THE PRICE TO PAY

And L.A. brags about its car culture.

I'm not sure why New York's congestion pricing plan is newsworthy anywhere
beyond the tri-state area. Yes, I know it's the first city in the U.S. to have such a "scheme", as it was described eight times in one BBC news article. (London has a similar scheme, at roughly double the rate of ours.) 

These are the details: Most drivers will be charged $9 once per day to enter the congestion zone at peak hours, and $2.25 at other times. Small trucks and non-commuter buses will pay $14.40 to enter Manhattan at peak times, while larger trucks and tourist buses will pay a $21.60 fee. 

The congestion zone -- which sounds like how medical advertisements would describe your nose during hay fever season -- starts south of 60th Street. That leaves us in the clear since we live north of 60th. Oh, and we walk and use public transportation because we don't have a car. I don't know why anyone here does; no matter what Avis or Enterprise charge, they don't come near the cost of buying, insuring, and legally parking cars. 

On the other hand, some of them are just asking for
trouble.

But I understand why local businesses that depend on regular deliveries object to it, since they're going to have to pass along the rise in costs. Even Amazon, so don't go feeling good about yourself.

If politicians are going to start charging drivers for entering the city, they should also force similar charges on themselves, just to keep things equal:

• Charging a daily fee to every unnecessary local government employee when they show up to work -- and double when they decide to work from home. 

• 

  You can set your calendar by Chuck.

  Charging politicians every time they drag around a podium with the official state seal plastered on it when making an "official" statement in public on Sundays. (I'm looking at you, Chuck Schumer!).

• Charging Mayor Adams when he rolls into the city after the spending the night before at his real home in Newark. (Gracie Mansion was broken into last week. Guess who wasn't sleeping in the official mayoral bed.) 

• And while we're on the subject, charging the security guys who somehow didn't notice some joker climbing the fence and breaking into Gracie freaking Mansion in the middle of the night.

• Charging disgraced ex-officeholders for considering running for office again. If nothing else, it would make Andrew Cuomo think twice about his mayoral plans. And one more courtroom appearance by Rudy Giuliani not complying with the law is always welcome. 

• 

  George and Mike before they got sick
  of us. And vice-versa.

  Charging incumbent New York governors who run for a third term. They always wind up complaining about how dull Albany is and realizing they hate their job. I lived here under George Pataki and Cuomo pere et fils so I know what I'm talking about.

• Same thing with Mayor, minus complaining about Albany. You could almost taste the negative vibes emanating from Ed Koch and Mike Bloomberg by the middle of their third terms. And, as I always say, I loved Mike Bloomberg. 

None of these suggestions will come to pass. When it comes to "belt-tightening", politicians always have a good excuse to wear garments a size or two larger. But consider: Many older New Yorkers were initially outraged by recycling, first in the 1980s for paper, and decades later with glass and plastics. Plenty of people objected to bike lanes. Outlawing plastic shopping bags in favor of reusable ones was right up there with Prohibition in terms of popularity. 

Yet those changes were accepted, grudgingly by older people, and with pleasure by younger people, either native New Yorkers or newcomers, who understood the reasoning and embraced it. They'll likely do the same with price congestion. Until they own a car. 

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