for the delay. “We look forward to delivering upgrades to this nearly century-old depot,” she added.

The broken subterranean pipe is designed to provide pressurized water to the depot’s thousands of sprinkler heads in the event of a fire. As previously reported by The News, the pipe has repeatedly burst and failed pressure tests.

The repair project — which also includes the replacement of 3,000 sprinkler heads on the depot’s first floor — is expected to cost the MTA more than $4.5 million to complete.

Meanwhile, the transit agency is expected to continue to pay dozens of transit workers overtime to patrol the sweeping facility as a so-called “fire watch,” looking for fire 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Queens Borough President Donnie Richards hires Transportation Alternatives lobbyist as "liaison" for transportation

 

 Queens Chronicle

Laura Shepard, chair of Community Board 2’s Environment, Parks and Recreation Committee, as well as an outspoken member of the Transportation Committee, announced her resignation at last Thursday’s board meeting.

Shepard is moving up to Queens Borough President Donovan Richards’ office, to serve as a transportation and parks liaison.

“I’m really going to actually miss serving with all of you,” Shepard said, reminiscing on her four years as a board member. Shepard, a former Queens Chronicle contributor, started as a reporter, sitting on the sidelines watching the board meetings, before making her way to the microphone for public comment and finally joining the panel.

“I just want to thank you all for your hard work and dedication to the community,” Shepard added. “And, going forward, I want to see you all at celebrations, not vigils.”

Y'all remember her. She was the one yelling along with other TransAlt minions at Vickie Paladino who were sabotaging the DOT's fake workshop to induce a bike lane in a mostly commercial traffic corridor. She and her pals were also calling her and the community against it "white supremacists" People should also be aware that the Queens DOT offices just happen to be inside Queens Borough Hall. If only Donald Manes was alive to see this.

 

Eric Adams is free

 

 associated press

The Justice Department on Monday ordered federal prosecutors to drop corruption charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams, arguing in a remarkable departure from long-standing norms that the case was interfering with the mayor’s ability to aid the president’s crackdown on illegal immigration.

In a two-page memo obtained by The Associated Press, acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove told prosecutors in New York that they were “directed to dismiss” the bribery charges against Adams immediately.

Bove said the order was not based on the strength of evidence in the case, but rather because it had been brought too close to Adams reelection campaign and was distracting from the mayor’s efforts to assist in the Trump administration’s law-and-order priorities.

“The pending prosecution has unduly restricted Mayor Adams’ ability to devote full attention and resources to the illegal immigration and violent crime,” Bove wrote.

The memo also ordered prosecutors in New York not to take “additional investigative steps” against the Democrat until after November’s mayoral election, though it left open the possibility that charges could be refiled after that following a review.

The intervention and reasoning — that a powerful defendant could be too occupied with official duties to face accountability for alleged crimes — marked an extraordinary deviation from long-standing Justice Department norms.

Public officials at the highest level of government are routinely investigated by the Justice Department, including President Donald Trump during his first term, without prosecutors advancing a claim that they should be let off the hook to attend to government service.

An attorney for Adams, Alex Spiro, said the Justice Department’s order had vindicated the mayor’s claim of innocence. “Now, thankfully, the mayor and New York can put this unfortunate and misguided prosecution behind them,” said Spiro, who has also represented Elon Musk.

A spokesperson for the acting U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, Danielle Sassoon, declined to comment. The case against Adams was brought under the previous U.S. attorney for the district, Damien Williams, who stepped down before Trump became president.

 

(Don't fear) The Driver's Tax Reaper

Queens Victoria

 

 City And State

“Go fuck yourself.” 

“Go fuck yourself, how’s that?”

That’s how Republican New York City Council Member Vickie Paladino responded to a man she thought was a squatter outside a Whitestone, Queens, home after she called the dilapidated property “a disgrace.” The August 2022 exchange between the small, straight-talking lawmaker and a very surly large man smoking a joint was filmed by her staffer. Paladino chose to post it online, and, like much Paladino content, it went viral. 

Paladino drove by the house on her way to work after a constituent complained, not expecting to meet the man face to face. “We won’t have this goings on in this neighborhood,” she tells the man shortly before he exhales his marijuana smoke in her face. “It won’t happen. It just won’t happen.”

Paladino flipped “this neighborhood” red by a razor-thin margin in 2021. Months after his loss to her that year, Democratic former state Sen. Tony Avella said, “It may be necessary to create an unofficial government in exile in order to show the rest of the city she does not properly represent Northeast Queens.”

That’s the thing, though: She does represent Northeast Queens. Everything about the alleged squatter video – Paladino’s nerve, her husky voice and her intolerance of the appearance of the man’s house and his blasé attitude – is just so Northeast Queens, and so Vickie Paladino, the Republican lawmaker known for her silver hair, direct confrontations and extreme right-wing politics.

She carried the district by 20 points in her 2023 rematch against Avella. President Donald Trump – who Paladino passionately supports – won back the White House in November with the strongest show of support in New York in decades, making dramatic gains in New York City. That rightward shift has been brewing in Queens for several election cycles, as Paladino’s popularity evinces. Many may find her extreme online rhetoric about immigrants and transgender people, congestion pricing and vaccine mandates abhorrent, but when you visit her in her district office and see how people respond to her in real life, it’s difficult to deny that what she is doing is working politically.

