Today’s Headlines

  • Speeding SUV Driver Nearly Kills Pedestrian on 14th Street; No Charges Filed (News)
  • Brooklyn Pols Propose Residential Permit Parking (NY1)
  • George Will Goes Off on Ray LaHood for Promoting Transportation Choices (Newsweek)
  • How Cap-and-Trade Became the Default Policy for Curbing Emissions (NYT)
  • Brooklyn CB6 Asks for Raised Median to Separate PPW Protected Bike Path (Bklyn Paper)
  • Bobby Cuza Interviews Outgoing MTA Chief Lee Sander (NY1)
  • Subway Ridership Down More Than Expected in March (Post)
  • G Train Service to Extend to Church Ave Starting in July (Post)
  • Appellate Court OKs Use of Eminent Domain for Atlantic Yards (News, Bklyn Paper)
  • More on Deal to Limit Parking on Far West Side (MTR)
  • Designing Streets for Cars Doesn’t Help the Elderly and Disabled (Cap’n Transit via Streetsblog.net)
  • gecko

    Cheers for Brooklyn CB6 cycle track recommendation which should be norm and Cap’n Transit’s excellent piece on Streetsblog.net:

    “When the disabled rely on cars instead of walking short distances, what they are doing is spending thousands of dollars on really big heavy wheelchairs.”

    (http://capntransit.blogspot.com/2009/05/disabled-cars-and-transit.html)

  • vnm

    Daily News:

    Rockaway and Broad Channel motorists are renewing their fight to abolish the Cross Bay Bridge toll – only a few days after the MTA saved the community’s toll-rebate program.

  • gecko

    I have pix on my cell of that SUV on 14th lying on its side blocking the street like a beached whale (hours after the incident).

  • jessie

    In regards to the Daily New story in the first post, I’m pretty sure the victim wasn’t jaywalking, OR, if he was jaywalking then the driver ran a red light.

    According to the story:

    Victim was crossing 14th.

    Range Rover was turning East on to 14th St.

    If the Range Rover had the green light to make the TURN ON TO 14th St, then pedestrians crossing 14th would have the walk sign.

    Either the driver was speeding and running the light, or the driver wasn’t jaywalking.

    This is my interpretation. Others should read the story and let me know if I am getting it wrong. If the News is wrong, its certainly worth an angry letter — that’s embarrassingly bad reporting in a horrible situation.

  • gecko

    #3 gecko (continued),

    Kind of wonder how this broad level of complicity towards this type of very overt structural violence will be allowed to continue not totally unlike that of the tortuous Bush Administration.

  • Even if the guy was jaywalking (and the News cites just one witness claiming he was), is there no penalty when the driver who “had to be doing 60” runs someone down? Why isn’t the headline “Jaywalker clings to life after being hit by speeding SUV in Manhattan?”

  • Jessie, it’s possible that the victim was crossing with the light, but not in the crosswalk.

    From a News article on the Brooklyn Heights parking permit proposal:

    “It’s a real hardship. Anyone who lives here and has a car can’t find parking,” said Brooklyn Heights Association President Judy Stanton.
    Anyone else have a fleeting desire for Judy Stanton to experience a real real hardship so that she can get a sense of perspective?

  • Sorry, forgot to close my blockquote.

  • The audacity and irrational thought of George Will is stagering. Not only does he quote wrong figures, “Does he think 0.01 percent of Americans will ever regularly bike to work?”, he then makes the misconception that the government has never promoted driving. Being a conservative, he should really look into the massive amount of government subsidies that go into America’s automobile culture.

  • I expected better from the usually eloquent George Will, but when you’re defending the status quo–dying, ghettoized cities surrounded by unsustainable, something-for-nothing sprawl–I guess you have to rely on old Republican clichés like “they want to control everything we do”. It takes willful ignorance to plug your ears and go “la la la la” in order to ignore what’s going on in the world, and to think that today’s already precarious suburban lifestyle is going to be representative of the American “middle class” forever.

  • Larry Littlefield

    “Cheers for Brooklyn CB6 cycle track recommendation.”

    They have in fact recommended killing the cycle track in the usual sly way — by delay. Their vote — no cycle track without more study and a more expensive solution. In NYC “later” and “more study” means “never.” Nothing about a cheap solution precludes a more expensive second curb later on.

    There is no money for anyone other than senior citizens and the retired, and may never by again in our lifetimes. Check it out — something in the Post that is true.

    http://www.nypost.com/seven/05172009/news/regionalnews/city_is_facing_payout_doom_169679.htm

  • Larry, when even non-union New Yorkers support this nonsense, there is no hope. The only sane explanation is that such people aren’t paying taxes, because the thousands of dollars that the rest of us are going to have to shell out–per taxpayer, per year!–are going to be quite noticeable indeed, and could indeed ruin the city’s economy.

  • Larry Littlefield

    Which is why we need the cheap bikes lanes for our cheap bikes.

    Note the “liberal” “Democrats” running against Bloomberg for raising taxes. Huh? We face a future of higher and higher taxes and diminished public services and benefits, as more and more money is sucked out by the past (including Bloomberg’s own past decisions by the way).

    Eventually, the idea that paying more into the government will lead to an egalitarian result will be completely discredited. Having done what I could to prevent this result, I no longer see a way to stop it.

    So c’mon CB6. Rather than demanding that nothing happen until a few $million can be allocated, they ought to be demanding that the new pattern be installed even if volunteers have to go out and do the painting themselves.

  • Jason A

    Larry, ultimately what do you think the endgame is for young people tasked with paying all of these debts?

    Do you think we’ll wise up and refuse to pay? Demand a reduction in benefits? Ask for bankruptcy? Just move?

  • “Just move” seems a likely response–just like it was in the 70s. Only this time, there really isn’t anywhere “better” to move to.

  • Niccolo Machiavelli

    Don’t let the door hit you in the ass guys.

  • So… you think a 70s-style exodus of taxpayers would be a good thing?

  • gecko

    #11 Larry Littlefield “. . . killing the cycle track in the usual sly way — by delay.”

    Much ado about nothing as this will likely happen on a timely basis. The board’s vote was just a suggestion, like the cycle track was originally deemed not “gay enough” for Eighth Avenue in Chelsea by the local board.

    From the referenced article (http://www.brooklynpaper.com/stories/32/20/32_20_mm_yards_win.html):

    “Then the board voted 16-14 to ask the city to delay the construction of the lane until further study could be done.”

    . . .

    “We definitely took into account that people would be exiting on the curbside — that’s why we put in the four-foot buffer,” noted Solomonow, who added that his agency would look into the board’s suggestions.

    . . .

    “The board’s vote to delay the bike lane was meaningless anyway because the Department of Transportation said it did not plan to install the cycling routes until September.”

  • gecko

    #17 Rhywun, “there really isn’t anywhere “better” to move to.”

    Response:
    Arguably very true.

    The dynamics, diversity, and creativity of the people of this city will continue to make it a very inviting place to live.

    Lowered housing costs, increased employment opportunities, and potentially the lowered cost of transportation with increased services — hopefully made possible by a projected extensive public bicyle system — will provide further benefits.

  • Actually, what I meant was that the conditions that are making NYC a very “taxing” place to live are likely to be found nationwide as the same budget shenanigans we’re seeing are now appearing everywhere else too.