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The fight over East River bridge tolls raged all weekend, but Borough President Markowitz, an adamant opponent of charging drivers to enter Manhattan, was largely on the sidelines while other critics publicly protested the plan to close the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s budget gap.
Here’s how Markowitz has spent his time following last week’s announcement by Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver in favor of charging drivers $2 to cross the currently free city bridges:
Markowitz begins the assault against Silver’s proposal with a press release, but no public appearance:
“I am flabbergasted by recent reports that proposals to toll East River and Harlem River bridges are still on the table,” the statement said, expressing shock — shock — despite a state commission that actually recommended just such a toll last year.
“I have always maintained these tolls are a ‘backdoor’ to congestion pricing and are discriminatory, impractical, and impose an unfair ‘tax’ on Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island and the Bronx. … It is, of course, critical to find funding sources to close the city’s growing budget gap in these tough economic times, but placing the burden unfairly on the backs of hard-working Brooklynites is not one of them.”
Markowitz appears on Channel 4 news in a larger story about East and Harlem river tolls.
“They’re suggesting two bucks each way,” he said in the interview, which took place in Markowitz’s memorabilia-filled Borough Hall office. “Next year, the MTA is in trouble with money or a year later, you know what, the first place they’re going to go is ‘Let’s raise the toll from two to four dollars each way.’”
Markowitz attends a rally to save the B25 bus — a key link between East New York and Downtown — during the day. Though the event was not strictly “anti-toll,” Markowitz decried service cuts as a punishment on working-class Brooklynites.
Markowitz missed two Manhattan anti-toll rallies — one near the Washington Bridge and the other at the 59th Street Bridge — preferring to appear at a school construction photo op with pro-toll Mayor Bloomberg in Sunset Park.
The Beep’s office said that a staffer represented Markowitz at the 59th Street Bridge protest, organized by Councilman David Weprin (D-Queens). The office also said that Markowitz, whose name is synonymous in Brooklyn with defiance to bridge tolls, had not been invited to the other Manhattan event.
UPDATED AT 3:30 PM ON MARCH 2: Story was altered to clarify why Markowitz was not at one of the anti-toll rallies on Sunday. He had not been invited, it turns out.
UPDATED AT 10:20 PM ON MARCH 3: Story was altered to add in another event from Markowitz’s weekend schedule, information provided by his office.
©2009 Community Newspaper Group
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