Queens is burning: Car meetup in Malba gets ultraviolent as participants torch a security car and beat down a resident in front of his house

Last night in Malba, a large group of individuals from outside my district conducted an illegal 'takeover' of a quiet residential street at approximately 12:30am. This is not the first time it's happened.

A private security guard attempted to calm the situation -- he was… pic.twitter.com/sSL7aWuufC

— Councilwoman Vickie Paladino (@VickieforNYC) November 23, 2025

 

From the way @NYCCouncil member Paladino explains this and what this community experienced, it seems @ZohranKMamdani Department of Community Safety already exists and the NYPD treated this as a "social worker" response situation instead of the crimes being committed at the time… https://t.co/XI5fgnGzik

— JQ LLC (@ImpunityCity) November 24, 2025

 NY Post

A rowdy mob beat a Queens couple and set a car ablaze when the residents and other locals tried to stop a wild car meet-up in their neighborhood early Sunday, according to the victims and video.

The disturbing attack occurred when a bunch of out-of-control drivers descended on South Drive and 141st Street in Malba, doing donuts and speeding over lawns around 12:30 a.m. 

“When I came out, I said, ‘Bro, you gotta get the f–k off my property,’ and that’s when it all started,” victim Blake Ferrer told The Post.

 

Video shows a group of about a dozen ruffians kicking, punching and stomping Ferrer, who was left with a broken nose and ribs. His wife was also hit.

Ferrer was “lucky he wasn’t killed,” said disgusted City Councilwoman Vickie Paladino, who represents the neighborhood.

Larry Rusch, 59, a local whose car was set on fire, said it “was a complete melee.”

 

Hell on wheels on Rockaway Blvd.

 

Queens Chronicle

Police were mocked and their vehicles vandalized during another raucous illicit car meet in Ozone Park late Saturday into early Sunday morning. Cops are seeking multiple individuals wanted for reckless endangerment and criminal mischief in the matter.

The incident occurred within the confines of the 102nd Precinct, in the vicinity of Rockaway Boulevard and 97th Avenue, at around 12:50 a.m., police said.

A group of individuals recklessly operated multiple cars and vandalized three NYPD vehicles. Authorities said the suspects dented the sides of the police cars and broke multiple vehicle windows using traffic cones. The group fled the location in various directions in multiple vehicles. No injuries were reported. Several people have been charged.

Footage posted to the social media platform Instagram by someone at the meet shows the delinquents surrounding both marked and unmarked police vehicles, jeering and making vulgar gestures at the officers seated inside before throwing a traffic cone on top of one marked vehicle’s windshield. The cops seated inside stare straight ahead, unmoving.

The car meet situation is not unfamiliar for those living in the area, as that location, near Cherry Valley Marketplace, at 84-12 97th Ave., has seen its share of rogue gatherings over the years. The issue recurs every few months, residents say, with large groups gathering to do doughnuts, race and perform other dangerous activities in their vehicles.

But the attack on police is a new factor.

Videos from the incident, centered on Rockaway and 84th Street, were posted to neighborhood Facebook pages and received hundreds of comments, with the majority of respondents outraged at the exhibited behavior.

The Ozone Park Residents Block Association on Monday sent a letter to Mayor Adams, the city Department of Transportation and area elected officials about the matter.

“This past Saturday, March 29, 2025, from approximately 10:00 PM until 1:30 AM on Sunday, a large group of individuals unlawfully took over Rockaway Boulevard between 83rd and 84th Streets. This has been a worsening trend over the past five years, with each incident growing in scale and audacity,” the letter read. “We commend the officers of the 102nd Precinct for their diligent efforts in curbing these meets in private lots and parks. However, now that the problem has moved into our streets, they require reinforcements and a coordinated response plan.”

The block association called on city leadership to “take decisive action before this issue spirals further out of control.”

The Cityline Ozone Park Civilian Patrol in a statement thanked the NYPD’s 102nd Precinct for its quick response.

“After the last major incident at this intersection, we wrote to the NYC Department of Transportation calling for permanent traffic-calming infrastructure — including flex-post delineators,” the group wrote. “We renew that call today. This can’t keep happening. And it’s going to take more than just enforcement to stop it.”

Driving mandate

 

 AMNY

The number of people traveling in and out of New York City by car is higher than ever before, even as mass transit ridership continues to lag behind levels seen before the COVID-19 pandemic, a new report on MTA finances from State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli revealed.

