it might be useful for a city (like New Haven) to make it harder for people to commute in from the suburbs so as to give better incentives for people to live in the city (and pay property taxes there).
Imagine a system of traffic lights that slowed down people coming into the city in the morning and going out of the city in the evening (while facilitating the reverse commute). This could be accomplished by giving outbound comunters in the morning enhanced green and left turn signals.
Intentional discrimination against suburban flight.
Might even induce suburbs to bribe New Haven to take out the lights... which would be great... suddenly the suburbs would be paying part of the fair share for taking advantages of city...
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Ian:
You must not live outside of New Haven, since I thought this idea (thanks, Brian McGrath!) was ALREADY New Haven policy!
It is already a challenge to commute. (I do so every day from Branford.) And I am uncomfortable with the environmental implications: more idling = more fumes = more asthma.
I am all for finding a way that New Haven can benefit from its day-time population, and have publicly supported a commuter tax.
But then, I also think that New Haven has many opportunities to create POSITIVE incentives to live in the city (rather than disincentives to live outside it). One such idea: Develop a kick-ass public transport system, something fun & fast, so that you can live in the city without having to own a car (savings from taxes, insurance, upkeep and headaches would be enormous).
I hope that this site will inspire people to come up with more.
What's wrong with living in the suburbs? People with kids may not want to live in the city, but they still have every right to work wherever they can get a job. As an NYC resident, I am entirely opposed to commuter tax, especially since it gives legislators in the rest of the state the moral authority to tell NYC how to run itself.
Be careful what you wish for ... if it becomes too hard to live in the suburbs and commute to the city, would they give up living in the suburbs, or would they give up working in the city?
This would make people not want to work in the city. So instead of enticing people to live in the city, it will entice them to work outside the city as well. Commercial occupancy would drop as would property tax income. Now you have created a dead city.
As an NYC resident, I am entirely opposed to commuter tax, especially since it gives legislators in the rest of the state the moral authority to tell NYC how to run itself.
This doesn't make sense to me. Suburban flight destroys cities (NYC made it.... others did not). I don't know if annoyances are the right answer, but substantive steps should be taken to work against suburban flight.
A commuter tax would not make NYC beholden to state legislators any more than we already are. Seceeding from the rest of New York is the only option... New york City's financial problems would be instantly solved!
This proposal sounds almost spiteful, but I like the idea of the city focusing on serving those who contribute the most benefits to the community rather than serving those who create most of the traffic problems by driving everywhere.
Unfortunately, the management of most cities is so incompetent that they wouldn't be able to implement any intelligent redirection of resources.