NYC Installs Cameras… To Tax The Poor

these are the new cameras and as you can see they are powering them up right now and these things are going to tax every car on the road people are so upset by this two different groups of New Yorkers have filed law suits to stop these things from going live on top of that the city's been caught installing other cameras in parts of the city like this right here which aren't supposed to be subject to any tolls or taxes what in the world could those be for this piece of equipment right here has already been installed on two Northbound Avenues congestion pricing good thing or bad thing uh I think it's taking a lot of money it's hard for everyday communities it's too expensive do you think it's confusing it is this isn't about cleaner air this isn't about less traffic this is about nothing more than money as a New Yorker congestion is a problem but the way that they're implementing it is Half Baked and it's unfair enough is enough already it really is negative impact more pollution in all of our Burrows more traffic in all of our Burrows quality of life goes down less [Music] parking that's another License Plate Reader but it's facing the right way fortunately and that's because it's set up to catch traffic heading into the congestion Zone but the black cameras are set up to catch traffic leaving the congestion Zone which isn't supposed to get taxed and the tolls the city plans on charging with these are already highly controversial and they've even been caught installing them in parts of town they promised would remain toll-free but the reason the city is so stoked about these things is because the dilapidated Subway which is run by the MTA well that same MTA is going to get all the money that these things generate they want to make improvements they want to upgrade service and they're hoping that the congestion fees charged on roads like this are going to incentivize drivers to take the train instead of driving their cars and they're convinced that this is the best way to do it let's face it these things are inescapable look there's two police cars under there the thing reads the front plate and and your back plate if you're on the road in any capacity these things are going to charge you they're basically like money generating boxes but as we'll soon see two lawsuits have been filed to put these things out of commission before this scheme kicks in and the people filing those lawsuits speculate that these little guys are going to cause way more harm than good and we'll get into that as well as why new cameras are showing up in locations where the city said there wouldn't be any tolls but listen to How much money average New Yorkers are going to have to pay if they want to drive passenger vehicles would be charged $15 to enter the congestion Zone those tolls would be charged once per day and would be in effect between 500 a.m. and 9 p.m. on weekdays and 9: so most drivers $15 every time they enter this part of the city this big white truck will pay $24 when it enters and a two-wheeler with a license plate will pay half what a car pays pretty soon they'll make us all wear a license plate on our forehead so they can just charge us for existing that was a joke but what's not a joke is the fact that this plan it's supposed to raise a billion dollars a year but some people think it might raise over three times that much money which could mean the tolls are way too much in New York minimum wage is $16 an hour and if you commute by car you've just lost an hour of work also this Liam over rice is 10 bucks but that's like the same price as the congestion fee so now your lunch costs more but now the question is could all of this financial pain and suffering from every single car on the road be worth it could we end up getting world class Transit out of this thing there are some people who think so a spokesman for the Riders Alliance a group that advocates for public transit called it a winwin win for Transit traffic and air quality so before we move on and figure out why the city's got secret toll readers set up all over town it's important to understand that proponents of this are just so convinced that it's going to transform the subway and part of me hopes they're right because I ride the subway and it's a total mess and look at this it's predicted that congestion is going to drop by about 17% which should lower pollution in the actual congestion Zone where we are right now but there are many New Yorkers who aren't sold on this plan because even though it helps one part of the city they say it doesn't help the other parts of the city and that's why there are two lawsuits right now but there might even be more lawsuits because hidden toll readers have been popping up all over town and the city's being a little quiet on the [Music] details so these are the controversial cameras which aren't supposed to be charging drivers because they're on an Avenue where traffic is headed out of the toll Zone not in and you see this truck right here there's a wire coming out of it going into this box and this box is connected to the cameras which means they're programming them right now look at all those servers and stuff in there those are definitely going to be able to do a whole bunch of things also notice how these cameras are painted stealth black maybe to hide them this big piece of equipment right here has already been installed on two Northbound Avenues so it raised the question will drivers ultimately be charged for leaving the congestion Zone as well as entering it wow this literally raises so many red flags but residents want to know if these aren't going to charge a toll why is the city spending money to put them in and since they look so similar to the other cameras would they ever be turned on in the future or will they start charging drivers for entering and for leaving the congestion Zone at some point we aren't sure but the city says there's nothing to worry about the MTA telling Fox 5 the gantries installed at these locations are quote for data collection to assist in understanding the movement of wow data collection that makes me feel so much better I mean Facebook and Google and apple already have our data now the city's going to have it too but really we've got no choice but to believe the city at this point because they're the ones that operate these but some people are worried the data these are going to generate and collect is going to inform the city of how how much extra money they are missing out on by not turning them on and then eventually elected officials will vote for them to be turned on