Crossings on the MTA’s seven bridges and two tunnels across New York City climbed to 335 million in 2023, already a record, and are expected to hit 339 million in 2024, according to DiNapoli’s report. That comes even as paid weekday ridership on the subway still hovers at around 70% of pre-COVID averages, with higher numbers registered on weekends, suggesting a permanent shift to working from home even as New Yorkers take transit for personal activities.

Even worse, MTA ridership over the next several years is expected to recover still more slowly than officials once projected: in November 2020, consulting giant McKinsey & Company predicted ridership would rise to 86% of pre-COVID levels by 2026, but MTA brass now concede it will likely average only 80% by that time.

Suck it, Open Plans.

 

The 104 and the battle against real traffic violence

 

QNS

 

The NYPD 104th Precinct has towed 463 vehicles this year and expects to surpass that soon, according to Commanding Officer Captain Karam Chowdhury. Last year, they towed 553 vehicles, leaving them just 90 cars shy of last year’s total, making this year even more productive.

The NYPD’s 104th Precinct has towed 463 vehicles so far this year and expects to surpass last year’s total within the next few months, according to Commanding Officer Captain Karam Chowdhury.

Last year, the 104th Precinct, which serves Ridgewood, Maspeth, Glendale and Middle Village, towed 553 vehicles in total, Chowdhury shared exclusively with QNS.

Now just 90 vehicles shy of last year’s total, the precinct is on track to surpass that number, marking an even more productive year.

Notably, between Sunday, July 14, and Wednesday, Aug. 14, the precinct towed exactly 90 vehicles, Chowdhury noted.

Ongoing efforts to address residents’ quality-of-life concerns regarding illegally parked and derelict vehicles are what Chowdhury says keep the existing issues at bay.

“We want to make sure that people can park their vehicles instead of derelict vehicles or unregistered vehicles parking in the street,” Chowdhury said. “We just make sure that we do as much as we can to elevate [resident’s] parking issues. Especially in this neighborhood.”

Residents and elected officials’ attempts to have the 104 thwart the problem with derelict vehicles and illegally parked cars have also led to e-scooter confiscations.

As a whole, the precinct is up 110% in summonses directly co-related to e-scooters, Chowdhury added.

One example, shared early on Wednesday, Aug. 14, shows the precinct taking to social media to share at least six confiscations of more e-scooters in the area. Additional posts throughout the year also show officers with confiscated e-scooters, loading them into a larger truck to be hauled away.

Chowdhury, who took over command of the 104th Precinct towards the end of January this year, continues to grapple with the logistics of tackling 311 parking complaints with a limited amount of resources.

Regardless of the challenges and the thousands of 311 complaints overall, the CO says the issues will continue to be addressed.

“We take complaints, we try to gather information and try to see where our most complaints coming from,” Chowdhury said, “Then we target those locations, making sure that these cars are no longer in the street if it’s derelict, or not registered.”

 

Drive, we said

AMNY  

More people are driving cars in New York City than ever before, based on toll data from the MTA and Port Authority — a remarkable feat as the city prepares to implement congestion pricing in the hopes of dissuading motorists from getting behind the wheel in favor of mass transit.

Over 335 million vehicles were recorded crossing the MTA’s nine bridges and tunnels in 2023, which include the Whitestone, Throgs Neck, Cross-Bay, and Verrazzano-Narrows Bridges and the Brooklyn-Battery and Queens-Midtown Tunnels, among others. That’s a 1.3% increase over the previous record in 2019, when 330.7 million crossings were made, and the most ever seen in 87 years of data collection.

In 1937 — the first year that the MTA Bridges & Tunnels’ predecessor, the Triborough Bridge & Tunnel Authority, was in operation — the bridges saw only 18.5 million crossings. Back then, the TBTA had only three bridges in its portfolio: the Triborough Bridge, the Henry Hudson Bridge, and the Marine Parkway Bridge.

The Port Authority, meanwhile, has this year seen the highest number of vehicle crossings on its six spans — including the George Washington Bridge, Holland and Lincoln Tunnels, and the Bayonne and Goethals Bridges and Outerbridge Crossing connecting Staten Island and New Jersey — since at least 2011. Through October, the latest month that data is available, the Port Authority had recorded just over 102 million crossings.

