by the RPA Staff
Given the fiscal crises currently plaguing the Region, it's not surprising that RPA focused its recent Regional Assembly on investing for the future in tough times. From managing traffic congestion to building needed infrastructure for growth, the Assembly's panelists and guests debated innovative ways to tackle long-term problems even as short-term budget issues were being finalized throughout the Region.
Regional Plan Association's 13th Regional Assembly was held at the Marriott Marquis at Times Square on April 25. About 600 people attended the half-day event, entitled "Shaping the Region for the XXIst Century."
Speakers agreed on some issues, but disagreed sharply on others based on their affiliations. Finding ways to bridge or dissolve those differences is the chief challenge for the Tri-State region as it tries to build for the future even while coping with immediate money problems.
Leading off the Assembly was a presentation by Derek Turner, architect of London's center-city congestion-pricing system that, according to reports, has worked surprisingly well. Until recently Street Management director at Transport for London, Turner detailed how a system that relies on 700 cameras around the city has reduced traffic and been relatively trouble-free in implementation.
Turner, now a private consultant and eager to see his ideas implemented elsewhere, mentioned that it took him 30 minutes to travel two miles in midtown Manhattan via taxi. Turner said that a 10% reduction in traffic could create 25% faster driving speeds, cutting his ride by nearly ten minutes. Turner's remarks drew largely positive remarks from other speakers that followed him.
Thomas Johnson, chairman of GreenPoint Financial and the honorary chairman of this year's Assembly, endorsed Turner's plan and said some version of it would be beneficial for New York City. Johnson suggested one way to make the system politically palatable would be to return a portion of the fees that drivers pay to enter New York City back to the locality where the drivers reside. The money could perhaps be used to pay for transit investments in those communities. That way, drivers would know that the money they paid was benefiting their home communities, be they from Nassau County or Morristown, N.J. New York City would still have less congested streets, both in traffic and pollution.
After Turner's presentation, a roundtable of panelists disagreed about many subjects, but not the Turner plan. The panelists were Daniel Doctoroff, New York City's Deputy Mayor for Economic Development and Rebuilding; James Florio, former governor of New Jersey; Thomas Suozzi, Nassau County Executive; Kathryn Wylde, President of the Partnership for New York City; and Turner. Robert Yaro, President of RPA, moderated.
In addition to traffic management, panelists discussed how cities, counties and states should close the budget gaps and fund needed new infrastructure. Although the group agreed on the need to raise revenue, none favored taxes that hit heavily on their particular locality or interest.
Wylde was against a regional payroll tax of the type that Paris has used to pay for its regional mass transit system. She said taxing jobs would discourage creating new ones.
Suozzi opposed the commuter tax that New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has proposed. Such a tax would hit Nassau commuters heavily. He said that regional budget problems should have a regional financing solution.
Doctoroff, Bloomberg's right-hand man, endorsed the commuter tax asa fair way to have the millions of commuters bear some of the burden for supporting the many New York City services they use free of charge each day.
James Florio, now working in the private sector and co-chairing RPA's New Jersey Committee, said public should not be afraid, he said, "to punch through the veneer of opposition" that materialized toward any substantive proposal.
Speaking after the roundtable, Tom Johnson said the budget crunch would not exist if the state and city had not cut taxes excessively in the boom years leading up to the present downturn. In the future, the state and other localities need to take a long-range perspective for financial planning that would provide for continued investment and valuable public services in both the lean and the fat years.
On a similar topic, U.S. Senator Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ), who also spoke at lunch, said that in Washington he had repeatedly tried to stave off the tax cuts proposed by President Bush. Lautenberg said that these tax cuts would send the federal government deeper into deficit, and make the budget situations of states even worse.
After taxes, talk turned to more global issues.
Keynote speaker Pasqual Maragall, former mayor of Barcelona and current candidate for president of Catalonia, endorsed a global confederation of world cities, with New York as either its official or unofficial leader. Having New York play such a leadership role, Maragall said, would also give the United States a chance to "stand for something other than being defense department to the world."
This clear reference to the American war on Iraq, which Maragall had spoken against the previous day at The New School, seemed to give the audience pause for a moment. A portion of the audience broke into applause afterward.
Between the morning and lunchtime speakers, six separate panel and workshop discussions went on in individual rooms. The topics, speaking generally, were transportation, economic development, public participation, rebuilding Lower Manhattan, parks and open space, and Smart Growth. Summaries of these workshops and the entire day can be found online at www.rpa.org.
Yaro opened the conference with what might be an appropriate conclusion. He challenged the audience to create the capacity for another century of growth through key investments, noting our continued reliance on those made by our parents and grandparents.
