I would like to take this opportunity for me to draw all of our attention to something that might have otherwise gone unnoticed to us New York City citizens. An absurd new ruling has been given the green light and thumbs up from the federal government side of things and it has been approved for being put into motion and practiced. There is something abysmal called congestion pricing and it has plagued its way into our beautiful, beloved New York City. Congestion pricing is basically another additional tax grab from the city which is aimed at people that want to enter Manhattan. If you want to enter Manhattan at south of 61st the amount of the tolls are yet to be determined but as of right now look to be about anywhere from $10-$15. The FDR, West Side highways are exempt, car owners living in the zone, and low income individuals who make under $60,000. The goal is supposedly to use the billions of dollars that would be raised to improve and invest in the ancient, deteriorating subway system. But the Metropolitan Transit Authority has done this before and relatively recently hiked up fare prices in efforts to somehow better their public transportation systems. They already have a lot of capital which means they can make significant changes with if they chose or choose to do so but there has been no positive differences in quality; it appears that the government just wants to keep increasing the cost of living along with everything else literally make it impossible for people to function without providing them the products and services that the government proposes that they are charging you for. People that are paying for the public transportation provided by the Metropolitan Transit Authority are getting a setting that is vandalized with graffiti, polluted with bad air, litter all around, alcohol, drugs, drug addicted people, feces, urine, dead animals, infested with disease spreading rats, an extremely crime filled dangerous environment for our vulnerable, no safety when it comes to the vehicles that MTA allows to operate themselves, robberies, and much much more bad things. A lot of people need to commute in and out of the city for either their jobs, school, work etc. If there are drivers that are trying to make their livelihoods from driving how will they survive with constantly having to pay a certainly bogus fee. There will also be increased surveillance because cameras will be mounted with license plate identifiers/readers where the government is invading even more and more of its civilians private lives. Public transportation is not even where it is at or should be for people to commute using it, the timing is awful. The New York City government needs to remember the roots of this amazing country as a land that would not stand for what it has somehow gone backwards in time to, taxation without representation. American need to remain firm with their previous principles that made us who we are.
English 2100 Fall 2023: What Goes Unsaid?
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