Here is an interesting fact of North American geography:
If you start out from the New Jersey side of the Hudson River, you can drive all the way to the Pacific Ocean without paying a toll.
I did that a few years ago. It was a lot more fun than driving in rush-hour traffic in Manhattan.
Pull up a map of the United States you will notice that most of the country is made up of wide open spaces served by excellent highway systems.
Then there’s that little corner of the country where a whole lot of people are packed onto an island with expensive tolls and bad traffic jams.
Why would anyone want to locate a business there?
Well, there were some good reasons back before the COVID pandemic. The Manhattan economy was booming, and it seemed like a congestion pricing scheme was a twofer: It would cut down on the traffic jams that often immobilized the city while also providing revenue needed to keep the subways running.
But then COVID came and with it came a revelation: It made no sense to have employees sit through a two-hour commute before they could get to work on their computers; computers work just as well when the users are at home in their pajamas.
At that point congestion pricing stopped being a twofer and became a onefer. That one was generating badly needed revenue for the subway system.
They still need it. And if the New Yorkers want to raise it by adding yet another toll then that’s none of our business here in Jersey.
Nevertheless, our governor and other elected officials have joined in the legal fight to prevent to keep it from going into effect. But the courts let it go into effect anyway last week.
So it’s New York’s problem. Steve Carrellas, who heads the New Jersey Chapter of the National Motorists Association, said much of the congestion in Manhattan is self-inflicted.
“If you follow what’s been going on, they’ve added pedestrian-only areas and closed down bus lanes and bike lanes to cars,” said Carrellas. “They created the crisis and now they say, ‘Let motorists pay for the crisis we created.’”
The roots of that crisis go back to the founding of Manhattan by the Dutch back in the 1600s, said Joe Clift. He’s a former Long Island Rail Road executive who lives in Manhattan and comments on transit issues.
One reason the Dutch settled in Manhattan was that it offered security from raids by the Indians and later the English, he said.
“Living on an island is an advantage if you’re trying to keep people away,” he said, “But it’s the opposite if you’re trying to attract people.”
That’s the problem the New Yorkers face now.
But it’s their problem, not ours.
As for New Jerseyans, we are smack-dab in the center of the best transportation hub in America.
“In terms of accessibility Newark is ideal,” Clift said.
The city is on three train lines to Manhattan, NJ Transit, PATH and Amtrak. It has access to highways, including the Garden State Parkway, the New Jersey Turnpike, and Routes 1 and 9. And there are plenty of buses. There’s also an airport and a seaport.
Newark is such an ideal transit hub that the New Yorkers would like to create a replica in Sunnyside Yard in Queens, said Clift. But they don’t have the money.
But that’s their problem. Our problem is that our political leaders, including a certain governor, act as if New Jersey is just an outpost of New York.
Instead of worrying about congestion pricing in Manhattan, they should be enticing businesses to move to this side of the river. (Gov. Phil Murphy made some movements in that direction. But he actually raised taxes on the businesses he should be trying to attract.)
A good place to go would be Morris County, said state Sen. Tony Bucco, whose district includes much of Morris.
“I hear the buses and trains are packed with people fleeing from congestion pricing,” said Bucco. “This is a perfect marketing tool for the state.”
As for Manhattan, perhaps its future is in tourism and entertainment, not business and industry.
Back when I was at Rutgers in the 1970s, I could drive through the Holland Tunnel for a dollar. Parking on the street was free.
With congestion pricing, the average cost of driving into the city will total about $21.
I take that as a sign that my business is not wanted on the other side of the Hudson.
But there are plenty of attractions on the Jersey side.
Just don’t get carried away and go all the way to California.
