It’s a lose-lose for Massive Apple commuters.
A high labor boss slammed the Manhattan congestion toll on drivers set to start out Sunday, saying the subways are too harmful to present commuters an alternative choice.
“To put congestion pricing in now is atrocious, disgusting — a real slap in the face,” Phil Valenti, head of the 1,600 member Transport Staff Union Native 106, advised The Put up Thursday. “The subway system is unsafe proper now. Give me a break.
“New Yorkers have been forced into a terrible and unfair position,” mentioned Valenti, whose union represents bus and subway supervisors. “You can pay $9 to enter the congestion pricing zone or take the subway, where violent crime is soaring. At least some drivers will be afraid to take the subway, undermining the entire purpose of congestion pricing. MTA Chairman Janno Lieber and Gov. Kathy Hochul are to blame for this absolute mess.”
The Massive Apple subway system has been wracked by 5 straight days of violence amid a spike in transit crime — regardless of the NYPD, Nationwide Guard and even the crime-crusading Guardian Angels on patrol, The Put up reported earlier Thursday.
The horrifying Dec. 22 torching dying of a New Jersey straphanger on a Brooklyn F prepare was solely the start of the most recent underground crime spree, which has seen 5 individuals stabbed or slashed and a 45-year-old straphanger thrown below a Manhattan subway prepare since Sunday.
Valenti rattled off NYPD stats, displaying that the ten subway murders in 2024 was double 2023’s totals. It was additionally a 233% enhance from the pre-COVID interval 5 years in the past and the very best in a technology.
There have been 573 felony assaults final yr by Sunday, Dec. 29, 2024 – a 51% enhance from 5 years in the past.
The MTA loses $700 million a yr from subway and bus fare cheaters, which ought to be extra of a precedence that soaking drivers with one other toll, he mentioned.
“With Governor Hochul’s policies of New York State being a wide-open sanctuary state, we now have the mentality ill from all over the world, who are homeless, walking our streets, taking our subways and killing people randomly,” Valenti mentioned.
“Riders and workers are not safe.”
The MTA defended subway security.
“The NYPD has reported the attached full-year crime numbers for 2024, reflecting serious crime down 5.4% for the full year and down 12.6% over 2019, prepandemic,” MTA spokesman Aaron Donovan mentioned. “The numbers speak for themselves.”
MTA Chief Safety Officer Michael Kemper mentioned in an announcement to The Put up, “Hundreds of NYPD Transit officers are working each hour of the day and evening to make the subway protected, and the report displays they’re making an affect.
“I know firsthand that to suggest otherwise disrespects the commitment to transit workers and riders, and real results delivered by those officers.”
The Put up has reached out to the governor’s workplace and NYPD and mayor’s workplace for remark.
