NYC NOW - April 16, 2024: Evevning Roundup

Episode Date: April 16, 2024

Governor Kathy Hochul says state lawmakers are getting close to approving a new budget for New York. Plus, New York City is floating a plan to deal with derelict boats. And finally, WNYC’s Michael Hill and Stephen Nessen discuss the complicated details of the MTA’s congestion pricing plan.

Welcome to NYC Now, your source for local news in and around New York City from WMYC. I'm Jenae Pierre. I'm pleased to announce that we have the parameters of a conceptual agreement on the fiscal year 2025 state budget. Governor Kathy Hokel says state lawmakers are getting close to approving a new budget for New York. But they're not there quite yet. She says the state will approve a new property tax break for housing developers, crack down on unlicensed cannabis shops and introduce some new eviction protections for renters. Now this budget is a blueprint for a safer, more affordable, more livable New York.

Lawmakers are continuing to negotiate the final details of the spending plan, which was due on April 1st. New York City is floating a plan to literally crush a problem in its waters, derelict boats. WMYC's Catalina Gonella has the details. That's the sound of an abandoned boat being broken down into pieces and tossed in a dumpster by a bulldozer. It's what the new office of marine debris disposal and vessel surrendering plans to do to the well over 800 boats cluttering New York City's shorelines. Chief of Waterfront and Marine operations make groves as the derelict boats pose a number of problems. It's not only a navigational and an eyesore, it's a hazard to our environment. the leaking fluids, the microplastics that leached out of these fiberglass halls.

So it is an issue for our ecosystem as well as for our recreational boating community. The office will also eventually launch a vessel turn-in program through which New Yorkers will be able to surrender their unwanted boats instead of abandoning them. The MTA's congestion pricing plan goes into effect in about two months. After the break, we'll discuss the complexities the MTA faces as it hopes to flip the switch and begin tolling this summer. Stick around. The MTA hopes to begin tolling drivers

under its congestion pricing program as soon as mid-June. WMYC's transportation reporter, Stephen Nesson, has been looking closely at the many entrances and exits to the toll zone. And apparently,

it's a lot more complex than the MTA initially led us to believe. My colleague Michael Hill talked with Stephen for details on the new and complicated tolling scheme. Stephen, give us a quick reminder of how

the MTA has explained congestion pricing? Well, the MTA has been pretty consistent since the law passed in 2019 by the state legislature that everything in Manhattan south of 60th Street is included in the tolling zone. There are just a few exemptions like the FDR drive, the Westside Highway, the Battery Park underpass, those are not told. And more recently, we did learn that the base fare is going to be $15. Now, Stephen, that all sounds very familiar. But what have you we learned that might surprise us? Well, there are several quirks to the system. Let's start with the Queensboro Bridge, which many people have had questions about. As simple as I can say it, there's only one roadway on the Queensboro Bridge that's not told. That's the upper roadway

heading to Manhattan, heading north. You're not going to get told on that, and that's because that upper roadway has an elevated exit ramp that dumps you just north of the toll zone at 62nd Street, safely outside of the zone. But if you're on the lower roadway, you're going to get told. And that's because those other roadways, there's two other ways to get off the Queensborough bridge coming from Queens into Manhattan. They're all going to toll you because it's just around the 60th street border. Even if your intention is to go north, you're still going to be told if you take one of those other ramps. But if you're going to Queens from Manhattan on the Queensboro Bridge, that's more clear. You're going to get charged.

no matter what. There is no entrance ramp to Queens from Manhattan that isn't solidly in the toll zone. You mentioned the exemption, Stephen, for drivers on the FDR. What have you learned about how congestion pricing will affect drivers who take the Brooklyn Bridge to the FDR? Well, this one was very surprising. If you're taking the Brooklyn Bridge and you want to get on the FDR drive going north, you're not going to get told. but if you take the Brooklyn Bridge and you want to get on the FDR drive heading south, you're going to get told. That's because you travel for about 80 feet on city streets before actually getting on the FDR southbound ramp. Again, that's not the case when you're headed north. You know, I went down there to look at this spaghetti-like structure and it is very confusing, but sure enough, there is a small section of city street between the Brooklyn Bridge and the FDR drive south.

And that's why the MTA says you're going to have to pay for that. I should also add, drivers that want to cross the Brooklyn Bridge from Manhattan, like if you're on the FDR drive either north or south, and you want to cross back to Brooklyn, there's no charge for that because all those roads stay on a ramp. Steve, there are going to be a lot of people listening to this and they're going to wonder the same thing. Why are we just learning about this now? I was wondering that myself. And I think that's mainly because there's really nothing online that spells this all out.

And I'm not the only one surprised. I talked to John Samuelson, who sits on the MTA board. He was also a member of the panel that set the toll rate. And even he was under the assumption that this Brooklyn Bridge FDR connection would be free in both directions. He said, you know, getting told for taking the FDR drive south is not fair. And he thinks the MTA should reverse course. It was even a surprise to Sam Schwartz, the famous city traffic commissioner who coined the term gridlock and knows congestion pricing pretty much better than anybody and has been advocating for it for years. Here's his take on this. You shouldn't have to be a Talmudic scholar or Gridlock Sam to figure out all the nuances of which rows will be charged and how much and when.

You know, I did ask the MTA about this lack of clarity. Why is there nothing easily available online? Even the 4,000-page congestion pricing environmental review doesn't really make any of this clear. And they argued, well, the final tolling plan was just approved three weeks ago. That was the final vote by the board. And it's too soon to get into these fine details. But those details were not really up for a vote. They weren't up for discussion. That was set in stone with the legislation in 2019, as I reported. But for the MTA's part, they say they're going to be rolling out an education campaign soon that goes through all of these details. And there will also be new signs on the road, alerting drivers about the toll zone. Steve, this makes me wonder if there are more surprises awaiting us once the tolling actually begins. Congestion pricing is definitely no doubt going to create some of the biggest changes in drivers' behavior in Manhattan, maybe of all time. It's certainly in our lifetimes.

And once the tolls are activated, drivers are going to be testing the system in ways that we can't even imagine. Here's gridlock Sam again. There are so many little nuances, and I guarantee you that New York drivers will very quickly identify them, complain, or if they're really good, keep it secret. You know, from my part, I still had questions about a few pockets where there are no tolling cameras. For example, parts of Battery Park City, some parking garages on the west side, where presumably someone could stash a car and maybe avoid the toll. But the MTA says its tolling cameras are so sophisticated, they can track your movements on the West Side Highway.

Even though that is a road that's not told, you know, they will still know. if you enter the West Side Highway and when you come out and if it doesn't time up, if you're in the zone for too long, they'll assume that you are there for a long period of time and you will be charged. You know, that said, Sam Schwartz noted that vehicles may also stop on the West Side Highway and let people off, so it could create new headaches that nobody has accounted for yet. And do you expect any of this to change before tolling starts, as you say, in mid-June or so? Not really. These details were part of the plan approved by the federal government. So I don't expect that to change.

Of course, the MTA is still not 100% certain that they will be turned on in June. There are several pending lawsuits, which we've reported on. But the MTA is still operating on the assumption that tolls will start in mid-June. Again, nothing is set in stone, and the MTA does plan to make tweaks to the program once they see how drivers are impacted and the streets are impacted by this. That's WMYC's Stephen Nesson talking with my colleague, Michael Hill. Thanks for listening to NYC now from WMYC. Catch us every weekday, three times a day. I'm Jenae Pierre.

We'll be back tomorrow.