Deborah Glick Still Doesn’t Have a Position on Congestion Pricing

Assembly Member Deborah Glick’s district is choking on motor vehicles. Encompassing the car-clogged West Side neighborhoods between the World Trade Center and 14th Street, it’s an area that would benefit enormously from traffic reduction. But Glick has no position on congestion pricing, the policy that offers the best shot at traffic relief.

Ten years ago, when the Bloomberg administration made a push for congestion pricing, Glick never took a position either, instead issuing a long litany of complaints to explain her indecision, relying heavily on conjecture and misinformation.

It’s 2018 and traffic has only gotten worse in Manhattan with the proliferation of for-hire vehicles. But following the release of the Fix NYC congestion pricing recommendations, Glick has little to say about the prospect of reducing traffic by putting a price on the use of scarce road space. Legislative director Charles LeDuc said she is still “reviewing all of the congestion pricing proposals that have been put forward.”

Some details of the Fix NYC recommendations differ from previous versions of congestion pricing, but it’s the same concept: Put a price on driving into the city core to save people time, give New Yorkers a break from the unrelenting traffic burden, and generate revenue and momentum for transit improvements.

Over in the 52nd district, Assembly Member Jo Anne Simon is unmistakably a supporter of congestion pricing. So is Brian Kavanagh in the State Senate. And despite some equivocation, at least Yuh-line Niou and Richard Gottfried, who represent Lower Manhattan in the Assembly, say they support the concept of congestion pricing.

Council Member Corey Johnson’s district overlaps with Glick’s, and he’s one of the most enthusiastic congestion pricing supporters in local government.

Meanwhile, not even lip service from Glick, despite the fact that the overwhelming majority of her constituents rely on transit, not driving, to get around.

Unlike many other Manhattan representatives, Glick also never signed on as a supporter of the Move NY toll reform plan. For 10 years, she has stood on the sidelines without getting behind any of the major proposals to reduce the car traffic swamping the neighborhoods she represents.