Today’s Headlines

  • Zoning Rules Force Luxury Towers, Public Housing Alike to Overbuild Parking (Crain’s)
  • Scaled-Back Toll Hike Means No Bus Garage at Port Authority, Worse Transit Service (Record)
  • Cuomo Already Has Short List for Ward Replacement, Topped by Patrick Foye (NYT, WSJ)
  • 700 Protesters Arrested for Walking on Brooklyn Bridge Vehicular Lanes (NYT)
  • New Jersey Strikes Deal With Feds Over ARC Repayment (WSJ)
  • High-Tech Signal System Didn’t Survive Lightning Hit as Intended, Taking Out LIRR (NYT)
  • Cuomo Administration Walks Back Self-Administered Eye Exam Policy (Post)
  • Ed Koch May Not Like the UN, But He Loves the East Side Greenway Plan (News)
  • Greenway Earns NYT Editorial Endorsement as Well
  • WSJ‘s Numbers Guy: Hunter Bike/Ped Study Didn’t Say What Media Thought It Did
  • Sadik-Khan Explains Her Safety-First Approach to Boston Globe

More headlines at Streetsblog Capitol Hill

  • carma

    im glad 700 of these nitwit protestors got arrested.  protesting is good.  it is granted in our constitution as a right.  however, what kind of message are these folks trying to prove?  seriously.. what is their agenda… we already know that their exists greed in wall st.  guess what.  thats what capitalism is.   guess what, it also supports a lot of jobs in NYC.  NYC’s main street is wall street.

    they had every right to protest on the walkways, etc… but crossing into the brooklyn bridge car lanes are just asking for the folks to cause a traffic havoc yielding to more congestion, pollution, and a danger to themselves if they get run over.  the police clearly announced that on blowhorns prior to their arrest.

    unlike the hippie movements of the 60’s/70’s to protest war which had its purpose.  i dont see a real clear agenda for these uneducated sheep.  their message needs to be heard at 1600 pennsylvania ave.  not 1 wall street.

  • carma

    regarding public housing parking.. if you can afford a car, you shouldnt be living in public housing

    public housing should not have any parking to begin with

  • rlb

    Their agenda is straightforward. These are people that can’t find a job and have nothing to do. Meanwhile there are people making hundreds of millions of dollars through dubious means. They seek to call attention to this fact. They are protesting at the symbolic site of that disparity. It’s now happening at various scales all over North America.
    Their agenda has little to do with Livable streets.

  • carma

    rlb,

    their agenda is not clear when they have an agenda of also mixing in ecosystem problems, humanity issues tied in along with coorporate greed.  that mixed agenda doesnt present a clear agenda when the group itself labels itself as a bunch of rebels and radicals.

    these folks are NOT folks who cant find a job.  most of them are students who really have not even worked a day in their life yet.  plus with a arrest record, its unlikely they will ever do so.

    http://www.adbusters.org/blogs/adubsters-blog/occupywallstreet.html

    btw, im also sick of the huge coorporate ceo’s and their greed.  they horde tons of cash while still exporting jobs to india/china.  i am not sick.  im disgusted by this treasonous behavior to our country.  but at the same time, ny’s economic engine IS driven by wall street and A LOT of REAL jobs are created because of finance.

  • Larry Littlefield

    Did anybody got arrested for blocking the bike lanes?

    Anyhow, here is what I guess happened to the LIRR.

    The cost of the project soared due to high bids, perhaps driven by soaring pension costs in the multi-employer pension system for construction unions, and by extensive change orders, such as the additional costs incurred when a spec of dust is discovered in a location that had not been indicated on the plans.

    So to stay within budget, the MTA cut the scope of the project, and eliminated the lightning rod.  Problem solved!

  • Daphna

    The Crain’s article is excellent.  Search in google for a bunch of keywords and it will come up if you do not have a subscription and thus can not use the link.

  • Daphna

    Regarding the 700+ marchers who were arrested: this is police selective enforcement.  If pedestrians who walk in the street can be arrested, then thousands would be arrested daily in the vicinities of Penn Station and Port Authority where at rush hour, hoards of pedestrians use the streets in addition to the sidewalks.

  • carma

    daphna, there is a difference when a pedestiran horde the streets due in penn station, versus the brooklyn bridge roadway where you EXPLICITY have to jump over to the roadway AND disobey the warning of the police with a blowhorn message.

    everybody has the RIGHT to protest.  however, there are exceptions as well such as not protesting FIRE in a crowded theater.  in this case, the police are there to make sure protesting is done so safely and does not jeopardize the safety of others.

    and when a crowd as large as this disobeys the police.  THAT becomes a criminal offense.