and then they'll serve the purpose that they could be serving now if it weren't illegal we rais the question will the MTA at some point in the future be able to use these gantries to charge drivers leaving the congestion area no tolls are contemplated for vehicles exiting the congestion Zone well there you have it there are no plans for the need to become toll readers at this point in time that's what the city says but look at this the cameras have been apparently popping up on the toll free highways and this goes back to the idea that the city is going to learn how much money they're missing out on on the toll-free highways the work truck's gone it looks like this battle station is now fully operational but before we move on to the reasons people are suing the city over this stuff the law says that they cannot be used to collect a toll in this part of town and that was passed by the state legislature and the state legislature would have to reconvene so for now drivers have some measure of protection against any extra fees but you saw all the expensive stuff in that box right there with the flip of a switch these things could have an entirely different purpose every single day but luckily there are some lawmakers in New York that understand that people are completely fed up with the secrecy and the supposed deception going on around these things and they're not being quiet about it [Music] this isn't about cleaner air this isn't about less traffic this is about nothing more than money money being thrown into the black hole that is the MTA okay so before we get into these extremely strong criticisms of congestion pricing it's important to understand that these lawmakers they're outside the city they're in Long Island where a lot of people on the road today Drive in from and are going to get hit with the fees so their outrage reflects the views of the people that they represent also it's worth mentioning that the state state of New Jersey is suing as well to try and get this overturned because many New Jersey residents also come into the city along with businesses and calling this whole scheme a waste of money I mean hopefully that turns out to be incorrect hopefully the MTA gets this money and does the right thing with it and improves the subway and makes it a joy to use and totally transforms the city but the mta's operating budget in 2022 was over 19 billion and $19 billion that's a lot of money for the subway to look like absolute TR trash and to smell like trash and to have trash kind of piling up everywhere the cars are old the stations are falling apart you can't even see it's so dark down there not to mention the trains are often delayed overcrowded not on time shutting down when you're in them leaving people stranded and we've got ourselves a real Clash of opinions here because the people who are against this are really against it but the people who are for it they're really for it and these two opinions cannot be worked out in any meaningful way I can't find parking spots after 11:00 a.m. with with congestion pricing more people on the train where are they going to put the cars my small businesses my young professionals who are trying to get out of their parents' house enough is enough already it really is and you know at the end of the day real people are going to be really affected by this it's going to have consequences many people are afraid that drivers who are looking for parking are going to dump their cars on streets outside of the congestion Zone because they're going to try to drive to a location where they can get public transit which is very unreliable and take it for as few stops as possible for example this car is from New Jersey now I don't know what part of New Jersey they're from but there are parts of New Jersey that are about a 10-minute train ride into the City and if they live let's say half an hour away from that they might drive and then take the train the rest of the way also there are a lot of companies based outside of the city that do renovation work and deliver cylinders filled with gas if I saw a guy get on the subway with a tank like that I would get off the train immediately you can't bring that stuff on the train it even says Hazmat right on the side of the truck and you know who also has to pay these tools firefighters ambulance drivers essential workers who the city relies on for important jobs they don't get any kind of discount and they have to pay it worse yet the less you make the more that toll is going to Sting If you're rich and you live in this super expensive apartment Tower $15 is nothing who cares the MTA has the final say we've got to stop letting the MTA increase their own income without looking at their expenses we'll just turn to the taxpayers again and hit them again so before we move on to the lawsuits and if there's a chance that this thing is going to be stopped it seems that the main complaint people have is that the MTA is just amazing at wasting millions of dollars every single year and with a bloated budget there might be some truth to this but the reason there are now multiple lawsuits over congestion pricing is because people claim it's not going to deliver on its promises and that's a big deal because congestion pricing is now the law and the city is all excited for all of the extra money it's going to make they can't wait it's going to be raining but it's starting in just a few months do these lawsuits have time to get through and be effective the people filing them think [Music] so we have something called the Environmental Protection act and there's a process and we realize that they're using 2016 Census Data they're using Transportation data from over8 years ago okay I didn't know this but before we get into whether or not this lawsuit can work the woman who's suing apparently she sued Mariah Carey over the title queen of Christmas and one there's Mariah Carey I wonder what her lawyers were up to but at least we're talking about someone filing a lawsuit who's been to court before and come out on top and what's interesting about this is that anyone who wants to cons Su the EPA for failing to act to protect the environment but what exactly is she suing for the congestion plan doesn't eliminate congestion as so much as it pushes it out and north and it causes other issues sociologically environmentally financially okay so the thing she's suing over is the thing most New Yorkers who aren't Rich enough to live here in the congestion zone are extremely worried about and it has to do with the environment and that's because although pollution is likely to decrease in