A critical blow was struck against the future of mass transit in New York City yesterday, as political infighting in Albany stymied the passage of Mayor Mike Bloomberg's innovative and ground-breaking congestion pricing plan. The plan would have charged an $8 fee for cars to enter the Manhattan central business district, defined as the area south of 60th Street. Revenues from the program would have been earmarked for use by the Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA), which runs the subways and buses of NYC. The promise of revenue from the program (which was anticipated to be about $200 million over three years) would have qualified the city for over $300 million in federal grants for mass transit projects.

When I went to the conference in DC, I had two ideas in mind for my Blueprints. The first was a river-bank clean-up. The Green Team at my former uni has one every semester; they're tons of fun and it's always exciting to see what people can find. Plus you're allowed to keep whatever you find, and there's a contest for the most interesting garbage. The first semester I participated, I found a roll of film and got it developed. I've also excavated a submerged couch, carried a living room back up a cliff, and rolled a 60-pound semi tire several hundred feet up a steep hill.