  • Bolwerk

    Part of the reason for the message disparity is various issue-centered groups come out in support of a cause, but also bring along the usual signs for their pet issue (the environment, women’s rights, globalization, social justice, equality, etc.).  These protests are more about social frustration than anything – young people aren’t finding work. It’s no surprise @d8d46f16f380afef59ca318522397233:disqus  wouldn’t know that, given that it’s not reported, though I don’t know how s/he thinks these people can have no agenda at all.

    It’s plain easier for the right to stay on message since right-wingers are by definition compliantly authoritarian to begin with. Some TV news talking points on Fox/CNN/MSNBC more or less do the trick to maintain rhetorical focus. Leftists can spend hours arguing about arcane details trying to seek a consensus, while authoritarians seek consensus almost exclusively in outcomes and action.

    Now, of course, it will be interesting to see how police respond to disobedience from these guys.

  • Bolwerk

    Part of the reason for the message disparity is various issue-centered groups come out in support of a cause, but also bring along the usual signs for their pet issue (the environment, women’s rights, globalization, social justice, equality, etc.).  These protests are more about social frustration than anything – young people aren’t finding work. It’s no surprise @d8d46f16f380afef59ca318522397233:disqus  wouldn’t know that, given that it’s not reported, though I don’t know how s/he thinks these people can have no agenda at all.

    It’s plain easier for the right to stay on message since right-wingers are by definition compliantly authoritarian to begin with. Some TV news talking points on Fox/CNN/MSNBC more or less do the trick to maintain rhetorical focus. Leftists can spend hours arguing about arcane details trying to seek a consensus, while authoritarians seek consensus almost exclusively in outcomes and action.

    Now, of course, it will be interesting to see how police respond to disobedience from these guys.

  • Bolwerk

    Part of the reason for the message disparity is various issue-centered groups come out in support of a cause, but also bring along the usual signs for their pet issue (the environment, women’s rights, globalization, social justice, equality, etc.).  These protests are more about social frustration than anything – young people aren’t finding work. It’s no surprise @d8d46f16f380afef59ca318522397233:disqus  wouldn’t know that, given that it’s not reported, though I don’t know how s/he thinks these people can have no agenda at all.

    It’s plain easier for the right to stay on message since right-wingers are by definition compliantly authoritarian to begin with. Some TV news talking points on Fox/CNN/MSNBC more or less do the trick to maintain rhetorical focus. Leftists can spend hours arguing about arcane details trying to seek a consensus, while authoritarians seek consensus almost exclusively in outcomes and action.

    Now, of course, it will be interesting to see how police respond to disobedience from these guys.

  • Bolwerk

    Part of the reason for the message disparity is various issue-centered groups come out in support of a cause, but also bring along the usual signs for their pet issue (the environment, women’s rights, globalization, social justice, equality, etc.).  These protests are more about social frustration than anything – young people aren’t finding work. It’s no surprise @d8d46f16f380afef59ca318522397233:disqus  wouldn’t know that, given that it’s not reported, though I don’t know how s/he thinks these people can have no agenda at all.

    It’s plain easier for the right to stay on message since right-wingers are by definition compliantly authoritarian to begin with. Some TV news talking points on Fox/CNN/MSNBC more or less do the trick to maintain rhetorical focus. Leftists can spend hours arguing about arcane details trying to seek a consensus, while authoritarians seek consensus almost exclusively in outcomes and action.

    Now, of course, it will be interesting to see how police respond to disobedience from these guys.

  • wkgreen

    It seems clear from the NYT article and in reading some of the comments that many of those arrested on the Brooklyn Bridge were unaware that they were breaking the law. Far from disobeying the NYPD, it appeared to many in the middle of the crowd as well as to witnesses on the walkway that no warning was given and that, in fact, police were actively directing them onto the bridge roadway making them think that was where police wanted them to go before entrapping them. I think that it is duplicity on the part of NYPD that folks find troubling.

  • carma

    bolwerk, a mishmash of people pissed off at everything is not necessarily what i call an agenda.  an agenda usually has a target to solve.  these folks want to collaborate everything into one rally and blame everything on wall street.

    to me, this is simply an organized mess.  especially when the ad’s for this organization tell “ANARCHISTS AND REBELS” to rise up.

    and btw, these folks have every right to protest, however, lets also remember that zuccotti park is a private park accessible to the public.  the owners of the property have every right to allow police enforce loitering laws.

  • Daphna

    Carma,
    It was a trick by the police.  The NYPD had prepared for a mass arrest and had paddy wagons lined up at the Brooklyn Bridge.  The police did not block the marchers from entering the roadway even though they had the manpower to do so.  The police announced on their bullhorns only to the handful of marchers in the front that they should not walk on the road.  But after those marchers continued on the road, the police stopped making the announcement and started instead to waive the rest of the marchers through.  Thus, only those in front ever heard the warning not to proceed.  The majority of marchers instead were waived through by the police.  The police spokesperson is giving a false account and the media are listening to him but 1,500 eye witnesses can give the real account.

