Dodged a bullet on Congestion pricing.

0:00 Speaker 1 What is this Sunday morning? Is Vito for Sella and he is the Borough President of the Great Island of Staten Island. Well time, Vito for Sella. What’s on your mind this Sunday morning.

0:14 Speaker 2 Well, first off, good morning John, Thanks for having me. It was a beautiful weekend. I think one of the main issues that we’ve been working on for months, and I appreciate you giving us an opportunity on your platform with WABC to speak out against it, is this so called congestion pricing scheme or plan. And we went to

0:36 court a number of months ago with the UFT and a bunch of elected officials and private citizens and we were fighting a good fight. And then a few weeks ago the governor, to a credit said she’s going to pause congestion pricing, which is a good thing, and what we have to do is keep the pressure on and

0:53 avoid it from seeing the light of day. So we’re going to do everything we can to stop at its attax hardworking people, especially from Staten Island, who already paid two tolls. This will be a third one and it will make traffic worse in a lot of areas like Staten Island, and will decrease the quality of our error

1:11 pursuing to the MTA’s own studies. So that’s what we’re doing, trying to fight the good fight and give people a reason to get to the city as opposed.

1:20 Speaker 1 To avoid it a vido. I’ve seen advertisements I don’t know if they’re from the MTA or friends of the MTA that are criticizing, and they’re putting out advertisements saying, well, we’re not going to remodel this station. No, we’re not going to do this. We’re not going to do that.

1:38 I mean, the MTA has bottomless money.

1:44 Speaker 2 Yeah, and that’s part of the that’s part of the logic. Right. So they said congestion pricing, it’s some euphemism, but really it’s about money. Then that’s what the honest people will say. We just want money. And what happens is there’s there is a well, if I’m them, I want it too.

2:02 I want want a nice stream of a billion dollars a year so I can bond it and build and spend. But it’s unfair to a lot of people who don’t have that money three four thousand bucks out of their pocket, especially after taxes. Right, And there’s a group that’s very, very intense that want to see this, that don’t like

2:22 people who drive cars, and if people had alternatives to cars, they would use it, but they don’t. And that’s what’s driving a good chunk of this. You have the people who just want bottomless pits of money, as you mentioned, and others who say, we hate cars and we want to do everything we can to make driving cars miserable.

2:40 So we’re going to force them to get out of their cars. But a lot of people don’t have a choice. As you know.

2:46 Speaker 1 The other big issue in New York City and is quality of life. Have you seen a quality of life get better in Staten Island or is it about the same? Was the worse? I mean, in part of quality of life is not only the crime problem. It sees bicycles and mop heads running around one way streets and not

3:11 caring if they run over Sunday.

3:15 Speaker 2 I think that’s the phrase that in terms of what I like to think I’m responsible for doing is to try to improve the quality of life for the people who Staten Island and not to detegrate it, not to compromise, and it means making doing good things, whether it’s good parks or good schools, reducing crime, and we see those

3:34 crime numbers come come down, especially for solen cars in the last couple of years. That affects the quality of life. But we still live in a state that too often allows people to get away with a lot of bad things.

3:48 And the crooks know it that these know it. The guys who want to decrease the quality of life know it, so they do it. So the cops do their job, they make the apprehension, they make the arrests, and then before you know it, on the street. So we’re on State myl We’re trying to focus for the good, hardworking people.

4:05 The ninety eight ninety nine percent of the people at work hard just want to take care of their families, go to work, have a kids, get a good education, and the handful of others. We have to isolate them and figure out a ways to keep them off the streets and again destroying or hurting the quality of life

4:21 for the people of State viol So that’s our job every day. You know, we’ve as an example of the illegal smoke shops that we started banging the druma about a year and a half ago, and now it’s it’s a it’s center stage right. State passed additional legislation to allow EYPD to padlock a lot of these facilities that

4:41 are operating illegally. So all those things add up, and we’re going to just keep focused on it and hope people can just go about their lives and enjoy their summer vacations.

4:50 Speaker 1 Agree. The other item that came up last week is we want to help the kids of the inner city more. I’m chairman of the Police Athletic League and we had a big allen last week and we were talking about Staten Island, how we can help Staten Island, and I wanted to between the Police Athletic League and one of

5:11 our board members, Vincent Peter wants to help, Vito, whatever do you think we should be doing for the kids of the inner city of Staten Island. The Ferry Hawks, you know, which I own part of and the Yankees owned part of. I want to help. So how are the kids of the inner city in Staten Island doing.

5:33 Speaker 2 Well? I will say this that there’s not a person in New York City or this country that knew John and especially Margo, who have focused with intensity over the last oh well thirty forty years it’s not more of helping inner city kids, especially to the pl and that should be acknowledged and frankly honored because you really have

5:55 dedicated your life to it. In spite despite of all the things you have on your plate, you still find time for that. And you’re right. I mean, there are kids who didn’t do anything wrong, perhaps there are issues at home. Perhaps they you know, they don’t have the resources that we were blessed to have and bussed to have,

6:13 and we have to keep a focus on that because if we can get a kid straight, if we can keep them occupied, keep them in sports, keep them learning, get them a mentor, that’s the way they can get, you know, grow and mature and ultimately hopefully get a job.

6:28 We know too often that some kids fall off the rails because there is no safety net there. But on Staten Island we commit a lot to deacon schools, to summer programs, to keeping kids occupied. The fact I was at this high school this week talking go high school.

6:46 The kids won the Minecraft citywide championship. They entered about six hundred high schools and they ended up winning, and those kids will be teachers during the summer. So there are a lot of different ways we can help these kids, and we want to do it on Staten Island, and we’d love to chat more about how pl you, John

7:05 and the organization can deploy more resources and assets to Staten Island.

7:10 Speaker 1 I look forward to that discussion of helping the kids of the inner city because that the future of New York. Vito Facella Vero, President of Staten Island, thank you so much for your input.

7:23 Speaker 2 Thank you, John, God bless you and have a great rest of the weekend you too,