In its 2024 budget proposal, the Port Authority projected its bridges and tunnels would see 122 million crossings next year.

New York City’s Department of Transportation could not immediately provide numbers for its bridges throughout the city, which include major spans like the Brooklyn, Manhattan, Williamsburg, and Queensboro Bridges and hundreds of short crossings all over the five boroughs. Unlike the MTA and Port Authority, the DOT does not collect tolls.

However, DOT did record that the number of vehicles registered in the city grew more than 10% between 2010 and 2021, according to the agency’s Streets Plan update earlier this year. The numbers for 2022 will be published in early 2024.

 

Bike zealot re-imagines "Fast Car"

 

Streetsblob 

 I headed over to Wegman's today on my $7,000 cargo bike to see if there were any Presidents Day sales on soy based meat. While browsing the aisles, Tracy Chapman's "Fast Car" started playing on the supermarket sound system. I got so upset I almost put down the case of LaCroix I had in my arms and left. This song needs to stop being played in public. Why? Well, the car culture is waaay too strong in this one.

Let's set aside the fact that the song is literally encouraging reckless driving. I mean, it's called FAST CAR. And let's also set aside that the song is about heartbreak and keeping hope alive in the face of despair.

Let's get down to the real nitty gritty.

First stanza

"I want a ticket to anywhere."

If she lived in a 15 minute city, she wouldn't be clinging to a cager driving a death machine to get out.

Second stanza

"Won't have to drive too far, Just 'cross the border and into the city."

Hey lady, if it's not that far, you should be taking public transportation and saving the environment.

Fifth stanza

"So I remember when we were driving, driving in your car, Speed so fast it felt like I was drunk, City lights lay out before us"

That's how fast your loser boyfriend was driving around and you didn't bail? City lights mean there was probably a bus you could have taken home at least.

Sixth stanza

"You got a fast car, We go cruising, entertain ourselves"

OH. MY. GOD. Driving for entertainment? Burning fossil fuels to get your jollies?

"We'll move out of the shelter, Buy a bigger house and live in the suburbs"

Now this is where it really goes off the rails. We amateur urbanists all know that poor people don't drive or own cars. And the writer has dreams of living in the suburbs, the worst possible place for anyone to live! You belong in an inner city housing project, honey.

I know Ms. Chapman is a respected folk singer and that it's black history month and we need to listen to black voices and all, but she gets my white transportation activist ire up. Tomorrow I am going to call the Master of Urban Planning Department at Hunter College and see if any of the students there would like to focus their thesis on how car culture in songs detroys cities.

The Department Of Transportation Alternatives have stolen parking spaces from people and privatized them

 

DOT twitter 

Today we announced the expansion of our citywide carshare program. This 5-year pilot (really, aren't pilot programs usually a few months?) has proven to reduce greenhouse gas emissions & personal car ownership. Our ambitious goal for 2023 is to add several hundred more spaces by working with Zipcar, Getaround and TruqIt

DOT Figurehead Commissioner and private car owner and public parking space user Ydanis Rodriguez: “Convenient access to carshare frees New Yorkers from the burden of car ownership – while helping to fight climate change. Thanks to Mayor Adam’s support, we will build on the successes of our pilot program while supporting efficient use of space at the curb.” 

 

 Over the next two weeks, we will install signage for 80 new, dedicated curbside parking spaces for carshare service. Spaces will be installed in Brooklyn and the Bronx starting today, with site installations in Queens taking place next week. 

 

 

20/20 skiddoo.

 

 NY Daily News 

A crew of thieves stole 20 cars in the course of about 20 hours from a Queens dealership, police said Monday.

The crooks repeatedly hit a car lot owned by a Mitsubishi dealership on Liberty Ave. near 156th Place in Jamaica over the weekend, according to NYPD Chief of Detectives James Essig.

The Mitsubishi dealership is not on-site, which allowed the robbers to break into a box where the keys were locked up. After driving the cars off the lot, “they kept coming back,” Essig said.

 The thieves made off with used Acuras, BMWs, Mercedes and Audis ranging from 2016 to 2019 models. None had license plates.

Police believe the vehicles are used in robberies and burglaries.

“We know in the past, these go overseas, but now we’re seeing with autos they’re used in crimes — riding around the city, doing gunpoint robberies in smoke shops, on the street corners,” Essig said.