  • Bolwerk

    @d8d46f16f380afef59ca318522397233:disqus : the individual protestors probably think their positions on things out better than authoritarian groups like the Tea Party. They may have less intra-organizational coherence (the organization being the protest itself)  since they are almost certainly allies of convenience working on common points of agreement rather than getting marching orders from the top-down.  Regardless, they certainly have a clear agenda. They may not have the message discipline of the Tea Party, but they clearly don’t have billions$ coming their way from the likes of the Koch Bros., or hours of free PR time on every major news network every night, either.

  • carma

    daphna, thats not what i would call a trick by the police.

    the police DID give ample warning.  by following the leaders of your pack who obviously chose not to adhere to those warnings, you choose to side on the wrong side of the law.

    and btw, were you one of the folks actually there at the site?

    regarding having wagons ready.  when a group that is known to have broken the laws, the NYPD would of course have vans, wagons ready to arrest in case of any civil disobedience.  you dont wait till after the hurricane to buy supplies to protect your home, same way the police wont wait till after the impeding arrests to haul the folks away.

    seriously, these folks can protest all they want, and they have that RIGHT.  it is their GIVEN right.  however, you also have to obey certain boundaries within that right.  if an officer gives a command, you DO obey the officer.  if you have a problem with the officers discretion, you can file a complaint.

  • carma

    daphna, thats not what i would call a trick by the police.

    the police DID give ample warning.  by following the leaders of your pack who obviously chose not to adhere to those warnings, you choose to side on the wrong side of the law.

    and btw, were you one of the folks actually there at the site?

    regarding having wagons ready.  when a group that is known to have broken the laws, the NYPD would of course have vans, wagons ready to arrest in case of any civil disobedience.  you dont wait till after the hurricane to buy supplies to protect your home, same way the police wont wait till after the impeding arrests to haul the folks away.

    seriously, these folks can protest all they want, and they have that RIGHT.  it is their GIVEN right.  however, you also have to obey certain boundaries within that right.  if an officer gives a command, you DO obey the officer.  if you have a problem with the officers discretion, you can file a complaint.

  • carma

    daphna, thats not what i would call a trick by the police.

    the police DID give ample warning.  by following the leaders of your pack who obviously chose not to adhere to those warnings, you choose to side on the wrong side of the law.

    and btw, were you one of the folks actually there at the site?

    regarding having wagons ready.  when a group that is known to have broken the laws, the NYPD would of course have vans, wagons ready to arrest in case of any civil disobedience.  you dont wait till after the hurricane to buy supplies to protect your home, same way the police wont wait till after the impeding arrests to haul the folks away.

    seriously, these folks can protest all they want, and they have that RIGHT.  it is their GIVEN right.  however, you also have to obey certain boundaries within that right.  if an officer gives a command, you DO obey the officer.  if you have a problem with the officers discretion, you can file a complaint.

  • carma

    bolwerk,

    but thats exactly why this is not called an agenda.  an individual agenda is different than the “group’s” agenda. which according to their website, is a collection of 10 different agendas altogether.

    thats whats so disorganized about this group since the protestors are protesting anything from world peace, woman’s rights, to global warming, to socialism, to a lack of taxes, etc…

    again, a disorganized mess of this organization has so many agenda’s that it cant focus on one core problem.  but to blame it solely on wall street itself is just so wrong.  b/c its not wall streets fault solely for our current economic situation the way it is now.

  • Anonymous

    Re: Hunter Study

    Soo, some numbers came out and nearly all the news media completely misinterpreted, misrepresented, and mis-contextualized the story.  When it turns out the truth is actually the EXACT OPPOSITE of the breathless reporting, there are no more than a few columns and blog posts covering it.  Why again is the public so misinformed and confused about so many things?  We’re mourning the loss of the traditional media while they constantly screw up the core purpose of their mission?  Score one for the WSJ on this.

  • Bolwerk

    @carma:twitter : Abstraction isn’t your strong suit, is it? Sorry, but you don’t get thousands of people risking their liberty and safety for no reason except to hold signs near the police. They clearly have common goals, which by any definition counts as an agenda, one that at the very least entails a commonly held belief in a problem with the direction of economic policy in the USA. For the third time, the messaging problem is they feel a need to plug their own pet causes on top of their agenda. It’s perfectly fair to see that as a tactical error, a sign of disorganization, a problem of rhetorical focus, or even foolish; it doesn’t mean they’re mindless sycophants with no goal in mind beyond annoying authority figures.

