Slowly going nowhere

New York's long-awaited congestion charge - a centerpiece of Mayor Mike's plan for sustainable urban growth - got scuttled yesterday by Albany's Democratic leaders. I've posted a response over at Political Climate:

For the past year, the mayor and his opponents have been slowly - excruciatingly slowly - negotiating compromises. The revised congestion plan would have seen the charge applied to a smaller area of Manhattan than originally proposed, and tax credits would have been included to soften the blow for poor New Yorkers. But despite giving ground, Bloomberg struggled to navigate New York’s labyrinthine political arena; ultimately, he resorted to heavy-handed tactics that left him with few friends in Albany.

Worst of all, Bloomberg failed to win the support of the Assembly’s speaker, Sheldon Silver. In the end, Silver was content to put his longstanding disdain for the mayor before the well being of the people of New York City; he dragged his feet in the run-up to yesterday’s deadline, then blithely blocked a vote on the congestion plan, saying there likely wasn’t enough support for the Mayor’s proposals to pass.

That may have been the case, but without a floor vote in the Assembly we’ve no way of knowing how much support the congestion charge really had - or who to blame for its failure. “It takes a special type of cowardice for elected officials to refuse to stand up and vote their conscience,” spat Bloomberg yesterday. He’s right, of course; but sadly for New Yorkers, his vitriol won’t be enough to bring the congestion charge back to life.

Read the rest here.