Linky's illegal parking Angels

 

Bloomberg 

It’s a familiar experience for pedestrians and bicyclists — a car or truck parked in a bike lane or on the sidewalk forces a detour into the street — and into traffic. When vehicles block these travel paths, it's not just an annoyance and safety hazard. It’s illegal.

Now a New York City Council member is pushing a bill that would give civilians the power to report bike lane scofflaws, as well as vehicles that block entrances or exits of school buildings, sidewalks and crosswalks. New Yorkers who submit evidence of a parking violation can earn 25% of a proposed $175 ticket. The Department of Transportation would review the evidence to determine whether an infraction has occurred, according to the bill’s text.

Council Member Lincoln Restler said the bill is necessary because the New York City Police Department, which has traditionally been responsible for enforcing these traffic rules, isn’t giving out enough tickets. The number of traffic citations issued in the city increased from fiscal 2021 to fiscal 2022, but remains nearly 50% below pre-pandemic levels, according to the Mayor’s Management Report.

“I feel the safety risks every day that are associated with illegal parking,” said Restler, who is a cyclist. “It’s even more problematic for the parent pushing a stroller or a person in a wheelchair who can’t get by on the sidewalk because of illegally parked cars. That’s why we are creating, in this legislation, a new structure to bring real accountability.”

If passed, the law would be the first time such civilian authority was extended to personal vehicles in New York. It’s modeled after the Citizens Air Complaint Program, which allows New Yorkers call in tickets for idling commercial vehicles for the same 25% reward.

Parking garage oppressing women's livelihoods

Guerilla parked car vandalism wave hits LIC

 Queens Post

An office worker in Long Island City got a big surprise earlier this month when he discovered that the windshield of his brand-new Tesla had been smashed by a raging vandal with a large wooden sign.

The worker, 33, named Mike, had just finished work on June 13 at around 11 p.m. before making the unfortunate discovery after walking a short distance to his Tesla that was parked near Queens Plaza. Instead of getting in the car to zip home, he found the vehicle’s windshield shattered and police surveilling the scene.

The police, according to Mike, had received a report that a man had been throwing a large wooden sign at parked vehicles along the roadway, including at his car that was parked at Queens Plaza North — near the corner Crescent Street.

The police didn’t have a description of the suspect at the time, but security cameras installed in Mike’s Tesla appear to have caught the hooligan in action. Mike’s car has four cameras pointing in different angles that automatically record if a sensor is triggered, he said.

The first video shows a man — wearing jeans, a white T-shirt and a baseball cap on backwards — throw a wooden sign on top of a car parked in front of the Tesla. The sign appears to belong to the Baroness Bar, located on the next block on 41st Avenue.

The suspect then drags the sign off the car, lifts it high above his head and flings it on top of Mike’s car – smashing the windshield. A picture of the damage shows the windshield on the passenger side of the Tesla caved in.

A second video captured by the Tesla shows the suspect then walking eastbound along Queens Plaza North, throwing the sign against other vehicles.

He then walks back toward the Tesla looking enraged.

 Mike, who doesn’t want to make his last name public, said cops told him that five vehicles in total were vandalized that night, including his car and a food truck.

War on cars on Queens Boulevard

 

NY Post 

Dozens of parked cars were left with smashed windows during an overnight seven-block Queens vandalism spree, cops said.

At least one vandal smashed the windows of more than 30 parked, unoccupied vehicles on Queens Boulevard between 51st and 58th streets in Sunnyside either late Wednesday or early Thursday, cops said. 

It’s unclear whether anything was taken from the cars.

The war on cars is being won by criminals

 

 NY Post

 New York City car thieves have shifted into high gear, with auto thefts soaring 61% so far this year, according to the latest disturbing statistics.

There have been 4,467 car thefts so far in 2022, as compared to 2,769 in the same time period in 2021. The crime category has jumped a whopping 97 percent compared to 2020, NYPD data show. 

The Ford Econoline is the preferred vehicle of the sticky-fingered set, followed by the Honda Accord, Honda CRV, Honda Civic and Toyota Camry, according to the NYPD.

Bronx motorists have been hit the hardest: 1,437 vehicles have been boosted so far this year in the borough, the most in the city, and a 70% spike from the same time last year, when 845 cars were stolen, the stats show.

In Brooklyn 1,183 vehicles have been ripped off in 2022, compared to 806 in 2021, a 47% surge.

