Discussion about Mayor Bloomberg’s congestion pricing proposal has been clogging the pipes of the internet for days now. Have you registered to attend the Drum Major Institute’s morning forum at NYU’s Kimmel Center? It features London Deputy Mayor Nicky Gavron and a home-team of thoughtful New Yorkers: Kathryn Wylde, Partnership for NYC, President; Ed Ott of the Central Labor Council; and Queens NYC Council Members Eric Gioia and (Transportation Committee Chair) John C. Liu FRIDAY, MAY 18, 2007 8:30 a.m. - 10:30 a.m. Kimmel Center at New York University Rosenthal Pavilion 60 Washington Square South, 10th Floor New York, NY 10012 RSVP required: dmi@drummajorinstitute.org There's also a Queens meeting Tues. night with Bruce Schaller long after the jump. Those of you who want to prepare have time to read studies, polls and commentaries by the dozen. The Partnership for NYC polled drivers here on congestion pricing. Newspapers and blogs have characterized the results of this poll in so many ways that you’d think they silvered a mirror. So read the results for yourself. Sewell Chan has links here to a study by the Queens Chamber of Commerce (they’re against, even though you’d think they’d be in favor as it would make auto and truck trips to Queens relatively cheaper -- and thus foster more Queens business) and to a roundup by pro-cp advocates. Larry Littlefield, as part of a long (and, as I read it, thoughtful) analysis of all of PlaNYC 2030 has this essay at Rm. 8 and Bruce Shaller, the transportation planner and consultant has an article at the Gotham Gazette You can hear Shaller in Sunnyside, Queens Tuesday at 8PM (click here for more info) Queens State Senator John Sabini (for whom I campaigned in the primary) tells me that his widely quoted remark that the plan was DOA was not a criticism of the plan; just an assessment of the politics of Albany. He wrote he was worried about impacts on Queens residents who traveled to Manhattan for business or medical reasons. What does he really think? Ask him. sabini@ senate.state.ny.us It is possible that congestion pricing and all of PlaNYC 2030 is just a feint by Mayor Bloomberg. If we judge by how the Mayor is proposing to spend actual money, mostly, it’s business as usual, according to Glen Pasanen writing in the Gotham Gazette:

The fiscal impact of Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s plaNYC 2030 could be huge in the long run, but judging from the mayor’s $59 billion executive budget for 2008 , the short-term impact will be quite modest. Released a few day’s after Bloomberg’s Earth day speech, it includes only $200 million for programs called for in his plan for a sustainable city, and the $84 billion, 10-year capital budget plan has only $1.6 billion specifically targeted for plaNYC.