The best precedent for this is when Bloomberg instituted no smoking in restaurants and bars.

And some of the same people who are crazed about congestion and pricing were saying it's going to kill the city's nightlife.

Nobody will ever come to New York

again to go to a restaurant. You did it. Everybody said, hey, this is great. I don't have to get

my clothes cleaned every time I go out for a meal. And there was no discussion further because

everybody loved it. It's a little bit like that analogy.

Hello, and welcome to why is it happening with me, your host, Chris Hayes.

In 1789, Benjamin Franklin was writing to a correspondent Jean-Paptiste-Leroy, having just sort of gotten through the Constitutional Convention. And he said our new Constitution is now established and has an

appearance that promises permanency. But in this world, and you know what comes next because it's

become a sort of cliche, nothing can be certain except death and taxes. I would add one thing

in addition to that, which is in the modern world, nothing can be certain except death and taxes. I would add one thing in addition to that, which is in the modern world,

nothing can be certain except death, taxes, and traffic. I've just been on book tour, and it's

very funny how it's almost like a sticky thing. Wherever you go in the country, you can make a

joke about the traffic there where people's eyes light up in recognition. Like if you're in Houston, you can make a joke about the traffic there where people's eyes light up in

recognition. Like if you're in Houston, you can make a joke about Houston traffic. If you're

Los Angeles, you can make a joke about Los Angeles traffic. And everyone's like, yeah, our traffic is

really bad. But when you realize when you're on tour, is that everyone's traffic is bad and traffic

is bad everywhere. And the reason I'm saying this is because one of the things that I've thought a lot about is I spent all day thinking about

national politics. But when I think about my life and like the little micro instance,

when I'm thinking about some policy issue that's really relevant to my life, a shocking

proportion of them come down to like how the public streets are

used. That's like a big part of my life. People double parking, people parking in front of the

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