Month: March 2025

Randy Mastro – who represents New Jersey in its suit against congestion pricing – is now the First Deputy Mayor of New York City, a place that has very much benefitted from congestion pricing.

In local news, Mastro has also represented Chevron, a company whose refusal to take responsibility for its legacy pollution at Bushwick Inlet is actively delaying progress on completing the park that the City promised 20 years ago.

And, as someone pointed out online, Mastro now has the honor of having served as First Deputy Mayor for two of the worst Mayors in NYC history.

“‘The idea of taking the street dining down every year, it was just a bad idea,’ said Rob Sanfiz, Executive Director of La Nacional… on 14th Street. ‘Inevitably what will happen is that the restaurants that can afford them will have them, and the smaller ones will have more struggle.'”

One of the bright spots out of the pandemic was rethinking how we use public space. The Adamses killed that – especially for small businesses.

Errol Louis in New York nails it with regard Columbia’s fecklessness in response to the government’s bullying. Hard to imagine Dwight Eisenhower (or Lee Bollinger or Michael Sovern) taking this all lying down.