Today’s Headlines

  • Hundreds Enjoy Face Painting and Fire Hydrants at E. 204th Street Weekend Walks (BNN)
  • Other Names for New Pop-Up Cafés: “Porch,” “Pop-Up Park,” “Oasis” (Transpo Nation)
  • Michael Powell on Walder: Real Leaders Embrace Crises, They Don’t Quit (NYT)
  • Housing Commissioner Darryl Towns to Plead Guilty in DUI (News)
  • Cortlandt Street Station to Reopen Sept. 6 (Post)
  • MTA Signals Division, Home to Falsified Repair Records, Run By Nepotist (Post)
  • State Senator Carl Fuschillo: Make Wrong-Way Driving A Felony (LoHud)
  • Daily News Plugs Summer Streets, “Big Apple’s Ultimate Block Party”
  • Leonardo DiCaprio and Blake Lively: Scofflaw Cyclists (Observer)

More headlines at Streetsblog Capitol Hill

  • carma

    im not sure what to think of another law that makes wrong way driving a felony.  Lets face it, some bad drivers will go the wrong way regardless of whether they are drunk.  i doubt there is any intention there to kill someone.  some may even go the wrong way b/c of a bad sign or “lack” of signage.

    however, the caveat of this proposed law is that it seems to add the clause that it is a felony if you go the wrong way with the intent, or are under the influence.  i have no problem having stiffer penalties if you have any malicious intent.

    how about this.  Make drunk driving penalties stiffer.  Period.  you drive drunk, regardless of whether you hit anything.  you go straight to jail.  you lose your license.  you pay stiff penalties.  (Do Not pass go, do not collect $200.)

  • carma

    im not sure what to think of another law that makes wrong way driving a felony.  Lets face it, some bad drivers will go the wrong way regardless of whether they are drunk.  i doubt there is any intention there to kill someone.  some may even go the wrong way b/c of a bad sign or “lack” of signage.

    however, the caveat of this proposed law is that it seems to add the clause that it is a felony if you go the wrong way with the intent, or are under the influence.  i have no problem having stiffer penalties if you have any malicious intent.

    how about this.  Make drunk driving penalties stiffer.  Period.  you drive drunk, regardless of whether you hit anything.  you go straight to jail.  you lose your license.  you pay stiff penalties.  (Do Not pass go, do not collect $200.)

  • Larry Littlefield

    “Crisis is opportunity: those who understand that seize the moment,” said Harvey Robins, a force for Mayors Edward I. Koch and David N. Dinkins. “People see desperate straits and define themselves by doing something.”

    But the head of the MTA’s job is to avoid a crisis by selling off the future bit by bit.  Just like everyone else in government, given what has been done.

    Walder wasn’t prepared to do go along with that, but he also wasn’t prepared to do what was necessary.  They’ll keep taking until there is a crisis, so avoiding a crisis doesn’t do any good.

    Just like that debt ceiling extortion.  Do you want a collapse today (with perhaps a recovery five or ten years down the road)?  Or ongoing decline even as those who control our institutions keep milking them to death?  The markets immediately indicated that the latter is what we’ve got.

  • Kaja

    re wrong-way driving a felony: I am visiting another New England city right now, one which lacks many street signs and in many cases even road markings. The utter lack of center yellow lines and most white lines means I can’t tell when roads are two-way or one-way.

    Once, I have turned onto a one-way street without knowing, only to see traffic coming at me. I pulled immediately to the curb, and nearly pissed myself.

    Hence, I’ve developed a Pavlovian association between intersections and deep mortal fear, and I find myself with hackles up, even when the lanes are marked or there’s a “one-way” road sign.

    Should I be branded a felon for the rest of my life and tossed in jail?

    (Hilariously, this city also doesn’t post its parking signs, and I’ve already received one ticket for an unmarked one-hour parking spot. They’d posted the no-standing hours and winter-snow-removal hours, but no one-hour parking signs. I can’t protest it, either, because the fine jumps from $15 to $200 if I so much as bring it to court. Which is unconstitutional. But what’m I gonna do?)

  • fj

    RT @Agent350: We’re going to have thousands of cyclists joining “@Moving_Planet.” What Guinness record should we try and set? @350