Noise #159: Manhattan's $500M monuments to nothing
A congestion pricing plan stalls, but the infrastructure and price tag remain.
For years now, Manhattan has been crawling towards a congestion pricing plan, which would charge vehicles $15 to pass through the most clogged sections of Midtown.
The plan was debated and approved. Large metal overhangs were installed with cameras and sensors. Budgets were formulated to account for the additional billions of revenue the plan would generate.
And then earlier this week, Governor Hochul did the political equivalent of “oops, just kidding!”
The program is now “indefinitely paused.” But the towers are still there, and the contract remains. New Yorkers are collectively paying $500M for nothing.
Noise #159 channels my frustration at the incompetence of this 11th-hour decision, my sadness at the waste of money and manpower that could have been so easily avoided. It also channels my confusion at Hochul’s motivations in making such a weird decision at such a seemingly arbitrary moment, my gratitude that congestion pricing has improved life in various European cities, my mixed and thorny feelings about the ethics and pragmatism of introducing such a plan here at home.
Finally, Noise #159 is inspired by the stark imagery of the overhangs—Manhattan’s newest works of unintentional and unwanted public art, grand and ugly and useless, ignominious monuments to nothing.
Here’s Noise #159:
Wishing you peace,
Michael
(Noise #159 by Michael Gallant. Copyright 2024 Gallant Music LLC. All Rights Reserved.)
Captain My Captain:
Your prose and your ability to articulate a grotesque misallocation of taxpayer funds is not lost on me. Thanks so much for compressing this all down into snackable bites for the rest of us. It's mind-boggling how you can then translate the grief one step further into chords & melody.
Thank you, Juan