Day: November 18, 2024

The MTA Board on Monday approved the new, reduced congestion pricing program, setting up the hotly anticipated start of tolling for cars and trucks driving into Manhattan below 60th Street in the new year.

The transit agency’s new congestion pricing plan will start at a $9 base toll just after midnight on Sunday, Jan. 5, with a “phased-in” approach creeping up to the originally-approved $15 rate by 2031.

Every aspect of the program has been reduced by 40%, including truck tolls, discounts for overnight trips, per-ride surcharges in taxis, Ubers, and Lyfts, and crossing credits on already-tolled bridges and tunnels into the central business district.

Drivers with qualifying disabilities are still eligible for an exemption, while low-income drivers are eligible for half-off tolls after ten peak-period trips in a given month. Rates are higher when tolls are paid by mail instead of E-Z Pass, with the base toll set at $13.50. Charges can also be upped by 25% on “Gridlock Alert” days issued by the city.

The toll is expected to reduce car traffic in Manhattan’s central business district by 13%, down from the 17% forecasted at the $15 level but still beyond the 10% set out in the environmental review.

Lesser tolls should not affect bonds: officials

And even with a 40% reduction in annual revenue, officials still expect to be able to use it to underwrite $15 billion in debt from the bond market, funding a laundry list of capital improvements like elevators and other accessibility projects at subway stations, modernizing near-century old subway signals that frequently break, introducing a new generation of railcars, and constructing the Second Avenue Subway extension to East Harlem.

Now, the “request for proposals” will be issued “promptly” for boring new sections of rail tunnel for the Second Avenue Subway between 120th and 125th streets. Work can resume on making 23 more subway stations accessible, the MTA can purchase hundreds of new R211 railcars and zero-emission electric buses, and billions of dollars can flow into resignaling dozens of miles of track on the A, B, C, D, F, and M lines.

All that’s left before congestion pricing can proceed are steps that, in a previous life, would have been considered mere formalities: the Federal Highway Administration must “re-evaluate” the new toll schedule to ensure it’s in keeping with the program’s environmental review; the feds, state, city, and MTA must sign a document authorizing a “Value Pricing Pilot Program;” and the MTA must undertake a 30-day public education campaign. 

All told, officials expect a swift, clean start to the nation’s first congestion pricing scheme by Jan. 5, using the gantry-mounted cameras that have been in place for up to a year.

These days, nothing can be taken for granted with the Central Business District Tolling Program, as congestion pricing is formally known. The MTA fully approved the $15 tolling schedule in March — following an extensive environmental review, toll rate deliberations by an internal tribunal, and opportunities for public comment — and needed only “formalities” before an expected June 30 start date.

But just over three weeks before launch day, Gov. Kathy Hochul announced a “temporary pause” to the program, citing concerns over the affordability of the $15 toll. She faced widespread suspicion that the real reason was to help Democrats regain key suburban swing districts in the House of Representatives—districts where the already unpopular toll was uniquely reviled.

In response, the MTA paused contract rewards on $16.5 billion of work and put the future of its ambitious 2020-24 capital program in limbo.

Then, after Democrats regained three suburban House seats this month — still not enough for a national Democratic majority — Hochul announced last week New York would be moving forward with the toll after all, at a 40% discounted rate.

Residents of Bath Beach, Bensonhurst and New Utrecht Community Board 11 can bring their old or non-functioning household.

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A Brooklyn priest previously disciplined for allowing pop star Sabrina Carpenter to film a music video in his church has been fired after an investigation revealed he “substantially” mishandled church funds, the Diocese of Brooklyn announced Monday.

Bishop Robert J. Brennan said an independent investigation into Monsignor Jamie Gigantiello, formerly of Our Lady of Mount Carmel-Annunciation Parish in Williamsburg, uncovered serious violations of Diocesan policies between 2019 and 2021.

The investigation began Nov. 1, 2023 after the Diocese learned Gigantiello had allowed Carpenter to film part of the music video for her single “Feather” in the Havemeyer Street church. The video’s content sparked backlash, prompting Gigantiello to apologize to parishioners and relinquish his administrative duties.

Following the release of the video, the Brooklyn Diocese told the Catholic News Agency that Bishop Brennan was “appalled at what was filmed at Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary Church in Brooklyn” and stressed that the parish did not follow Diocesan policy in allowing Carpenter to film the video on church grounds. 

The broader probe, conducted by Alvarez & Marsal and Sullivan & Cromwell LLP, revealed that Gigantiello made several unauthorized financial transactions totaling nearly $1.9 million. These included loans to entities affiliated with Frank Carone, the former chief of staff to Mayor Eric Adams, according to the Diocese. Over the summer, federal investigators subpoenaed Gigantiello as part of their corruption investigation into Mayor Eric Adams.

From 2019 to 2021, Gigantiello is said to have transferred $1.9 million in parish funds to Carone’s law firm and two related companies without informing Diocesan officials or securing required approvals. While some funds were repaid with interest, the transactions were undocumented and lacked essential details about the funds’ purpose, the probe found.

In two additional transfers in 2021 totaling $900,000, Gigantiello again bypassed Diocesan oversight, issuing loans to companies associated with Carone under one-year repayment terms. In February 2022, he requested early repayment of the principal but waived the substantial interest owed to the parish.

The investigation also revealed that Gigantiello used a church credit card for significant personal expenses, which remain under review.

“I am saddened to share that investigations conducted by Alvarez & Marsal and Sullivan & Cromwell LLP have uncovered evidence of serious violations of Diocesan policies and protocols at Our Lady of Mount Carmel – Annunciation Parish,” Brennan said in Monday’s announcement. “In order to safeguard the public trust, and to protect church funds, I have appointed Bishop Witold Mroziewski as administrator of the Parish.”

“I have also relieved Monsignor Jamie Gigantiello, the current pastor, of any pastoral oversight or governance role at the Parish because he has mishandled substantial church funds and interfered with the administration of the Parish after being directed not to do so,” he added.

Gigantiello did not return Brooklyn Paper’s request for comment at the time of publication, but told THE CITY that the loans were investments that yielded big returns for Mount Carmel. “The investments were made legally and the investments came back,” he told the news outlet.

The Diocese’s announcement also addressed allegations against Deacon Dean Dobbins, whom Bishop Brennan had appointed as temporary administrator following Gigantiello’s suspension.

On Nov. 7, Gigantiello’s lawyers provided evidence of allegedly racist and offensive comments made by Dobbins during private conversations in the parish office. The evidence included recordings allegedly made without Dobbins’s knowledge or consent, reportedly at Gigantiello’s direction. Upon reviewing the evidence, Brennan placed Dobbins on administrative leave.

Carpenter’s team did not immediately respond to Brooklyn Paper’s request for comment, but at her Sept. 29 concert at Madison Square Garden, she appeared to address the controversy, asking the crowd, “Should we talk about how I got the mayor indicted?”

A collection of topical political cartoons from various artists curated by Brooklyn Eagle Editorial Staff.

The post Cartoon Sketchbook: November 18 appeared first on Brooklyn Eagle.

План жилищного строительства — предлагаемое первое крупное изменение правил зонирования города с 1961 года, которое позволит застройщикам возвести десятки тысяч новых домов — вынесет на […]