Given the fiscal crises currently plaguing the Region, it's not surprising that RPA focused its recent Regional Assembly on investing for the future in tough times. From managing traffic congestion to building needed infrastructure for growth, the Assembly's panelists and guests debated innovative ways to tackle long-term problems even as short-term budget issues were being finalized throughout the Region.
Regional Plan Association's 13th Regional Assembly was held at the Marriott Marquis at Times Square on April 25. About 600 people attended the half-day event, entitled "Shaping the Region for the XXIst Century."
Speakers agreed on some issues, but disagreed sharply on others based on their affiliations. Finding ways to bridge or dissolve those differences is the chief challenge for the Tri-State region as it tries to build for the future even while coping with immediate money problems.
Leading off the Assembly was a presentation by Derek Turner, architect of London's center-city congestion-pricing system that, according to reports, has worked surprisingly well. Until recently Street Management director at Transport for London, Turner detailed how a system that relies on 700 cameras around the city has reduced traffic and been relatively trouble-free in implementation.
Turner, now a private consultant and eager to see his ideas implemented elsewhere, mentioned that it took him 30 minutes to travel two miles in midtown Manhattan via taxi. Turner said that a 10% reduction in traffic could create 25% faster driving speeds, cutting his ride by nearly ten minutes. Turner's remarks drew largely positive remarks from other speakers that followed him.
Thomas Johnson, chairman of GreenPoint Financial and the honorary chairman of this year's Assembly, endorsed Turner's plan and said some version of it would be beneficial for New York City. Johnson suggested one way to make the system politically palatable would be to return a portion of the fees that drivers pay to enter New York City back to the locality where the drivers reside. The money could perhaps be used to pay for transit investments in those communities. That way, drivers would know that the money they paid was benefiting their home communities, be they from Nassau County or Morristown, N.J. New York City would still have less congested streets, both in traffic and pollution.
After Turner's presentation, a roundtable of panelists disagreed about many subjects, but not the Turner plan. The panelists were Daniel Doctoroff, New York City's Deputy Mayor for Economic Development and Rebuilding; James Florio, former governor of New Jersey; Thomas Suozzi, Nassau County Executive; Kathryn Wylde, President of the Partnership for New York City; and Turner. Robert Yaro, President of RPA, moderated.
In addition to traffic management, panelists discussed how cities, counties and states should close the budget gaps and fund needed new infrastructure. Although the group agreed on the need to raise revenue, none favored taxes that hit heavily on their particular locality or interest.
Wylde was against a regional payroll tax of the type that Paris has used to pay for its regional mass transit system. She said taxing jobs would discourage creating new ones.
Suozzi opposed the commuter tax that New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has proposed. Such a tax would hit Nassau commuters heavily. He said that regional budget problems should have a regional financing solution.
Doctoroff, Bloomberg's right-hand man, endorsed the commuter tax asa fair way to have the millions of commuters bear some of the burden for supporting the many New York City services they use free of charge each day.
James Florio, now working in the private sector and co-chairing RPA's New Jersey Committee, said public should not be afraid, he said, "to punch through the veneer of opposition" that materialized toward any substantive proposal.
Speaking after the roundtable, Tom Johnson said the budget crunch would not exist if the state and city had not cut taxes excessively in the boom years leading up to the present downturn. In the future, the state and other localities need to take a long-range perspective for financial planning that would provide for continued investment and valuable public services in both the lean and the fat years.
On a similar topic, U.S. Senator Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ), who also spoke at lunch, said that in Washington he had repeatedly tried to stave off the tax cuts proposed by President Bush. Lautenberg said that these tax cuts would send the federal government deeper into deficit, and make the budget situations of states even worse.
After taxes, talk turned to more global issues.
Keynote speaker Pasqual Maragall, former mayor of Barcelona and current candidate for president of Catalonia, endorsed a global confederation of world cities, with New York as either its official or unofficial leader. Having New York play such a leadership role, Maragall said, would also give the United States a chance to "stand for something other than being defense department to the world."
This clear reference to the American war on Iraq, which Maragall had spoken against the previous day at The New School, seemed to give the audience pause for a moment. A portion of the audience broke into applause afterward.
Between the morning and lunchtime speakers, six separate panel and workshop discussions went on in individual rooms. The topics, speaking generally, were transportation, economic development, public participation, rebuilding Lower Manhattan, parks and open space, and Smart Growth. Summaries of these workshops and the entire day can be found online at www.rpa.org.
Yaro opened the conference with what might be an appropriate conclusion. He challenged the audience to create the capacity for another century of growth through key investments, noting our continued reliance on those made by our parents and grandparents.
@RegionalPlan