The New York Sunday magazine has a good article on the recent daily charge imposed on traffic into the city centre as well as the perspective of it ever crossing the ocean to Gotham.
The article mentions an incident during the middle of the last century surrounding a proposed highway through a park in Manhattan. "At the time, photographed defiantly on the City Hall steps with a giant prop key to lock traffic out of the park, a Tammany Hall leader framed a question that was only then starting to be asked in earnest. Would we, he asked, ''plan and develop our cities in accordance with the needs and wishes of the people who live in them or for the convenience of the vehicles which pass through them?''". Hear, hear.
Everyday I take the bus and the metro to school, and before that to go to work. What a joy! I have never read so much and so often as I do since I have been taking mass transit. Never was I so aware of how polluting a car was as when I worked for a big oil company and had to travel from station to station. (Shudder!) Speaking of mass transit, the Times also has an article on the temporary closing of a secret subway entrance-much loved by those who use it-in Times Square.
If I did have to have a car, I would like it to be the new 2004 Mustang. What a sweet ride.