Auto larceny in Queens is up 63% in 2022, with 1,107 incidents to 678 the year prior, and has jumped 62 percent in Manhattan, which saw 604 thefts to 2021’s 373 incidents, the data shows.

Even Staten Island, the so-called “cop borough,” isn’t safe. While The Rock has logged the fewest car
thefts in the city this year which 136, that number is deceiving — it’s an 103 percent increase from the 67 vehicles snatched last year.

Brooklyn BP and Council Crony Restler want to disqualify residents who drive cars from living in affordable housing.

Brooklyn Paper 

Borough President Antonio Reynoso and northern Brooklyn Councilmember Lincoln Restler are demanding an end to minimum parking requirements for new construction in transit-rich areas. 

When a developer seeks a rezoning to build taller developments, they’re often forced to build off-street parking — which is designed to reduce the impact that new construction has on parking in the neighborhood. 

But now, the group of electeds signed a petition letter calling on the Department of City Planning (DCP) to fully waive parking constraints for all residential developers of any rezoning projects in public transit-rich areas.

The representatives aim to disincentivize people living in areas with access to subways and buses from using and buying cars, with the intention to reduce carbon emissions and improve the “borough’s urban fabric” — all while providing developers with the option to redirect space toward construction of more affordable housing, said Restler in an exclusive to the Brooklyn paper.

“The accessory parking in buildings on key mixed-use corridors like Fourth Avenue, Flatbush Avenue, and Fulton Street disrupt our borough’s urban fabric, making our City less affordable, less walkable, and incentivizes car ownership,” read the electeds’ letter to the DCP. “The last place we need developers to build accessory parking is in areas with substantial access to public transportation. We need to reduce car ownership in our city, and requiring new parking within close proximity to public transit has the opposite effect.”

Restler pointed to one 28-unit rising project just outside the Bedford subway station, which includes 14 required parking spots on the ground level — saying that, in addition to other problems, such requirements often make the construction “drab, dark, and lifeless.” 

“Because below-grade parking is so expensive to construct, many developments across the city do so on the ground-floor, leading to drab, dark, lifeless streets rather than dynamic ground floor retail and community facility spaces that generate jobs and fulfill critical neighborhood’s needs,” said a statement from Restler on Monday.

Even though there are many businesses around the crossroad of Bedford Ave. and North Seventh Street, it is not confirmed that the new building will have commercial spaces.

Within slightly over 2 square miles, Williamsburg residents have access to the four bus lines and seven subway stations.

“This is an example of an area that doesn’t need more parking, doesn’t need more cars, for sure,” said Reynoso. “So it’s a model development for us to use as a first shot at showing people that parking requirements should not be used here. Also, I think the most important thing is that the parking requirements being removed, allows for more housing to be built. It makes the projects less expensive. It also makes it so that instead of taking down, you can build up, so we got more housing out of this proposal.”

Pedestrian critically injured and hosptialized from double hit-and-run in Ridgewood

 

 

Streetsblog

A man was run over — twice — by two reckless drivers at a dangerous Queens intersection on Saturday night, first by a car owner who clipped him in a crosswalk and then by a second driver who rolled over the wounded man with his massive SUV with both sets of wheels before apparently leaving him for dead.

According to police and a horrifying video later posted to TikTok, the 57-year-old pedestrian was crossing Cypress Avenue from west to east at about 6:35 p.m. when the 40-year-old driver of a white crossover SUV, making the tight left turn from Cooper Avenue, clipped the pedestrian, knocking him to the pavement.

While the man was stunned and writhing, the 62-year-old driver of a huge assault car drove over the victim, first running over his head with his front left tire and then crushing the man’s entire body with his rear wheels.

The man was still breathing when cops found him minutes later. He was taken to Jamaica Hospital. Several local websites, including Queens Crap, report that the man died of his injuries, but police declined to comment.

The driver of the white car was issued a summons for failure to yield. It is unclear what happened to the driver of the black SUV, which delivered the life-threatening injuries. The NYPD declined to provide further details.

A close review of the video suggests that the driver of the black SUV did not see the pedestrian get knocked down because he was looking forward as he watched oncoming traffic from Cooper Avenue and waited make his left turn onto Cypress. When he made the left turn, he took the turn sharply to avoid a car that had made a right turn from Cooper onto Cypress. A driver of an SUV that large would not likely have seen the man in the roadway unless he was specifically looking for him.