this part of town where people in this apartment building live all of the pollution that was taking place here is just going to get pushed out to areas that don't have the congestion toll like the Bronx and Brooklyn and Queens and look at this asthma rates in the Bronx are already through the roof and the MTA is aware of this so they're going to spend money to try and fix it in fact the mta's already agreed to spend $13 million of their profit on addressing pollution related concerns that take place in the Bronx specifically okay it's not profit it's Revenue but what they're going to do is they're going to plant trees they're going to renovate parks and they're also going to controversially install air filtration systems in schools near areas of town that are going to be hit with extra congestion like by busy highways and avenues where congested traffic is pretty much guaranteed to increase and they're going to spend 25 million on an asthma treatment program so isn't this an admission of pollution redistribution if they're already going to go and spend money fixing problems they know this is going to cause that's what this lawsuit is about and the people living in outer Burrows don't have the millions necessary to buy a pricey condo here in Manhattan and what's crazy is that not only is the pollution being moved from one area of town to another area of town that area of town that's going to receive the pollution is a middle class area of town this is a rich neighborhood it's just going to get better for the rich but what about people who make the case that congestion pricing has worked in other major cities across the globe doesn't that mean that the same exact plan could work here in New York because in the United States we have interstate commerce so we have to pay attention to the states around New York State and in America we have cars and we have a whole different interstate system and she's right America relies on Interstate Commerce in order to exist and without residents of one state being able to freely do business with residents of another state without some strange penalty that only benefits one party over the other this whole system wouldn't work your contractors wouldn't drive in to fix anything because it would be too expensive to fix your clogged toilet and your fancy apartment on top of that all the food that's served at your favorite little cafes the ingredients that go into that stuff isn't being produced here in the city all those sugarcoated vegetables and your sweet green salad those don't come from New York City and to many people Rich folks driving around in their Ferraris don't need to breathe in better air than the rest of us we should all breathe the same amounts of polluted air together it should be fair and it's unfair for if it doesn't work for all New Yorkers it doesn't work you've got to re-evaluate things should middle income average everyday New Yorkers pay fees so that the richest of the rich can have a better environment and as mentioned earlier there are many businesses that just cannot do business with the subway as their mode of transportation look at all these big trucks parked over here yes these things are totally contributing to congestion you can't even drive down this little street because there's so many trucks and that's why it makes sense these massive Vehicles should pay more money because they're clogging up the streets that's why their congestion toll is now higher but if they're here for an essential purpose and they're just going to pass the cost of doing business onto the customer who's really paying that toll the company with the truck or you and me and the reason people are saying this is a tax on the poor is because everyone in the city is going to be paying this whether they drive a car or a truck or not you could be the best most environmentally conscious New Yorker on the planet who takes the train everywhere but everything you buy at CVS will cost more ditto everything sold by these little food trucks but it's not just the EPA who's being sued the city of New York's MTA is being sued as well and wait till you hear [Music] why New York City's teachers union and Staten Islands B president have teamed up to try to block congestion pricing they filed the lawsuit challenging the mta's claims on how the program will improve air quality interesting so we've got teachers teaming up with Staten Island to also sue the city you take the subway I take the subway so for you it would be really good to have the subway be better I think they need to put more in listen I'm a native New York I've been here for this reminds me of the '90s wow really this reminds me of the '90s this is this is bad and you were in what like middle school then I was I was 6 seven years old wow yeah this is bad this is bad and the other four Burrows it's not impr moving any of that in fact the air quality is going to get worse so we're taking the pollution from Midtown Manhattan and moving it to the Bronx to Queens to Brooklyn and Staten Island so this suit basically alleges that the air quality everywhere except Manhattan is going to suck which means that the city could potentially be much worse off as a result of this plan and the groups involved here think this is going to hurt the city more than it's going to help it and the last thing they want is for the health of kids and communities outside of Manhattan to suffer and I do like the idea that this is environmental Injustice we keep hearing about Justice well is it just to make kids sick in the pronx OR in Staten Island so that kids here have it a little bit better off many people would say there's absolutely no way that's fair but this lawsuit hinges on the idea that proper studies were not done before this plan was approved which makes it sound like this is something the local government wanted approv no matter what and when you consider how much money is going to come from this there are some people who think that is 100% what happened that Corners were cut to make this thing a reality when the reality of it is very different than what people think what do you think's going to happen do you think congestion pricing is a good idea do you think a better Subway and better air in Manhattan are the two goals it should accomplish what about just a better Subway would that be enough to have a better Subway maybe the fees could be lower let me know what you think I'll see you in the next video

Channel: Cash Jordan

Views: 1,001,014

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Id: wKmzIq5DmY0

Length: 17min 46sec (1066 seconds)

Published: Thu Feb 01 2024