Billionaire Thief. Michael Bloomberg, Mayor of New York, wants to charge motorists $8 to enter the most congested parts of Manhattan. That is, he wants to steal public property from the public and hand it over to the rich alone. He should be stopped by whatever means necessary, up to and including impeachment, recall, or vigilantism. A bullet thru the head would stop that attempted mass theft handily.
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Bloomberg has a personal fortune of $5.5 billion. He can easily afford to spend $8 for each trip into Midtown or Downtown (as tho he'd be required to while Mayor). How many others can? There are already tolls on several routes in, $6 during peak hours at the Hudson River crossings from New Jersey, $4.50 at two East River tunnels from other parts of New York City. Parking costs a fortune. $40 a day, or more, is not at all unusual, and even parking at the relatively inexpensive Port Authority Bus Terminal costs $22 for 12 hours. Thus, there is already a very hefty price restraint on people's bringing a private vehicle into Manhattan. Still, for some people, there is little choice. A family of 4 children and 2 adults will pay a fortune on public transportation, and having to haul children around on crowded buses and on subways whose doors may close and separate child from parent is very risky. Rich families can of course afford $8 more. But less affluent families will be victimized by yet another cost to go to anything in Manhattan.
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If a congestion fee can be imposed on vehicles, why not on pedestrians? Make people pay for the right to walk on public streets.
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Bloomberg is trying to justify his proposed theft on the basis of reducing greenhouse gases. Oh? Cars may emit greenhouse gases, but so do pedestrians. People breathe out carbon dioxide, right? Why shouldn't they have to pay for the right to breathe in oxygen and expel carbon dioxide?
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Where does it stop?
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The streets of Manhattan were built and are maintained by taxes taken from everyone. They are public property. They must not be stolen by the rich. What else can be taken from the people? Public parks? Streetliting? Everyone who walks down a street at nite has to pay a fee to have a streetlite shine? How about traffic lites? Pedestrians who want to cross the street have to pay for a "Walk" signal in their direction. And why is the Staten Island Ferry now free? Charge $4.50 a person for that! Put tolls on the Queensboro, Williamsburg, Manhattan, and Brooklyn Bridges. I'm sure Bloomie can come up with all sorts of inventive measures to penalize the poor and make life more comfortable for the rich. Clear the streets of the riffraff so that the rich can enjoy the good life without having to share public space with their 'inferiors'.
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Michael Bloomberg should be beaten down in this outrageous attempt to steal invaluable public property from the public. What is the proper penalty for stealing from millions? Well, let's figure it out. If each person robbed by this plan were given one punch to Bloomberg's gut, what would happen to Bloomberg? He would die. That seems right. Let's kill him and everyone else who steals from millions.
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Public streets belong to the public. You don't pay for the privilege of using your own property.
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(The current U.S. military death toll in Iraq, according to the website "Iraq Coalition Casualties", is 3,323 — for Israel.)
- posted by L. Craig Schoonmaker @ 7:29 PM