The intersection of Cooper and Cypress avenues, near the border of Glendale, Queens and Ridgewood and Bushwick in Brooklyn, is a known danger zone for pedestrians. In the eight years of the de Blasio administration, there were 153 reported crashes at that one intersection, injuring seven cyclists, 10 pedestrians and 56 motorists, according to city stats. The crashes seem to be frequently caused by car drivers making left turns from Cooper on

Admin note: Streetsblog is a bike fanzine blog run by Open Plans, a think tank organization that lobbies for "open streets" and bike lanes and against "huge assault cars".

 

34th Ave open street freeze out

As the disabled/elderly on @34_ave still can't get ACCESS A RIDE, word on the street is ... well, there's no one to talk on the street. But @Dromm25's folly continues, with @NYCMayor supporting the discrimination on the 'crowded' & 'well used' open street. @voteshekar, help them? pic.twitter.com/HQAvM94xTK

— Rob Roszkowski (@RobRoszkowski) November 27, 2021

@NYC_DOT one down and more to go...
See how busy the OS is in Jackson Heights. Wow so many.... Let's meet with @communityboard3 and talk about the future. We are waiting for the studies, in-person surveys and remember we volunteered to help. Contact @34Compromise @BKBoroHall pic.twitter.com/Msa9TIPVpd

— Shelley Brevda (@earbears) November 27, 2021

Definitely too windy for the OS in Jackson Heights today. only a few venture out today. Glad no one was hurt. This is vehicle weather and the 160,000+ who live here need this 26 block avenue back. The traffic jams are growing. @NYC_DOT contact @34Compromise now. pic.twitter.com/hPKiJgQZcf

— Shelley Brevda (@earbears) November 27, 2021

Department of Transportation continues to frustrate residents with spiteful street redesigns and open streets policy

 

Apparently, the same kids @34_ave were exploiting for their open street propaganda videos are suddenly forgotten now that the weather is colder.

Tear down these gates Gutman @NYC_DOT. https://t.co/UXZAeBlx8W

— This is JQ LLC (@ImpunityCity) November 3, 2021

City usurps free parking from residents as Transportation Alternatives says people have no right to park their cars

Brooklyn Reader 

 Brooklyn drivers could lose 680 free parking spaces under the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway if plans by the Department of Transportation to increase bike lanes and pedestrian paths are fulfilled.

The plans call for the removal of the spots between Apollo St. and Metropolitan Ave. to make way for a new two-lane bike path, extended pedestrian space and 400 parking meters.

Although hundreds of parking spaces will remain intact, they will be transferred to metered parking which will cost $1.50 per hour from 7:00am to 10:00m Monday to Saturday.

The DOT says the new plans are designed to increase street safety, build bike path connections and activate space under the BQE. According to the plans, the upgrades reduce conflicts with new, safer crossings and increase safety for all road users.

Currently, the department says, the area is a high crash corridor with 11 people killed or severely injured in a five year period, ranking in the top third of Brooklyn corridors. It adds that there are no dedicated spaces for cyclists or pedestrians and the area has become an underutilized space with abandoned vehicles underneath and illegal dumping.

Transportation Alternatives, a nonprofit that promotes public transport, walking and cycling, backed the project, according to Greenpointers. Juan Restrepo, a Senior Organizer at Transportation Alternatives told the publication that free parking was not a right.

“The car-centric status quo has failed New Yorkers, and we are proud to have worked on this plan with a broad coalition of local community groups and elected officials,” he said.

“This investment for Meeker Ave has been in the works since 2015 and was unanimously approved by the local community board this past May”

He said as the community cleaned up after the climate crisis-fueled flood and faced the deadliest year for traffic crashes since 2014, “we need to redesign streets to get people out of cars and keep New Yorkers safe.”

However, not all community members back the plan.

Meeker Ave. Neighbors has launched a petition that says the plan “is bad for the environment, bad for working people, and bad for our neighborhood” and that it will create more congestion and increase emissions as residents circle blocks “searching for parking that doesn’t exist.”

It also argues that the plans would limit transportation options for people who relied on personal vehicles for their daily commute in transit-poor areas, the elderly, the disabled, and blue collar workers, and displaces the homeless population residing under the BQE without any plan. So far the petition has attracted 1,030 signatures.

