In the News: Brookfield Might Join Huge West Side Project

••• “Brookfield Property Partners is in talks to become a partner in one of the largest redevelopment projects underway in New York City. The Toronto-based office giant is negotiating to acquire a stake in the St. John’s Terminal site [550 Washington, at Houston], which Westbrook Partners and Atlas Capital Partners are planning to transform into a five-tower, 1.7 million-square-foot mixed-use complex.” —Real Deal

••• “A car-loving kitten who was found inside the engine of a Tribeca vehicle a few months ago has been adopted by her rescuers—and now has a big cat sister named Cher.” —New York Daily News

••• More thefts in the Tribeca Trib police blotter.

••• A profile of Richard Boch, former doorman at the Mudd Club, about his new memoir. —New York Times

••• “As debate about creating a toll system to limit traffic in the most congested parts of Manhattan heats up, a transformation in technology could make congestion pricing a far more realistic notion than when it was last proposed a decade ago. By the end of the year, nine crossings around the city will employ an open-road, cashless collection system that does away with tollbooths, toll lanes and toll collectors. Instead, sensors and cameras installed both above the road and in the pavement itself will capture cars and trucks as they zip by at full speed—automatically charging the 90 percent of drivers with E-ZPass transponders, and billing the other 10 percent by mail.” —New York Times

 

4 Comments

  1. Coming into the city yesterday thru the Lincoln Tunnel with Easy Pass Cashless Toll, the Congestion was maddening. In my mind when I ride the Subway and am on an Escalator at Times Square Subway Station I notice the Dirt above on the pipes is thick and has been there for years. Where does the money go.

  2. What effect will congestion pricing have on Canal Street I wonder…

    • Answer depends on the particulars of the congestion pricing plan, obviously. My modeling of the Move NY plan suggests that it will reduce in-bound vehicle volumes on the East River bridges by one-third, which of course will have a big effect on Canal Street traffic.

      • I would bet it would have an even bigger effect on Canal Street. Canal Street car traffic isn’t just a substitute for commuters taking mass transit into Manhattan; there is toll “arbitrage” at work. IOW much of the traffic that uses it to cross Manhattan from the bridge to the Holland Tunnel without paying any toll, just as Broome Street gets in the afternoon, with enough traffic to be the present-day incarnation of Moses’ LoMEx.

        As I wrote in February, “Why do downtown politicians tolerate the use of Canal Street as an interstate freeway going from a bridge to a tunnel? One in five drivers entering the busiest parts of Manhattan are only passing through, on their way elsewhere. They are not the constituents of the downtown politicians, either.”

        https://tribecacitizen.wpengine.com/2017/02/20/open-letter-heres-your-traffic-study/

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