Good morning. It’s Wednesday. Today we’ll look at why congestion pricing will continue into the fall, if not longer. We’ll also get details on the Trump administration’s move to take away $325 million in grants to New York State, much of which would have gone toward flood mitigation in New York City.
What will happen to congestion pricing now that state and federal officials have agreed to a court timeline that will probably keep it going into the fall, if not somewhat longer?
Will the Trump administration, which has raised the prospect of cutting funding for mass transit projects in New York State, find a new way to pressure Gov. Kathy Hochul and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to stop charging drivers entering the “congestion relief zone” south of 60th Street in Manhattan?
The answers are not clear.
Some transit watchers say the agreement on a timeline is a win-win for the transit agency and for the Trump administration. As long as litigation is underway in the case — which was brought by the M.T.A. — the agency can collect tolls and use the revenue to borrow more. And the Trump administration can continue to say it is fighting congestion pricing.
One of Trump’s most prominent antagonists will be fighting for the M.T.A. Roberta Kaplan, who represented the writer E. Jean Carroll in sexual assault and defamation lawsuits against Trump, is representing the transit agency and signed the letter that laid out the timeline.
The transit agency hired Kaplan in 2023 when New Jersey filed a lawsuit to block congestion pricing. The M.T.A. was not named as a defendant but joined the case anyway; a 72-page decision from Judge Leo Gordon in U.S. District Court in New Jersey allowed New York to go ahead with congestion pricing while the federal authorities addressed his concerns.
What the new timeline will mean for deadlines set by Sean Duffy, the secretary of transportation, remains to be seen. Last month Duffy extended his initial March 21 deadline to stop collecting the tolls to April 20 — 11 days from now.
In announcing the new deadline, Duffy issued what was widely seen as an implicit threat to federal funding for New York. Addressing Hochul in a social media post, he said that “your open disrespect towards the federal government is unacceptable” and that “continued noncompliance will not be taken lightly.”
In a social media post on Tuesday, the Department of Transportation said it still expected the toll to end in mid-April.
Congestion pricing has been a financial success for the M.T.A., billing about $100 million in tolls in March. The agency can leverage that money to borrow billions more for its capital plan, which calls for long-overdue upgrades to the subway system and to the buses and commuter rail lines that it also operates.
In March, about 2.5 million fewer vehicles entered the tolling zone, compared with the historical average — a 13 percent drop in traffic, according to M.T.A. data. Congestion pricing is credited with shortening commutes for drivers and bus passengers, while pedestrian traffic and retail sales have not dwindled, as some opponents had feared.
“It has worked in taking the peak of the traffic off the streets,” said Mitchell Moss, a professor of urban policy and planning at New York University and the former director of the Rudin Center for Transportation there.
The letter signed by Kaplan said that the M.T.A. and federal officials would abide by a timeline that would not resolve the dispute until at least late July. The letter noted that the administration had “unilaterally announced shifting deadlines by which, they claim, tolling ‘must cease.’”
Lawyers for the transit agency had “specifically asked” whether the federal government was considering “any unilateral action” on or after April 20 that might prompt the M.T.A. to seek an injunction, the letter said.
“The federal defendants did not have information to provide,” the letter said.
Weather
Expect a sunny sky with a high near 51 degrees. The evening will be partly cloudy with a low around 40.
ALTERNATE-SIDE PARKING
In effect until Saturday (Passover).
The latest Metro news
$300 million in disaster prevention aid to New York is cut
Separately, FEMA has terminated $188 million in grants to the city to care for migrants, arguing that the money is being used to support illegal immigration.
The cuts in disaster prevention funding include $100 million for storm water mitigation measures in East Elmhurst, Queens, and in central Harlem. An additional $11 million, money that was to go toward a storm surge barrier for the Polo Grounds Towers public housing development and a public school, is also being cut. A further $20 million has been cut from storm water mitigation projects at three public housing developments in Brooklyn.
And $42 million was cut that would have gone to a project to reduce the risk of flooding at South Street Seaport in Lower Manhattan.
Hochul called the cuts “shortsighted” and “a massive risk to public safety” because assistance from FEMA “has been critical to help us rebuild.” FEMA said that close to $1 billion — grants that had been awarded nationally but not paid out — would go back to the Treasury Department.
Kayla Mamelak Altus, a spokeswoman for Mayor Eric Adams, said that one purpose of the FEMA funding was to save the federal government money it might otherwise have to spend on disaster relief.
“Multiple studies have shown that $1 spent in advance saves $6 in response and recovery costs down the line,” she said. “This incredible return on investment is why we have already reached out to our federal partners, but are also simultaneously reviewing our legal options.”
METROPOLITAN diary
Ferry Farewell
Dear Diary:
On a February afternoon, I met my cousins at the Staten Island Ferry Terminal. Their spouses and several of our very-grown children were there too. I brought Prosecco, a candle, a small speaker to play music, photos and a poem.
We were there to recreate the wedding cruise of my mother, Monica, and my stepfather, Peter. They had gotten married at City Hall in August 1984. She was 61, and he, 71. It was her first marriage, and his fourth.
I was my mother’s witness that day. It was a late-in-life love story, and they were very happy. Peter died in 1996, at 82. My mother died last year. She was 100.
Peter’s ashes had waited a long time, but finally they were mingled with Monica’s. The two of them would ride the ferry a last time and then swirl together in the harbor forever. Cue the candles, bubbly, bagpipes and poems.
Two ferry workers approached us. We knew we were in trouble: Open containers and open flames were not allowed on the ferry.
My cousin’s husband, whispering, told the workers what we were doing and said we would be finished soon.
They walked off, and then returned. They said they had spoken to the captain, and they ushered us to the stern for some privacy. As the cup of ashes flew into the water, the ferry horn sounded two long blasts.
— Caitlin Margaret May