Congestion Confusion

In a blog post today at the Daily Politics, Liz outlines a dispute-courtesy of the Downtown Express-between Councilman Alan Gerson and the Bloomberg administration over what was, or wasn't, promised in exchange for support for the failed congeation tax: "Gerson thought he had extracted a series of pledges from the Bloomberg administration in exchange for his support for congestion pricing and conditional on the plan passing Albany, but John Gallagher, a Bloomberg spokesperson said last week - when the proposal was still alive - that the city had made none of the promises for Lower Manhattan that Gerson claimed."

To us, this will be just the beginning, as disappointed elected officials start to publicly grouse over the reneging by the Bloombergistas. It will also start to shed light over the extent of the hose trading that went on before the vote. It certainly won't be a pretty picture for elected officials who claim to be above politics and good government aficionados.

Some glimpse of the wheeling and dealing can be seen from the following comments that Gerson gave to the paper: “I spoke directly to [police] commissioner Ray Kelly,” Gerson said. “I spoke directly to D.O.T. - commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan. I spoke directly to the mayor at Gracie Mansion - although at that point we had not worked out the details of the commitments.”

It sounds to us a lot light a "Paradise by the Dashboard Light" scenario; with Gerson as the unrequited love object. How many others will fit into this category?