Ancestors

Written by gcvsa ⭐️🔰🇺🇸 🇵🇭 on 2025-01-19 at 20:02

Heavy sighs today over my (VERY affluent) Manhattan friends complaining about the congestion tolls.

People need to understand that the vast majority of the traffic in Manhattan is not from people who actually live in Manhattan. People in Manhattan have by far and away the lowest car ownership rates in the US, for very good reason.

If you are living in the zone and you own a car, there's very little likelihood that the cost of the congestion fee is going to be a significant impact on your life.

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Toot

Written by gcvsa ⭐️🔰🇺🇸 🇵🇭 on 2025-01-19 at 20:03

You are already living on the most valuable land in the country, you are also paying for the storage of a vehicle on that land. $9 a day is the cost of a cup of coffee in Manhattan.

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Descendants

Written by gcvsa ⭐️🔰🇺🇸 🇵🇭 on 2025-01-19 at 20:55

Median rent in Manhattan for 2024 is 4600 USD/mo for a 1BR apartment, and my friends are middle-aged professionals with families, who can still afford to live in Manhattan, not living in 1 BR apts.

If you pay $9/day every day (and you don't, because if you live in the congestion zone, you for damn sure aren't driving every day unless you are a fool) for the congestion toll, that's $270/mo extra, on average, for the privilege of keeping a car in the most expensive place to live in America.

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Written by gcvsa ⭐️🔰🇺🇸 🇵🇭 on 2025-01-19 at 21:02

To be fair, some of my friends inherited their properties from their parents, many bought back in the 1960s and 70s, when prices were low due to white flight, so it's not like they are all wealthy (though some of them are). But, if you make enough money to keep a car in Manhattan? You're doing OK.

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