with the death-for-now of congestion pricing, a few questions remain. just how does one convince new yorkers that they are not dependent on an automobile? perhaps the congestion pricing plan was a bit harsh on commercial businesses but it was a step in the right direction. in order to get people out of their cars there needs to be an infrastructure that supports alternative modes of transportation, a point that the city would do well to work on. first of all, we lost out on 350 million dollars with which to build up public transportation and bicycle routes. but what we can still do is work on ways in which to encourage people to use alternative transportation. we could divert money from parking projects and road repairs and put that into bike lanes and increased subway services. transportation alternatives is still working on these exact things. likewise, the greenpoint/williamsburg waterfront greenway has been voted to move ahead. last week community board 1, covering our neighborhood (greenpoint) voted overwhelmingly in favor of this much needed project. especially in light of all the private, financially exclusive housing going up in the area - williamsburg/greenpoint - this project will help to ensure that the community retains access to its waterfront, instead of watching it go to the sole use of those who can afford it. thankfully, the project includes the calming of traffic along kent ave, notoriously dangerous for its high speeds. this will also connect us to the rest of the brooklyn waterfront greenway. and plenty of events coming up this bike month!
but on another note, just a thought. it's becoming increasingly obvious as transportation is becoming more talked about that we can't talk about what to do regarding transportation when not also dealing with housing. the areas whose train lines are the worst are only about to become more so. people can complain about the subways all they want and yell at the MTA for raising fares and not keeping up with the volume of ridership, but we have to also talk about what to do regarding all of the new housing go up around some of the most-used lines in new york. for example, the L and JMZ trains and all the ridiculously exclusive housing going up in williamsburg and greenpoint. long island city, as well, and the well-used 7 line, not to mention the EV trains. it would seem that private developers are putting up housing at a rate that the consistently-in-the-red MTA could never keep up with. and now we've lost millions of dollars that could have gone to deal with these exact issues. more later...