Today’s Headlines

  • Deal Reached on Stimulus; House-Senate Negotiations Imminent (NYT, HuffPo, News)
  • Where the House and Senate Stim Bills Differ on Transit (Transport Politic via Streetsblog.net)
  • Senate Gives Handout to Auto Industry While Shortchanging Transit (Globe)
  • Blumenauer: Republicans Attack Bike Infrastructure at Their Own Peril (HuffPo)
  • Recovery Plan Should Favor Transit and Mixed-Use Development (Clawback)
  • Komanoff: Congestion Pricing, Free Buses Could Augment Ravitch Plan (Gotham Gazette)
  • Zoning Change Would Foster a More Welcoming Waterfront (News)
  • Family Struck By Cars Twice in East Flatbush (News)
  • DWI Cop Kills Woman and Badly Injures Man in Battery Park City (Post)
  • Man on a Mission to Cover the Globe With Car Charging Stations (NYT)
  • Council Member Wants to Replace Horse-Drawn Carriages With Electric Model Ts (Post)

  • Here are Google Street Views for the East Flatbush and Battery Park City intersections in the news today.

    What could be done to make them safer? My first idea is sidewalk extensions in East Flatbush. Second, does West Street really need to be eight lanes at this – or any – point? Why does the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel ramp go from two lanes in each direction to six Brooklyn-bound and nine Manhattan-bound?

  • The Battery Park death: Manhattan BP Scott Stringer was at my Tenants Association meeting yesterday and I learned about it from him. The woman who was killed, Marilyn Feng, had been an intern at his office. He said to expect to hear a lot more about pedestrian safety from him. I hope so.

    Here’s a very nice tidbit about the death:

    http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2009/02/09/2009-02-09_heartless_mom_of_nj_cop_charged_in_dwi_d.html

    The News also covers the original story here:

    http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2009/02/07/2009-02-07_law_grad_struck_and_killed_by_car_near_b.html

    and here:

    http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2009/02/07/2009-02-07_law_school_grad_with_whole_life_ahead_of.html

  • The fact that that Battery Park driver was a DWI cop? Wow. I want to be able to respect the police but they make it awfully difficult sometimes.

  • Rhywun

    RE: Senate Gives Handout to Auto Industry While Shortchanging Transit

    Supposedly the non-unionized companies are doing fine, so in effect this subsidy is really just propping up the auto unions’ retirement packages.

  • Peter Flint

    RE: Battery Park pedestrian death…

    Again another tragedy just proving that the only way to get charged with killing a pedestrian with a car is to be driving drunk.

    Still no charges in the deaths of the Chinatown preschoolers…

  • Does any road with sidewalks need to be 8 or lanes?

  • Niccolo Machiavelli

    Well Rhywun, you’ll have to ask the workers at the non-union companies that. I’m sure that given that they have no independent voice of their own they will agree with whatever their bosses and you decide they should agree to. Ask them what is their retirement plan? Is there some big mistake the UAW and the other unions have made by trying, come Hell or high water, to give their members a retirement life? What is your retirement deal? 401K, 201K, 101 K, 51K, 1K, what is your deal anyway? Or are you going to worry about it when you are 58?