A major announcement from Bloomberg on Earth Day includes a proposed fee for driving into Manhattan:

Saying that he would not spend his final term in office “pretending that all is fine,” Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg made a series of Earth Day proposals this afternoon to improve the environment of New York City, including charging a new congestion fee to drivers who come into parts of Manhattan during peak hours during weekdays.

The $8 congestion fee was one of 127 initiatives included in a sweeping plan by the mayor to help the city of currently 8.2 million people cope with an expected surge in population that he said is sure to put a strain on its transportation, housing and energy systems.

“Let’s face up to the fact that our population growth is putting our city on a collision course with the environment, which itself is growing more unstable and uncertain,” the mayor said. A key objective is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 30 percent by 2030, by which time the population is projected to grow by at least a million people, he said. … The mayor said congestion on the city’s streets is the source of many of the city’s health, environmental and economic problems.

Over a month ago, the Coalition for the Homeless released its eighth “State of the Homeless” report, an annual assessment of homelessness in New York City. The report “finds that increasing housing costs, low wages and flaws in the city’s Housing Stability Plus program are leading more families than ever before into New York City’s shelter system.”

The report finds that in the past year the number of homeless New Yorkers in shelters increased by 11.1% (to 35,113), the number of homeless families in New York City shelters increased by 17.6% (to 9,190) and the number of homeless children increased by 18.1% (14,219). Most striking, the report finds that the average number of families in shelters hit an all-time record high last month – with the Department of Homeless Services reporting a monthly average of 9,287 families in the city’s shelters in February. These numbers come less than a month after the Mayor’s Management Report documented a 24% increase in the number of new families entering the shelter system.