“I think if you’re going to talk objectively and talk about what’s going to lead to the most electoral success (for the GOP) – especially on the heels of President Trump’s results in the city and state – the only direction is to embrace a more populist, MAGA tone and direction,” said New York Young Republican Club President Gavin Wax. “And that’s embodied by Vickie Paladino.”

Paladino is aware of her reputation. When I tell her the question my Gen Z friends and millennial peers have asked me most often about her over my three years covering her – “Is she actually crazy?” – the 70-year-old laughs. “I love it when they ask that.”

Council Member Chi Ossé, the progressive, TikTok-loving 26-year-old lawmaker from  Bedford-Stuyvesant, has been among Paladino’s harshest critics, particularly online. So you can imagine my surprise when, at the end of a contentious council meeting on Mayor Eric Adams’ City of Yes housing proposal, I saw Paladino and Ossé among the few still lingering in the council chamber, laughing together – hard. What was so funny? “We said we’d be, like, the best of friends if we weren’t living in alternate universes – but we do,” Paladino said, “alternate universes,” meaning “far left, far right, whatever you want to call it.”

“We have so many disagreements … I would say she’s my rival, in a way, my tether,” Ossé said a few minutes later. “But … whether you like what she says or not, she tells it like it is – she’s truthful, she’s upfront. And I think in a world of politicians who bundle a bunch of things up through niceties and fakeness, Vickie’s 100% herself.”

Roy Wilkins Park recreation centers are falling apart from neglect and unaccountability

 

 Queens Chronicle

There was tension in the air at the Robert Ross Johnson Family Life Center in St. Albans on Monday.

It quickly became standing-room-only as nearly 230 people filed in for the Southeast Queens Parks Update meeting, which became contentious as accusations were lobbed from elected officials and some members of the crowd about the existing and planned Roy Wilkins recreation centers, located at 177-01 Baisley Blvd. in St. Albans.

“I love to speak facts because the numbers speak for themselves,” said Borough President Donovan Richards. “We don’t do rhetoric, we do results. There has been a lot of misinformation disseminated around Roy Wilkins, but we are not just going to stay there tonight. We are going to make sure that we speak about the progress being made in Southeast Queens.

“Tonight is not about revisionist history. All of you are ambassadors for your parks. The parks are lungs in our community.”

As Richards told the crowd to join park friends groups and advocate on behalf of their specific green spaces, James Johnson, the advisory chair of the Southern Queens Park Association, the predominantly Black stewardship group responsible for programming at the existing center, accused the elected official of kowtowing to the Parks Department.

Johnson shouted that the sprinklers and fire panel at the existing center were not working, resulting in one member in the crowd asking if the facility is safe for children who attend summer and afterschool programs there.

“We heard that it is a major fire hazard,” the crowd member said on a postcard that was read aloud by a staff member from Richard’s office.

On whether it is safe, “Yes, yes, yes,” said Parks Commissioner Sue Donoghue. “The children are safe. The facility is safe and we would not run — we could not run a facility that was not safe. ... We have to get permits by the Department of Buildings. There is no way we could run a center if it was not safe. It is our top priority always in all of our centers that they are safe for children and families.”

Donoghue said there are fire guards in place at the center and there are such personnel at 12 other centers across the city, which meets Fire Department code, and the sites are FDNY-certified because of that.

A source from SQPA, who wished to remain anonymous, said their organization was receiving fines meant for the Parks Department because of issues related to the fire safety and a staff member had to go to court to address the matter.

A source from Parks said the fire alarm is currently functional and is monitored by fire guards. Also, as part of Parks’ upcoming capital needs assessment, the agency will determine the work needed to have the sprinkler system repaired and have the fire alarm system registered with the FDNY.

According to the SQPA, the sprinklers have been out since 1986.

The FDNY was not available for comment as of press time.

The New Boss

 

 NY Post

The new GOP chief on the City Council told The Post after her stunning ascension Friday that she wants to be a “hands-on” leader while growing the Republican presence in New York.

“We want to grow our party in the senate, in the assembly, grow our party right here in the City Council,” said Queens Councilwoman Joann Ariola — who took the helm of the smattering of Republicans on the council in a contoversial vote Friday.

Ariola, born and raised in the 32nd District that she serves, said her focus as the council’s GOP leader won’t stray from her current priorities — which include getting unvaxxed city workers who were sacked during the pandemic their jobs back and making sure “sanctuary city” laws serving even some illegal migrants are used for their intended purpose. 

“If the president brought back the people who were in the armed forces without having to get alleged vaccine, why can’t our municipal workers come back?” Ariola said.

“And our right-to-shelter laws in this city were meant for our homeless population,” she said. 

Such issues have been debated exhaustively between the council and the Adams administration —  but Ariola hopes as a GOP leader she’ll be able to push the agenda even more with the help of other Republican honchos and even Democrats.

“I want this to be a working office. I want this to be an office that is active on all levels of government, from the federal government all the way to the city government,” she said.

“I want to continue to work with all my colleagues even on the Democratic side, and the speaker. It’s very important to have that relationship.

“I was also once chair of the [Queens] Republican Party, and I really had no problem backing a conservative Democrat.”

The longtime Queens civic leader won a Republican primary in June 2021 with more than 80% of the vote and in November the same year was elected to the City Council in a general election by a margin of more than 65%.