A Battery Park City holiday songwriter who has successfully sued Mariah Carey now has another high-profile target in her legal crosshairs: the MTA’s congestion pricing program.
Elizabeth Chan alleges in the suit that the MTA didn’t study the effects of congestion pricing on the Lower Manhattan neighborhood, which is built atop landfill between the West Side Highway and the Hudson River. The case appears to be the first legal challenge of congestion pricing brought by people who live within the toll zone
Because any driver who remains on the West Side Highway will be exempt from the tolls, Chan fears the initiative will lead to more pollution and slower ambulance response times in her neighborhood of 17,000 people. She says the tolls are a matter of life and death because her daughter suffers from seizures.
“We rely on the ambulance response time,” Chan said. “And I’m so afraid of the day they won’t make it.”
Chan said she wrote the 26-page complaint herself, with some pro bono legal assistance. Another Battery Park City resident, Tamara Hoffman, joined her suit. Chan filed the case in Manhattan federal court the day before Thanksgiving – a marked contrast from New Jersey elected officials, including Gov. Phil Murphy, who have held press conferences announcing lawsuits against the toll program.
Lawsuits filed without the help of an attorney are typically a legal longshot. But this isn’t Chan’s first big legal battle. Last year she won a lawsuit – with the help of a lawyer – against Carey over the pop star’s attempt to trademark the phrase “Queen of Christmas.” Chan also describes herself as the “Queen of Christmas.”
Chan grew up in the neighborhood, where she is now raising two children. Her 3-year-old makes frequent trips to the emergency room. Just this year, she’s said she had to go to the ER or urgent care 72 times.
“We didn’t want to do a lawsuit,” she said. “It’s just if we want to protect our children and we want to protect…
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