Congestion Pricing Plan Announced

Via Streetsblog, which has a link to the full report:

"Compared to the Mayor’s plan, the Commission’s plan has considerably lower operating and capital costs and a simpler fee structure. By increasing both the cost of taxi trips and parking within the zone, the plan ensures that those who live inside the zone also pay for auto use. The plan will also reduce traffic in neighborhoods adjacent to the zone, decrease vehicle emissions, and benefit the City and regional economy."

This is encouraging for a couple of reasons: (1) The plan is better than the Mayor's original proposal, and (2) included in the Plan is a provision for Residential Parking Permits (RPP), which are important to prevent "park and ride" behavior that defeats the purpose of congestion pricing.

More on this in the coming weeks. And don't forget, we have the RPP forum coming up on Monday night:

When

February 4, 2008 7:00 pm

Where

St. Francis College Auditorium
Remsen St.
Brooklyn Heights

Notes

Organized by: Council Members David Yassky, Letitia James and Bill DeBlasio and the Boerum Hill Association, Brooklyn Heights Association, Carroll Gardens Neighborhood Association, Clinton Hill Association, Cobble Hill Association, Concord Village, Fort Greene Association, Park Slope Civic Council, Prospect Heights Neighborhood Development Council

Rumor Mill - Congestion Pricing Announcement

From a tipster - tune in to New York 1:

The Mayor's Task Force is announcing
their version of Congestion Pricing in
a press conference this afternoon at 3PM.

Downzoning Rally VIDEO

Fred from the Union-Sackett Block Association shot some great video of the rally.

Gowanus Lounge has mirrored the videos here.

I'm at the podium about 6:00 into the second video. I have no sound where I am right now . . . hopefully I spoke clearly.

CORD Declares New Holiday

Once in a while I get a good email in the box worth sharing:

On Wednesday, January 30, 2008, our Councilman, Bill DeBlasio introduced to
his fellow Council Members, a Resolution calling for two things that a
substantial number of Carroll Gardens residents have been seeking for quite
some time.

Councilman DeBlasio asked for the requested downzoning study to commence
immediately and, more importantly, called to halt construction on anything
that would exceed fifty feet (a simplified representation of the downzoning
result) immediately as well. For all intents and purposes, he asked for the
interim moratorium that we have been hoping for.

Now, unfortunately, a Resolution, even if unanimously passed, is not legally
binding. It is not law. It is little more than an agreement between
civilized parties. But, we, at CORD are most appreciative of this first
step. Councilman DeBlasio promised this to us back in September and he has
delivered. Some people would say, “So what? It doesn’t really mean
anything.” But, we think it took courage to take this very politically
unpopular idea to the Council Chambers.

We think that this is the way change begins. It starts with thinking about
things differently, challenging what is no longer working and looking for a
way to do and make things better.

What was introduced on January 30th, in the NYC Council Chambers was a
small, but very good first step. We must remember that real change takes
determination, purpose, conviction and tenacity. It takes resolve.

January 30th was Resolution Day.

CORD

I'll second that.

More Downzoning Fun

The Gowanus Lounge has not one but two posts today on downzoning. The first is a roundup post on the downzoning rally yesterday. The second and more important post is an analysis piece that calls for a moratorium on building out of context when a downzoning is pending. From that piece:

There are limits imposed on what is possible by the city's land use process and timetables that must be followed. Studies must be conducted. Public sessions must be held and votes must be taken. This will all take time. It is why everyone needs to work to find a mechanism that would allow for big zoning-busting developments to be stopped while the downzoning process goes on. Currently, even if a moratorium could be enacted, it would have to follow a similar process to zoning and would, in and of itself, take 12-24 months.That's why there needs to be a legal mechanism that will stop the clock at the beginning of a zoning study--a legal "moratorium" mechanism, if you will.

Again, wort reading the entire piece.

Landmarking vs. Zoning: Lessons from Our Neighbors

In comments, Halden from Brooklyn11211 reminds us of an important lesson. When you lock the front door, remember to lock the back door. Truly preserving the character of Carroll Gardens requires a two-track approach, a belt and suspenders approach (enough metaphors?): (1) downzoning and (2) landmarking.

Downzoning limits the height of development; landmarking preserves the look and feel of a community by preventing ugly, non-contextual crap-boxes from being deposited in the nabe.

From Halden's link:

A word of warning to our friends in Carroll Gardens: a lot of the crap that is going up in Greenpoint & Williamsburg is consistent with the contextual zoning that was implemented in 2005 (R6A and R6B, predominantly). Its shorter crap, but its still crap. And other than landmarking, there's not a lot you can do about that.

I strongly suggest reading the entire post. I know that there are people who are against landmarking, and I can respect that. But I am for it, and I will work with my neighbors to make it happen. Interested in helping out? Drop me a line. Vince Favorito has been working tirelessly on landmarking and he can always use more hands.

Edwards To Drop Bid Today; Rudy Slinks Off

TPM had the news. Thus ends the Reilly Household schism: we'll both be voting Obama on February 5th.

I've posted before on wavering between Obama and Edwards before settling on Edwards. I'm a policy guy, and I ultimately chose Edwards because we were 100% on the same page when it comes issues like poverty and health care. My one concern about Edwards was whether he could close the deal - he's got the talent, and his heart is in the right spot, but he's missing that intangible quality that creates a movement. I would love to see John Edwards as Attorney General in an Obama administration . . . even as Vice President.

Obama, on the other hand . . . radiates that charisma of which mass movements are formed. I think its vital for him to hone his message better, but the delivery can't be beat. Obama is the anti-Kerry.

In other news, the creepy, petty tyrant and former Mayor of 9/11 Rudy Giuliani also dropped out of the race today. I'm hoping he crawls into a hole and disappears for a few years, and takes his execrable foreign policy advisor Norman Podhoretz with him.