(AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
Staten Island Ferry
(Staten Island, NY) – Tension is brewing on both sides of the Verrazano, amid pans of a congestion pricing lawsuit brought by Staten Island Borough President Vito Fossella and Congresswoman Nicole Malliotakis
Congestion pricing is the MTA’s latest plan to reduce air pollution associated with the traffic congestion, and a way to raise money for vital subway and train projects.
“I don’t see why in good conscience how Staten Island could support this,” said Fossella to 77 WABC’s Michael Lamorte, “Especially for Staten Island [congestion pricing] is a three time loser.”
The borough president believes Staten Island will be “snookered” by the new policy. “It will cost more money for folks to get into Manhattan; their own studies show it will increase air pollution, make our air quality worse and ultimately lead to more respiratory illness and asthma [on the Island],” said Fossella.
The long list of cons for Staten Island that surrounds congestion pricing is just the tip of the iceberg for Congresswoman Nicole Malliotakis. In a statement made on her Instagram, Malliotakis said “There’s no real value in being part of this city of state. We didn’t vote for this mayor; we didn’t vote for this governor; and we didn’t vote for this president, but were always the ones getting screwed,” later saying “I think it’s time to secede .”
Malliotakis was unavailable to comment.
The congresswoman isn’t alone— the borough president was not against the idea of the forgotten borough becoming its own entity, saying “Personally I’ve always been a supporter of the secession movement. I believe the half-a-million people of Staten Island would be one part of one of the largest cities in the country.”
However, Fosella mentioned “that doesn’t mean we’re pushing it right now,” further mentioning he and the congresswoman are figuring out if succession is “on the front or back burner.”
“If we do this, we can’t be fooled twice,” said the Staten Island native referring to the secession movement that failed back in the 90’s. “Everything has to be on the table whether it’s the financial cost or the political cost.”
While secession is not off the table for Staten Island, The borough president plans to fight for Staten Island in the best way possible. “We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it, but for now, we have to fight for Staten Island in the best way we can given that it is still part of the city and state,” concluded Fosella.
77 WABC’s Michael Lamorte asked Chat GPT if Staten Island should break off from NYC, and what he found was shocking. Here’s more:
