Congestion Pricing Supporter Assaulted in NYC Subway as $9 Toll Forces Commuters to Rethink Travel
CNS – Be careful what you wish for.
A vocal proponent of the state’s controversial congestion pricing plan who is nudging New Yorkers into the city’s troubled transit system was attacked at a Manhattan subway station over the weekend.
Layla Law-Gisiko, president of the City Club of New York, which sued Gov. Kathy Hochul to implement the unpopular toll for motorists driving into Manhattan, said she was left bruised and battered after the Saturday afternoon attack at the 23rd Street station.
“Today at around 3:30 PM, I entered the subway station at 23rd Street and 5th Avenue,” Law-Gisiko, 53, wrote in a post on X following the attack. “At the bottom of the first flight of stairs, an individual with a shopping cart began screaming at me and spat in my hair.
“I am shaken, with a bruised ankle and a sore shoulder from being pushed into the wall,” she said. “This has been a distressing and painful experience.”
Police said Timothy Elliot, 45, was nabbbed at the station and charged with assault and harassment. He was released on a desk appearance ticket, cops said.
Hours after the attack, the $9 congestion toll went into effect and the City Club put out a statement co-signed by Law-Gisiko praising its launch.
The attack is just the latest in a recent spike in violence in the subways — even as the $9 toll on cars driving into Manhattan south of 61st Street is nudging more New Yorkers into the transit system.
Law-Gisiko, a native Parisian who has lived in the Big Apple for three decades, has long been a rabble-rouser on transit issues in the five boroughs.
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The group she heads, the City Club, has been a strong proponent for the congestion pricing plan, arguing it will “incentivize the use of public transportation” to reduce traffic congestion and improve air quality.
Last year, the club was one of two groups that sued Hochul to implement an earlier version of the congestion pricing plan after the governor’s office temporarily paused its rollout amid concerns it would put an unfair financial burden on many working-class New Yorkers.
The current version has caused massive headaches and gridlock since going into effect on Sunday.
Critics, including the head of the Transport Workers Union, has complained that the city subway system is too dangerous for New Yorkers to be forced to use the underground.
Law-Gisiko did not immediately return a call seeking comment on Wednesday.