{"id":2653,"date":"2007-08-22T10:27:34","date_gmt":"2007-08-22T18:27:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/wordpress\/archives\/2007\/08\/always_the_forgotten_borough.html"},"modified":"2007-08-22T10:27:34","modified_gmt":"2007-08-22T18:27:34","slug":"always_the_forg","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/archives\/2007\/08\/always_the_forg.html","title":{"rendered":"Always The Forgotten Borough"},"content":{"rendered":"

Teamwork means reaching across the aisle — or down Pennsylvania Avenue — so that you can build the coalitions needed to get things done<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Congestion pricing has been touted as a boon for the entire city, yet no one from Staten Island is included on a commission to study the controversial plan.<\/p>\n

A search of official records indicates that the 17-member panel announced yesterday by city and state politicians has no one who either lives on the Island or represents it.<\/p>\n

The revelation infuriated several of the borough’s elected officials, who ultimately would vote on the plan in the City Council and state Legislature.<\/p>\n

“What that has done is made a very difficult sell to the people of Staten Island nearly impossible,” said City Councilman James Oddo (R-Mid-Island\/Brooklyn).<\/p>\n

Oddo contended the commission would lack a voice defending the needs of the Island, where commuters generally feel mass transportation alternatives are lacking and tolls are too expensive.<\/p>\n

“Can you imagine Manhattan not being represented?” he asked. “Can you imagine the [former Mayor Rudolph] Giuliani administration creating a 17-member commission of whatever that didn’t include a Staten Islander?”<\/p>\n

. . .<\/p>\n

Oddo was not alone in his outrage.<\/p>\n

State Sen. Diane Savino and Councilman Michael McMahon, both North Shore Democrats, also slammed the composition of the group.<\/p>\n

“We are the most under-served and most overlooked constituency by mass transit, and again we are getting short shrift here,” Ms. Savino said.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Teamwork means reaching across the aisle — or down Pennsylvania Avenue — so that you can build the coalitions needed to get things done: Congestion pricing has been touted as a boon for the entire city, yet no one from Staten Island is included on a commission to study the controversial plan. A search of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2653","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-jerk_move","category-staten_island"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2653","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2653"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2653\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2653"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2653"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2653"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}