By Dan Murphy
In a day when in New York State, and especially Westchester County, toll roads are becoming a thing of the past, the State of Connecticut is considering a plan that would place a toll on a small portion of Interstate 684 that travels through Greenwich, Conn.
Connecticut, and Gov. Ned Lamont, are in the middle of a budget dilemma and are considering tolls on the Merritt Parkway – and anywhere where there is a buck to be made.
But for those of us who travel along I-684, the idea of paying a toll to travel north from White Plains to Armonk, or south from Armonk to White Plains, is insanity. Many commuters who travel along I-684 may not even know that the interstate runs through Connecticut. A small sign welcomes you to Connecticut traveling north on I-684, but you have to be paying attention to notice it. I have not yet noticed the same sign traveling south.
County Executive George Latimer responded last weekend on Facebook to the foolish idea.
“Connecticut has a plan: Put up a toll barrier on I-684 during the 1-mile stretch when the interstate goes through Connecticut between the airport and Armonk exits. They keep the money,” he said. “Westchester has a plan: Fight Connecticut’s plan all the way. A greedy money grab of NYers money. (How ’bout we do the same southbound on I-95 at Port Chester or westbound on I-84 at Putnam to teach them a lesson about border wars?) All bad ideas… We say no toll on 684.”
We enjoy when Latimer comments about the issues of the day on social media. We believe it gives him, and the voters of Westchester, a new, modern and quick way to respond and sometimes debate what’s going on in our county.
Others don’t agree, and believe it’s below the office of county executive to be exchanging barbs between Facebook posts at all hours of the night. We don’t agree. In fact, we say, who cares? Leave the county executive alone. If he wants to spend some downtime on Facebook before he goes to bed, who does it hurt? We think it shows an interesting side to Latimer, and most of his comments and posts are about music, and things other than Westchester politics.
But when the topic of discussion is about politics on Facebook, Latimer isn’t afraid to get into it with anyone who posts and who objects to his point of view. In this case, we found the county executive’s comments about the toll on I-684 a good way to inform all of us about what Connecticut has proposed. Some of us find out about happenings from Latimer first on Facebook, before the local news or chatting with our neighbors – its informative.
But you also have to be able to realize that while Latimer is informing us about Connecticut’s foolhardy plan, he is also talking in jest when he suggests we install tolls on I-95 and I-84 as they cross into New York from Connecticut.
Some posters on Facebook either don’t get the sarcasm in Latimer’s posts, or don’t want to get it. They would rather throw a punch at Latimer on Facebook, which is, in our view, an example of the nasty per-political climate that we find ourselves in today – from both sides of the aisle.
“We don’t need a boarder war between New York State and Connecticut just leave it alone. Thanks George,” posted “Ray” to Latimer.
Other responses to Latimer focused on tidbits of information that most of us did not know. “I live just on the border of CT here in Rye Brook. There’s been several instances where I’ve gone to places right next to our house but in CT and was charged a non-resident fee that was over 3x the regular cost. I don’t believe we do that to people from CT (at least not that I’ve seen) here in NY,” posted “Briggitte.”
But some in Connecticut are fed up with paying New York tolls for years. “As a Connecticut resident, I pay to travel over NY roads. CT does not currently have any toll roads,” posted Sarah.
But most from Connecticut don’t want tolls – just like New Yorkers. “I am the founder of No Tolls CT, we are fighting to stop all tolls from being built in CT. This is our website Notollsct.org,” posted Sarah.
Two important locations are near the proposed site of the new toll. Exit 2 of I-684 includes traffic for the Westchester County Airport, and for a stretch of corporate headquarters and buildings including IBM.
In the end, after intense pressure from Westchester elected officials, including County Executive George Latimer and State Sen. Shelley Mayer, and its own residents and drivers, Connecticut pulled back its plans for tolls on I-684.
