NEW ROAD BLOCK VS. CONGEST

LES group suing, too

A group of Lower East Side residents and merchants says it will sue to stop the MTA’s looming $15 congestion toll — claiming it will squeeze local businesses and create a traffic nightmare.

The group fears drivers will opt for the toll-free FDR Drive and overburden that thoroughfare, while some local shops say they’ll be burdened with the new toll and have to pass the costs onto customers.

Plaintiff Daniel Bazzetta, owner of Peter Jarema Funeral Home, said he can’t avoid having his hearse travel in and out of the central business district — the area below 60th Street.

“I can’t use public transit. I can’t put a dead body on a bus,” Bazzetta said. He’s looking for an exemption or relief when he has to pick up bodies at hospitals and morgues to transport to cemeteries or crematoriums.

Echoes prior suits

Other plaintiffs in the suit, expected to be filed Thursday, include New Yorkers Against Congestion Pricing Tax; retired state Judge Kathryn Freed, an East Sider who lives near the FDR Drive; Baruch Weiss, owner of East Side Glatt Kosher Butcher Shop; residents from the Two Bridges Neighborhood; Chinatown dessert-maker Ricky Yang as well as elected officials including Councilman Robert Holden and Assemblyman David Weprin from Queens.

They argue, as plaintiffs in two other lawsuits have, that the feds and the state failed to conduct an adequate environmental review. Those cases were filed by New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy and jointly by the United Federation of Teachers and Staten Island Borough President Vito Fossella.

The new suit argues toll planners failed to: Adequately examine likely pollution hikes along the FDR;

Properly assess hardships for those avoiding mass transit due to COVID;

Consider the impacts on local businesses including — the funeral home and kosher butcher shop who are suing; a teacher required to commute to The Bronx; and several eateries dependent upon deliveries;

Properly assess hardship for those with homes both upstate and in the Lower East Side;

Consider the program’s impact on senior citizens required to make trips with at least one transfer to get into the city.

MTA stance

“There are winners and losers under congestion pricing. We on the Lower East Side are losers,” Freed, the retired judge, told The Post Wednesday. “We have a lot of pollution to begin with,” she said, saying more traffic will choke residents who border the FDR Drive.

Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo and lawmakers approved the congestion-pricing program for the MTA to implement back in 2019.

Gov. Hochul supports the plan expected to raise $1 billion a year to fund $15 billion worth of upgrades for the MTA’s subway, commuter railroads and buses, while aiming to curb Manhattan congestion during peak hours.

The MTA dismissed the latest lawsuit as more hot air.

“This issue has been exhaustively studied in the 4,000-plus page environmental assessment, and will be re-evaluated for the adopted tolling structure before tolling commences,” said MTA policy and external relations chief John McCarthy.

“It’s time to move forward and deal with the congestion that’s clogging roads and slowing down emergency vehicles, buses and commerce while also polluting the air we breathe,” he said.