What Made New York Great? Leadership. Where Is It Now?

Have we lost the ability to do big things?

It’s a question after Gov. Kathy Hochul suddenly put an “indefinite pause” on a plan to institute congestion pricing for driving in a large swath of Manhattan, an idea dating back some six decades to the Lindsay era.

The governor, at a news conference on Friday, denied that she flip-flopped because Democratic leaders had been whispering in her ear about the plan’s unpopularity in suburban counties like Nassau, Suffolk and Westchester, which could be pivotal in deciding who will control the House of Representatives.

But back in December, at a rally promoting congestion pricing, she had said: “From time to time, leaders are called upon to envision a better future, be bold in the implementation and execution, and be undaunted by the opposition.”

“This is when we demonstrate leadership,” she declared at the time.

New York has been suffering a leadership crisis for a while now.

Hochul’s predecessor, Andrew Cuomo, channeling his inner Robert Moses, made it a priority to rebuild La Guardia Airport without having to shut it down. It was an astonishing act of chutzpah and feat of structural engineering. Cuomo also pushed to turn a Midtown post office building with a facade by Charles McKim into a soaring new gateway for Amtrak passengers called Moynihan Train Hall.

Then he resigned in disgrace.

Hochul reflects today’s wider, fearful culture, increasingly distracted by partisan politics, focusing on swing voters, not swinging for the fences. She said, in effect, that she paused congestion pricing because it doesn’t poll well. It didn’t poll well before it was instituted in London or Stockholm, either, where it has been solving gridlock, increasing bus ridership and reducing asthma rates. Opinion shifted in those cities after residents saw the benefits.