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FORT LEE – Mark Sokolich, the mayor here, knows something about traffic.
He was, of course, one of the victims of Bridgegate; a mayor forced to deal with almost a week of gridlock back in 2013 for no apparent reason, at least at the time.
And so it was not surprising to see Sokolich talking about traffic on a chilly Wednesday morning, the Hudson and the George Washington Bridge in the background.
“We’re being frustrated, we’re being ignored,” the mayor said, standing alongside Rep. Josh Gottheimer and other local and state elected officials in a borough park.
His anger is about congestion pricing.
Beginning next Spring, New York City plans to begin charging drivers entering Manhattan south of 60th Street a projected $23 a day. That would include those reaching the city via the Holland and Lincoln tunnels.
But not the GWB.
So, the mayor, Gottheimer and others logically think that traffic to the bridge, which is often already congested, is bound to get worse as motorists avoid entering New York City below 60th Street. And an already bad spillover into local streets will get worse as well.
Gottheimer, who represents CD-5 spanning the northern part of the state, pointed down to the toll booths below and said, “Trucks will be backed up right here.”
The mayor acknowledged that having a bridge at its doorstep has benefits to Fort Lee. But with that benefit “comes traffic, bad traffic.”
But that’s not all of it.
“Traffic may even be secondary to the next topic and that’s our health,” he said.
Sokolich and others said congestion will increase air pollution in the borough and all that nasty stuff that goes with it. He said this would be a real kick-in-the-gut for a community dedicated to “clean energy.” He talked about the borough’s purchase of electric vehicles and installation of solar panels.
The state already has filed suit to stop the congestion pricing plan.
It was announced today that a second suit has been filed. This one has as plaintiffs, Sokolich and a Fort Lee resident with respiratory problems.
So, the two-pronged approach here is that the congestion pricing plan will not only cost some Jersey commuters greatly, it threatens their health as well.
Gottheimer raised another point:
He said that if the pricing plan discourages commuters from driving into the city, which is the idea, it will hurt toll revenue and by extension, make Port Authority of New York and New Jersey capital projects more difficult. And that can mean fewer union construction jobs.
As he has done previously, Gottheimer said those who think they can push around New Jersey may be in for a surprise.
“We don’t just take a punch, we punch back,” he said.
This has been an eventful week for Gottheimer.
After the House voted last week to condemn Hamas and support Israel, Gottheimer said the 15 Democrats who failed to support the measure were “despicable” and not truly representative of the party.
One of the no votes was by Andre Carson of Indiana and he didn’t take Gottheimer’s criticism lightly. In fact he called Gottheimer a “coward” and a “punk.”
Wow. Republicans don’t usually use language like that in criticizing the congressman.
At any rate, Gottheimer reiterated a desire to discuss things with Carson. And he said that discussion should include dealing with Hamas, a terrorist organization that slaughtered 1,400 people, Americans included. Other discussion topics would be getting hostages released and getting humanitarian aid into Gaza.
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