David Weprin

Assembly Members David Weprin and Rodneyse Bichotte tried to rally opposition to Gov. Cuomo's toll plan, but ended up getting shouted down by scores of supporters of congestion pricing.

The senior lobbying group supports congestion pricing, even though opponents of congestion pricing often cite seniors as their reason for opposing tolls.

We are inside the belly of the beast (the statehouse) to get the lay of the land on issues important to the livable streets community. We'll post what we get as a live blog, so check back early and often to see the latest (thread starts from the bottom):

Advocates with the Riders Alliance chanted over Weprin's anti-congestion pricing press conference, calling on him to get out of the way of a policy to reduce traffic and raise funds for transit.

No, the past nine years weren't just a dream and you didn't wake up in 2006. State senators David Weprin and Tony Avella, the Queens Civic Congress, and a few other Queens elected officials really did put on a press conference yesterday to guard against the possibility that New York might put a rational price on the East River bridges, cursing the city with less traffic, faster bus service, and the absence of honking.

Council Member Rory Lancman and Assembly Member Michael Simanowitz have taken up the cause of opposing bus lanes for Select Bus Service in their eastern Queens districts. While the pair has gotten a lot of attention, they are outnumbered by almost a dozen city, state, and federal elected officials along the route urging the city to be bolder with its bus service upgrades.

Remember these guys? This morning, State Senator Tony Avella and Assembly Member David Weprin stood at traffic-choked Queensboro Plaza to say they don't care if the Move NY toll reform plan reduces tolls on bridges near their eastern Queens districts -- they refuse to support any proposal that adds tolls to East River crossings. In a bid to preempt any forthcoming effort to fix the region's dysfunctional road pricing system, they're introducing legislation in Albany to prohibit charging drivers on city-owned bridges. The gesture is pure theatrics, since NYC already can't put a price on those bridges without approval from the state.

Dozens of transit workers, transportation advocates and elected officials rallied on the steps of City Hall this morning to urge Governor Cuomo to sign the transit lockbox bill, which passed both houses of the legislature unanimously in June. "New York communities are not standing alone," said TWU Local 100 President John Samuelsen. "Transit workers are not standing alone. We're standing together."

We've got two more citywide elections to review on the eve of tomorrow's primary vote -- the contests for comptroller and public advocate.