American cities are shaped by the accumulation of many small choices across time: to put a park here, to lay a sewer there, to rezone this commercial strip or redesign that roadway.
But every now and then, a momentous decision is made — to reverse the Chicago River, to construct the Dallas-Fort Worth airport, to move a highway underground in Boston’s Big Dig.
And it changes what’s possible for years to come, altering a city’s growth, its economic prospects or the very nature of its public space.
Congestion pricing could have been such a turning point in New York, according to proponents for whom the policy promised not just new revenue for mass transit, but also a fundamentally novel approach to reining in the cost of cars in an American city center.
Kathy Hochul’s decision to halt it may be remembered as a turning point, too.
Persons:
Kathy Hochul’s
Organizations:
Fort, Gov
Locations:
Chicago, Dallas, Fort Worth, New York, American