MTA announces congestion austerity tax hearings

 

NY Post

The MTA’s official review of the environmental impacts of its congestion pricing program gets underway this week with virtual meetings Thursday and Friday for residents of the five boroughs and New Jersey.

The two-hour Zoom forums will be held at 10 a.m. Thursday “focused on” the Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island; at 6 p.m. for the proposed Manhattan toll zone below 60th St.; and 10 a.m. on Friday for New Jersey.

More meetings focused on Long Island, Connecticut, New Jersey, the northern New York suburbs and Manhattan above 60th St. are scheduled for later in the month.

Toll backers expect big turnout from opponents like N.J. Rep. Josh Gottheimer, who has encouraged his constituents to attend.

“Jersey residents, you all have an important opportunity to make your voices heard! Starting on September 24th, the MTA is hosting a series of public hearings so you can share their views on NY’s proposed $3,000/yr congestion tax on NJ commuters,” Gottheimer tweeted Sept. 16. “Sign up to attend these critical hearings to put a stop to this ridiculous tax on hard-working Jersey residents!”

“Haters are definitely going to hate,” said Danny Pearlstein of the pro-tolling Riders Alliance. “At the end of the day we have a traffic crisis and a transit crisis and congestion pricing goes a long way towards solving both.”

 Haters going to hate? Real mature. Working people are going to get fleeced, jerk.

Anyone who wishes to speak can register on the MTA’s tolling program website or by calling 646-252-6777. Comments can also be submitted online and by email.

Here is the full list of scheduled public meetings:

• Thursday, Sept. 23, 10 a.m. to noon: The Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island
• Thursday, Sept. 23, 6-8 p.m.: Manhattan Central Business District (60th Street and below)
• Friday, Sept. 24, 10 a.m. to noon: New Jersey
• Wednesday, Sept. 29, 10 a.m. to noon: Northern New York City Suburbs
• Wednesday, Sept. 29, 6-8 p.m.: Long Island
• Thursday, Sept. 30, 6-8 p.m.: The Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island
• Friday, Oct. 1, 1-3 p.m.: Connecticut
• Monday, Oct. 4, 6-8 p.m.: New Jersey
• Tuesday, Oct. 5, 6-8 p.m.: Northern New York City Suburbs
• Wednesday, Oct. 6, 6-8 p.m.: Manhattan Outside the Central Business District (61st Street and above)
• Thursday, Oct. 7, 6-8 p.m.: New York “environmental justice communities.”
• Tuesday, Oct. 12, 6-8 p.m.: New Jersey “environmental justice communities.”
• Wednesday, Oct. 13, 6-8 p.m.: Connecticut “environmental justice communities.”

Public hearings for congestion austerity tax against drivers are coming soon

 

 CBS New York 

  Public meetings on New York City’s congestion pricing plan will begin in September.

The MTA, along with the state and city transportation departments, announced they will hold 13 virtual meetings between Sept. 23 and Oct. 13.

They will target 28 counties in the Tri-State Area to educate commuters about congestion pricing and allow them to voice their opinions.

Each meeting will focus on a different part of the Tri-State Area.

The meetings will take place at the following dates and times:

• Thursday, Sept. 23, 10 a.m. to noon: The Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens, and Staten Island
• Thursday, Sept. 23, 6-8 p.m.: Manhattan Central Business District (60th Street and below)
• Friday, Sept. 24, 10 a.m. to noon: New Jersey
• Wednesday, Sept. 29, 10 a.m. to noon: Northern New York City Suburbs
• Wednesday, Sept. 29, 6-8 p.m.: Long Island
• Thursday, Sept. 30, 6-8 p.m.: The Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens, and Staten Island
• Friday, Oct. 1, 1-3 p.m.: Connecticut
• Monday, Oct. 4, 6-8 p.m.: New Jersey
• Tuesday, Oct. 5, 6-8 p.m.: Northern New York City Suburbs
• Wednesday, Oct. 6, 6-8 p.m.: Manhattan Outside the Central Business District (61st Street and above)

There will also be three other public meetings for individuals and stakeholder groups in identified environmental justice communities in the Tri-State Area.

New York’s meeting will be held on Oct. 7, New Jersey’s meeting will be held on Oct. 12, and Connecticut’s meeting will be held on Oct. 13. All three meetings will take place from 6-8 p.m.