NYC climate change activists block FDR in lower Manhattan and West Side Highway
Protesters blocked off both of New York City's main highways Monday morning, causing massive backlogs at the height of the city's rush hour. activists from a host of organizations - including - blocked off northbound traffic on the the city's FDR Drive for more than two hours, and southbound lanes crosstown on the West Side Highway as well. The protests come amid deliberations for President 's 'Build Back Better' plan - an ambitious $3.5 trillion social spending bill that calls for billions of dollars of federal funds to be allocated to causes associated with climate change mitigation. 'If we do not act today, if @ does not act today, NYC will be underwater by 2100. It's a matter of life and death,' the group tweeted earlier Monday morning. President Biden is in New Jersey Monday to promote the yet-to-be-passed spending package, amid negotiations with holdouts from the Democratic Party on how to scale back the bill enough to get it to make its way through Congress. As of 9:00 a.m. on Monday, the FDR's northbound lanes were all closed as a result, with dozens of dissenters from Extinction Rebellion stationed along a stretch of the highway on the city's Lower East Side. The group tweeted Monday that the demonstrations were not intended to annoy or obstruct commuters, but to bring attention to the dangers of unchecked climate change ahead of the president's prospective spending bill. They called their cause 'a matter of life and death,' and stated that New York 'will be underwater by 2100' if the bill does not pass, in its entirety. A sister group - composed of activists from organizations like the Sunrise Movement, Extinction Rebellion and Jews for Racial and Economic Justice - simultaneously assembled on the other side of the city, along the Hudson Thousands of motorists on both of Manhattan's main speedways subsequently experienced delays of more than an hour and were advised to consider alternate routes - but many found themselves hopelessly stuck and unable to move, as protesters used their bodies to block off the roads, and going as far as to sit or lay down on the pavement, daring drivers to run them over. Weve been stuck on the FDR Drive for about 40 min. due to a climate protest blocking all lanes,' one commuter wrote on social media at 9:14 am. 'In addition to inconveniencing thousands of drivers, I wonder how much carbon has been emitted due to to [sic] idling engines of all these stuck vehicles. The bottlenecks began sometime around 8:30 am, with police notifying drivers at 8:43 am that the southbound West Side Highway was blocked at West 34th Street. The FDR had all northbound lanes blocked at Houston Street. The congestion on the West Side was caused by an array of activist groups clamoring for new policies on climate change, who were urging Biden to maintain an emphasis on environmentally conscious energy programs in the upcoming bill. At least three protesters were arrested on the West Side Highway, one of the groups said. At both scenes, protesters linked arms across the highways, despite blaring megaphone message from police advising them they were 'illegally occupying the crosswalk,' one witness Tweeted. By 9:54 am, the West Side Highway had reopened, according to a city alert.