BURNING QUESTIONS ON CONGESTION PRICING
In Streetsblog, Tribecan Charlie Komanoff, albeit a proponent of congestion pricing, analyzed Brian Kavanagh’s recent hearing on congestion pricing, where the MTA reps attempted to answer these burning questions: London’s CP gives zone residents 90% discounts. Why are we facing a full fare? Why do I have to pay a toll for the one-block trip from my garage to the highway? Why does the congestion zone extend only to 60th Street? Why not the entire borough? What is being done about toll theft?

COLOR AND PATTERN AT THE WARREN STREET HOTEL
The Times did a quick review of the Warren Street Hotel: “Kemp’s signature aesthetic — all colorful, mismatched patterns, whimsical Pierre Frey wallpaper and dramatic sculptures (a monumental 21-foot-long steel, bronze and plaster piece by the British artist Gareth Devonald Smith looms above the bar) — defines the public areas, along with pieces by some of her other favorite artists and craftspeople.”

DOWNTOWN HOSPITAL STATE RATINGS
The Broadsheet dissected a report on hospitals, pulling out stats on the only one downtown: New York Presbyterian-Lower Manhattan Hospital on William (which I still call Downtown Hospital). Turns out the hospital has 180 beds divided this way: medical/surgical (127 beds), maternity (24), intensive care (13), neonatal intermedia care (8), and coronary care (8). And the report said it was rated high in three categories: overall deaths, heart failure mortality and postoperative hemorrhage or hematoma.

LEGAL CANNIBIS SALES HIT $150 MILLION
Crain’s reports that New York state’s legal cannabis market generated more than $150 million in sales in its first full year (2023), according to the Office of Cannabis Management. From Crain’s: “More than 6,900 businesses have filed applications to sell cannabis products since the state opened its first legal dispensary in December 2022. But to date, just 40 dispensaries have been approved to sell adult-use products, the data shows. The state’s 40 legal dispensaries sold 3.5 million units of cannabis within the last year.”