NEW YORK (PIX11) -- Since the advisory board that recommends congested pricing levels revealed its $15 per day rate last week, there have been demonstrations about it virtually every day.
Tuesday was no exception but with a twist: the demonstration in Union Square Park was not against the plan. Instead, it called for it to be implemented as soon as possible. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul lent her support to the event prominently.
"Anybody loves cleaner air for our children and for future generations?" she asked the crowd of a few dozen public transit advocates, elected officials, and other supporters. "Then you love congestion pricing, right?"
The crowd loudly responded in the affirmative.
Hochul was the first speaker and left without taking questions about her support for the plan. If it goes into effect as scheduled next year, it will electronically charge drivers $15 a day to enter Manhattan below 60th Street, $24 for small trucks, and $36 for large ones.
More than a dozen other speakers followed the governor, including Janno Leiber, the MTA chairman, who was blunt in his criticism of congestion pricing challenges, including lawsuits filed by the State of New Jersey and the city of Fort Lee.
He used profanity in describing New Jersey critics:
"who've never even lifted a finger for mass transit, even when there's a half-finished railyard in their own goddamned district," he said. "We in New York," he continued, "deal with our problems."
In his comments to reporters after the event, his tone was more accommodating toward the Garden State.
"We're always willing to talk to folks over there who want to put this behind us," Lieber said, "so New York can move forward with its plan to have better transit, cleaner air."
The rally came on the day before the MTA Board votes on the toll amounts recommended by the state's Traffic Mobility Review Board, or TMRB.
Since the TMRB made its recommendations at the end of November, many drivers, and even some non-drivers, have expressed opinions similar to those of one motorist who spoke to PIX11 while waiting at a red light on Park Avenue.
"I think it's bullsh**," she said. "I think they're just trying to control us."
The rally on Tuesday was intended to dispel perceptions like that.
Kevin Garcia, the transportation director of the NYC Environmental Justice Alliance, spoke at the event and interviewed with PIX11 News afterward.
Garcia is based in the Bronx, where there have been concerns about increased traffic and emissions from vehicles trying to avoid the congestion zone.
He said that the MTA and other sponsoring organizations of the congestion pricing plan have committed to emissions- and traffic reduction programs like replacing refrigerator trucks at Hunts Point Market in the Bronx, expanding electric vehicle networks, and requiring truck deliveries to be done overnight.
When asked if he was confident that those changes would happen, he pointed out that congestion pricing could not reach this stage without federal oversight.
In other words, Garcia said, "the MTA and the other entities are required to do it."
Some other speakers at the rally said that they're among the 11 percent of commuters who drive into Manhattan below 60th Street and that they'll also feel a sting.
Alex Mattheissen of MOVE NY, a transit advocacy organization, said that he's among the car commuters.
"You think I want to pay a $15 toll?" he asked from the podium. "Hell no. I don't."
"We citizens have to make sacrifices, small sacrifices," he added.
The MTA Board vote is scheduled for Wednesday. Many transportation analysts expect the congestion pricing plan to pass.
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