By New York Post (U.S.) | Created at 2024-11-14 23:37:54 | Updated at 2024-11-26 12:04:55
1 week ago
It’s going to take a toll.
Many working-class New Yorkers aren’t buying Gov. Kathy Hochul’s pitch for her revamped congestion pricing plan.
The governor’s office cast the $9 daytime base toll — down from $15 as originally — as “putting commuters first,” but Midtown workers who spoke to The Post Thursday said it would still eat into their paychecks and threaten business.
Most were daily commuters into the congestion zone south of 60th Street in Manhattan, which puts them on track to pay roughly $2,300 a year in tolls.
Here’s what they had to say:
Doorman David Viscaino
Congestion pricing could be the straw that breaks the camel’s back twice over for Midtown doorman David Viscaino.
Viscaino, 31, commutes daily from Scotch Plains, New Jersey — a trip that already requires him to pay tolls to drive through the Lincoln Tunnel.
Adding congestion pricing means Viscaino will have to pay double for his 90-minute drive to Midtown and back every Monday through Friday, he said.
“It’s not fair,” he said.
“As soon as you get in the Lincoln Tunnel you’re already paying $13 to $15 and now we’re going to get charged another $9.”
Congestion pricing alone likely would cost Viscaino $45 a week, assuming he arrives in the peak period of 5 a.m. to 9 p.m. when tolls hit their new $9 daytime rate.
Public transit isn’t a realistic option, Viscaino said, because he said it would take him close to two hours each way and he’d have to leave home at 5 a.m.
Viscaino said there’s only so much he can afford to pay and still support his wife and 9-year-old son.
“I’m paying gas, parking and now two tolls just to get to work,” he said.
“That’s not all I pay. I’m paying the parking meter because the parking’s not free. And if you get a ticket, that’s $65 and if you don’t pay it in time it goes up to $75. You need to have money for everything.”
When the congestion toll takes effect in January, Viscaino said he’ll be looking for options to work outside New York.
Taxi driver Thomas Esslife
So long, taxi tips.
Cabbie Thomas Essilfe, 61, fears adding even a once-a-day $9 congestion pricing toll will eat into the tips he relies on to support his wife and three kids.
He expects passengers already unhappy paying existing taxes, fees and surcharges will tip less or not at all.
“It’s a money grab,” the Bronx resident said of congestion pricing.
“This business is all about tips. Passengers will tip less, or not tip at all, because the price is going up.”
Esslife, who is originally from Ghana and has driven a taxi for 20 years, has increasingly struggled to make a living in the city.
He now works seven days a week as costs to run a yellow cab climbed higher.
“In a week, I make maybe $700 or $800. In tips, you can make maybe $50 to $60 a day,” he said.
“President Trump, please stop the congestion charge immediately. It must be the first thing you do.”
Garage manager Romulo Coronel
The Dock Parking garage is just barely on the wrong side of congestion pricing’s 60th Street border — and manager Romulo Coronel worries the plan will cost him as much as his customers.
The parking garage along West 58th Street lost close to 40% of its business when drivers feared the congestion tolls would take effect in June, before Hochul put the program on “pause,” Coronel, 42, said.
Most of those customers hail from Uptown, upstate or New Jersey to go medical appointments, go shopping at Columbus Circle or go to a theater show, he said.
“When the congestion price was coming in last time, we already lost 10 to 15 cars a day and we had 15 monthlies canceled,” he said. “We fit 80 cars, so losing 30 to 40 cars a day is a big problem.”
The trouble compounds for Coronel, who not only depends on tips to pad out his wages, but also drives from Fresh Meadows in Queens, where traveling to Manhattan on public transit can be difficult.
“I make $22 an hour, but we earn around $60 to 75 in tips a day. It was at least $25 less in tips a day the last time they were going to charge a congestion charge,” he said. “And then I have to pay the congestion charge myself.”
Coronel expects the garage will increase prices and boost wages to help make up for lost tips, although that could lead his hours to get cut.
“The congestion charge hurts low income people like me,” he said.
Waitress Alba Galan and diner owner Vasilios Katsanos
Regular customers have already told waitress Alba Galan that they won’t come for breakfast at The Flame Diner if congestion pricing goes through.
Like Dock Parking, the diner sits along West 58th Street, just shy of where the congestion pricing zone begins.
“We have customers who drive here,” Galan, 62, said. “They are already saying they won’t pay the congestion price, so they won’t come here anymore.
“These are daily customers we will lose because they won’t pay an extra $9 to grab some eggs.”
Galan, who originally hails from El Salvador and lives on Long Island, said parking in Manhattan is already too expensive for her to drive her car to work, but her commute is also a hassle.
“I drive from Long Island, park at Long Island City, then I take two subways — the 7 train and N train — to get here,” she said.
Her boss — diner owner Vasilios Katsanos — also lives on Long Island and said he’ll begrudgingly cop the congestion fee six days a week to come to work. Many of his employees who drive will also have to pay the toll, he said.
Katsanos opened The Flame Diner in 1978 after five years working as a dishwasher following his move to the US from Greece. In that time, his rent has increased from $2,500 a month to $40,000 a month, he said.
“We will lose customers,” Katsanos said of congestion pricing. “Some customers drive here and a lot of tourists come by taxi.
“We will need to raise prices and that will mean losing customers. Of course our food deliveries will be more expensive, everything will be more expensive.”
