Congestion pricing will hurt small businesses
Brooklyn: The cost of flowers is going up! New York City, in its never-ending quest to cripple small business, is about to hit us below the knees again with its congestion pricing scheme.
Disguised as a toll to help everyone, this tax is going to bring up the cost of flowers for businesses and customers alike. Since the 1890s, the New York City Flower Market, located on 28th St. in Chelsea, has served those who work in the floral and decorating trades. To operate our store, Park Deli in Crown Heights, we drive into Manhattan to buy supplies at the Flower Market roughly 180 times a year.
At $9 a trip, congestion pricing will add more than $1,600 to our supply costs. And that’s not counting the tolls the trucks that bring the flowers to the market will pay. You read that correctly: Flowers in NYC will be double-taxed by congestion pricing! I am in no way suggesting that the NYC Flower Market move outside of Manhattan. It’s centrally located where it belongs, and it’s the last of the great markets in New York City that provide not just the flowers you give to your loved ones, but jobs to New Yorkers. Florists who purchase flowers for resale in the congestion zone should be exempt from congestion pricing so they are not forced to raise prices.
It’s high time we ask when was the last time New York City enacted legislation that actually helps its small businesses? Michael J. Sclafani
Here it comes
Manhattan: Looks like the surcharge we’ve dreaded is now where we’re permanently headed with congestion pricing. They’re taxing our pockets while prices skyrocket. Tourists will flee. That’s guaranteed. Susan M. Silver
Shortsighted
North Bergen, N.J.: By initiating congestion pricing, the so-called Democratic leadership has proven to be just as irresponsible as Republicans. They ignore the harm they are creating by placing large commercial and residential facilities in locations with no concern for the transportation needs these projects will demand. Since the real cause of congestion is the greedy real estate industry, it should bear the responsibility of dealing with the problems it’s causing, least of which is congestion. The traveler does not enter or cross Midtown because he or she wants to, but because there is no real option. The tolls might only work for a short time because we could see many jobs moving to other locations or more work being done at home. Midtown real estate stands to lose income from the loss of tenancy. The governor is too shortsighted, seeing only the revenue these tolls might generate, ignoring the harm. Irving A. Gelb
Exempt?
Union, N.J.: Are diplomats going to be paying the $9 fee or are they just going to flaunt and ignore the vehicle laws on this too? Lou Alt
Fees galore
Bayonne: Now that we have drivers paying $9 to the MTA for a service they aren’t using, perhaps we should have them pay $9 for police, $9 for fire protection, $9 for sanitation, $9 to help the homeless, $9 to lower rents and $9 to fight AIDS, etc. William Bannon
Player loyalty
Brooklyn: We Yankees fans should appreciate players like DJ LeMahieu, who signed for less money to stay with the Yankees, allowing the team and Brian Cashman to obtain other good players. Juan Soto should have talked to Robinson Cano, who went elsewhere and regretted it. I call players like DJ class, pride and loyalty. Billy Somma
Apologist for wealth
Manhattan: Voicer Tom Saracco offers an encomium on the public-spiritedness of the rich: “The top 1% of earners… contributes 45% of total personal income taxes collected.” For me, that statistic is an indictment of an unfair economy. I may have been moved to sympathy for high-earners by explanations of civics teachers about the graduated tax system and its top marginal rate of 90%. But as I became less naïve, I learned that no one was actually paying that rate. Today, with a maximum marginal rate of 37%, the wealthiest cough up a little more than 20% of their earnings, an effective rate not much different from that of the middle class (and nearly 100,000 of them manage to avoid paying any taxes). The Voicer, in creating a category of “truly needy,” revisits the British Poor Laws conceptual bifurcation of deserving/undeserving poor. Who might be the deserving rich? Michele P. Brown
World tour
Bayonne: I see it reported that presidential loser Vice President Kamala Harris is embarking on a whirlwind farewell tour next week to Asia, the Middle East and Europe. What I would like to know is is she going to visit the southern border? Mike Armstrong
Undeserved honor
Yonkers: President Biden has hatefully said he’d like to smack Donald Trump, and on Saturday he smacked the rest of America across the face when he bestowed the convicted insider trader George Soros with the Presidential Medal of Freedom. The America-hating Soros survived Nazi occupation of his native Hungary and became an American billionaire via insider trading. He has bought his way into Biden’s White House with his dirty money, and his financial support for the radical left movement has caused misery for countless Americans. Hopefully, Trump’s Justice Department will investigate Soros’ past treasonous activities and yank that medal right off his neck. Nicholas Maffei
Carte blanche
Staten Island: Article II, Section 2 of the Constitution defines the pardon power as allowing a president to “grant reprieves and pardons for offenses against the United States, except in cases of impeachment.” There is no language specifying who may or may not be the subject of a pardon. The president is simply given the power to pardon any federal crime, including his own. How ironic is this? Myra Goodman
Ego-driven agenda
Garden City, L.I.: So, the giant red hat is busy coming up with ways to make all Americans’ lives better, like changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico, invading Canada and Greenland and taking over the Panama Canal, not to mention all the Trump junk for sale on TV. Will all of this benefit all of us like his health care “concept”? Paul Falabella
Into the abyss
Matawan, N.J.: To Voicer Diane Y. McCovery: Thank you for your support in acknowledging the fact that a totally unfit former president has been voted into office for another term. To MAGA supporters: You reap what you sow. I bet you are really looking forward to a drop in the price of bacon while our president pardons convicted felons who killed police officers and tries to turn our country into a Soviet Union. MAGAs, listen to Barry McGuire’s song and realize that it’s more true than it was before: “We’re on the Eve of Destruction.” God save us from this man. Robert Wyshynski
Post-fact reality
Bronx: What difference does it make if Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg (suddenly resembling a young Roman emperor) or X’s Elon Musk, or the entire staff of The New Yorker, for that matter, alter or drop their fact-checking programs/policies? Nobody has cared about the facts for a long time, just as nobody has cared about debunking fake news — not during the pandemic, not during Trump’s entire first presidency and not now, during the waiting period for his surreal return to office and his “planned” resurgence of American expansion. The facts, like the Age of Reason, are dead. Oh, and if we do annex Canada, I want a statue of Christopher Columbus on the White House lawn. Maria Bonsanti
Counting the days
Briarwood: There are 365 days in a year plus one extra day each four years for leap year. This means that as of Jan. 20, 2025, there will be 1,461 days until the Trump era finally ends. Mary Elizabeth Ellis
Opulent remembrance
Stony Point, N.Y.: After watching the powerful tributes paid to Jimmy Carter, I was wondering what the tribute to DJT (the anti-Carter) will be. Rather than the Rotunda, his would more appropriately be held at the Bellagio fountains! Gerry Chomiak
