Chinatown Protests Congestion Pricing, Demands Gov. Hochul Cancel MTA “Cash Grab”

Dozens of impassioned protestors gathered near the Manhattan Bridge on Dec. 17 to denounce Governor Kathy Hochul’s reinstatement of congestion pricing, which is due to begin Jan. 5.

Though dominated by Chinatown residents, including translations into and out of Mandarin depending on the speaker, the protestors represented a broad cross-section of concerned locals, including Hispanics, class conscious young people and the old, feisty Jewish Lower East Side too.

While firmly Chinatown today, this area was previously part of the teeming Jewish Lower East Side, including a jewelry district on Canal St. and dozens of clothiers and other stores on the nearby side streets. The striking St. Barbara Greek Orthodox Church at 27 Forsyth Street was built in 1892 as Kol Israel Anshe Poland synagogue.

The event began at 11 a.m., with event organizers from the Coalition to Protect Chinatown and the Lower East Side and handmade protest sign-carrying participants gathering on Forsyth Street adjacent to the Manhattan Bridge. The weather was grey but mild, with temperature approaching 50 degrees.

“People Are Part of the Environment Stop Congestion Pricing” read one sign in English. “Congestion Pricing = ‘Protecting the Environment’ by kicking out Everyone but the Rich” asserted another.

The quotes around “Protecting the Environment” are significant, signaling the protestors’ belief that congestion pricing has little do with the environment but is rather a gift to the wealthy—for whom the costs of congestion pricing are nominal—at the expense of the working class. Other signs in Chinese and Spanish echoed these sentiments.

Originally slated to commence this past June, the controversial plan will charge all cars, trucks and motorcycles (but not illegal e-bikes, scooters and mopeds) various fees, 24/7, to enter Manhattan below 60th Street—including people who already paid a tolls to enter the island as well as people who work or live within the so-called “congestion relief zone.”

In a political move that many felt was intended to protect a wobbly Democratic party, Hochul placed the plan on “indefinite pause” just weeks before its implementation last June.

New York actually made some small House seat gains in New York State while Kamala Harris lost the top of the ticket to Donald Trump and viola, congestion pricing is back, albeit the top fare was cut from $15 down to $9 for cars entering below Manhattan. Proponents say it will reduce traffic by only 13 percent, raise $600 million funds for the MTA (which still estimates it is losing more than $700 million a year to bus and subway fare evaders) and cut carbon emissions.

Most locally elected Dems in the state assembly and senate supported Hochul on the issue. But many residents inside the zone still resent the new tax. The last ditch demonstration showed the diverse street lives of Lower East Side residents who still bitterly oppose the new tax that was highlighted repeatedly by the morning’s speakers. Among them:

Lower East Side Business Alliance founder Francisco Gonzalez, wearing a baseball cap with a blue stripe police flag on one side and an Ecuadorian flag on the other scorned congestion pricing as “just another tax that’s being put on our people... [that] will affect us all because our food costs going to go up.”

Meirong Song, a Chinatown resident and former small business owner, said “Since I came to the U.S. more than three decades ago, I’ve witnessed the change of Chinatown, from prosperity to desolation, with increasing rents and decreasing foot traffic... if implemented, [congestion pricing] will further decrease Chinatown’s foot traffic and make it more difficult for small businesses!”

Song isn’t just whistling Dixie. According to the Department of City Planning, Chinatown already has a 20% storefront vacancy rate.

Kathryn Freed, a former council member and retired Supreme Court judge, noted that the state didn’t care to study how congestion pricing will hurt tenants and small businesses, saying, “it will hurt the most marginalized residents of Chinatown and the Lower East Side. It will raise the cost of food, deliveries and services for the people least able to afford them. Similarly, the mom-and-pop stores with the smallest profit margins will be forced out of business, causing the loss of jobs.”

Council Member Christoper Marte said: “It’s a great irony why we’re here, right? The governor wants to move forward with congestion pricing to make lower Manhattan less crowded. However, in the same note, she’s allowing massive luxury developments to come to our community which will only add congestion. Many of these residents will have cars or if not, many of these residents will order through an app to get their groceries, to get their foods, to get their supplies every single day, and we continue to subsidize the developers to add more congestion.

So we are asking the question: why is there a tax for people who live in our district? A working-class district, a low-income district, many of the people behind me make a living wage to barely survive here in Chinatown and the Lower East Side. And so we’re asking the governor, who is this plan for and who is this plan going to displace?”

Sabrina Fang of Youth Against Displacement had the passion of her age, energetically noting “Hochul tries to use young people like me, pretending that this is for our futures and to protect our environment. But people are part of the environment. Instead of taking more money from working people, the Governor must rein in the MTA’s careless spending and stop giving away billions to developers who profit off our struggle. It’s time Hochul learned to respect the working people she was elected to represent and found alternatives that protect our livelihoods, our community!”