  • Anonymous

    Carma, I doubt anything anyone says can convince you, but it’s important that the readers on this board know the facts. 

    The police did not give ample warning.  The NYPD has released a video of an officer warning protesters that they would be arrested if they did not leave the roadway.  That announcement was made when marchers were already 1/3 of the way across — and penned in on both sides. 

    It takes a half hour to walk across the Brooklyn Bridge.  Rather than let a march take one lane of traffic for half and hour, the police shut down all traffic for five hours. 

  • fj
  • carma

    why even bother fighting with you folks when you guys (which i knew) would side with the protestors.

    im not saying that protesting is wrong.  im saying the way in which they carried out with their “cause” is misguided.

    look, the economic disaster of this nation is partly responsible from wall street selling bad loans jumbled up into a poisonous package.  however, dont forget that the economic policies that were drafted as a response to 2008 did NOT help the situation to alleve the meltdown either.  yes, that is obama’s poor policy thinking in that keynesian economics will solve our jobs problem.  wrong.  it made things worse, as now we are worse off in debt, and no new net jobs have been created since he took office.  bush jr. certainly was far from anything of a decent president, but the response in correcting all the mistakes our country has made, certainly is not helping either.

    @eliotwbpa:disqus 
    wrong.  the protestors decided to take the bridge roadway.  the police did not tell them to take the roadway. THEY chose the roadway.  and THAT is a fact.  and THAT is why they got arrested.  There were no traps.  they CHOSE to march on the roadway.  police did not tell them to go on the roadway.

  • fj

    Koch Brothers Flout Law With Secret Iran Sales – Bloomberg http://bloom.bg/qtjZZm via @BloombergNews

  • Anonymous

    Carma, I didn’t say the police told protesters to take the roadway. 

    I am disputing your claim that police “DID give ample warning” to stay off the bridge.  They did not.  They allowed protesters to march up the bridge, then suddenly told everyone to leave or face arrest.  But the police had the protest penned, so there was no way to leave. 

    Regardless — once the protesters entered the bridge roadway, the police could have facilitated a half-hour march that took up one lane of traffic.  Instead, the NYPD completely shut down the entire roadway for 5 hours. 

  • Driver

     Carma, one cop giving one warning over a megaphone to thousands of chanting people is not adequate warning.  While some upfront heard it and chose to disobey, in all likelihood the majority never heard that message. 

  • Emergency Management

    Regardless of whether the NYPD gave warning or not and regardless of whether you think it was right or wrong, the NYPD’s move on Saturday was obviously a set-up and a tactic to box in a bunch of protestors, arrest them and get them off the street. There’s simply no question about this.

    Does any serious person really think that a line of NYPD white shirts and empty MTA buses and paddy wagons simply materialized out of thin air in the middle of the Brooklyn Bridge with protestors perfectly contained in a location where they couldn’t escape, couldn’t do damage and, essentially, had to accept arrest?

    This was clearly a coordinated and choreographed mass arrest tactic by the NYPD.

  • Bolwerk

    I think an exception to safe streets is called for here. Somebody really needs to run over carma’s dogma.

  • carma

    @3a9cb377ae68ba7b489d30e5eb859747:disqus 
    you know its that kind of liberal thinking that makes people hate liberalism.  just b/c i happen to disagree with the protestors thinking, and btw, they STILL BROKE THE LAW, it makes you think that smashing my opinionated dogma is the right thing to do.

    just b/c i dont agree w/ the majority here on the protesters does not mean now you need to come run over my opinionated dogma.

    i try to be civil explaining my side.  i know if i explain further it would create a flame war and my opinions are already not with the majority of the posters, but YOU had to exacerbate this.  geez

  • Joe R.

    @d8d46f16f380afef59ca318522397233:disqus I’ve been following this comment thread and I’m honestly kind of in the middle here.  I agree with some of what you say regarding capitalism.  Actually, I’m a big fan of capitalism-true capitalism that is, not the nonsense speculation and flipping commodities which Wall Street tries to pass off as capitalism.  True capitalism is shareholders investing in companies which produce tangible goods and services people want.  It isn’t people flipping shares or real estate, otherwise profiting from things which produce nothing of net value to society, or even worse artificially driving up the prices of things people need, as has happened with housing and food.  And it certainly isn’t, or shouldn’t be, about raping the natural environment to squeeze out every last dime of potential profits at the expense of future generations.

    For sure I disagree with the methods of the protestors and some of their message.  It’s similar to my views regarding Critical Mass.  I like bikes and cycling, but hate Critical Mass with a purple passion because their tactics just alienate people.  Often the first two words out of the mouths of bike haters are “Critical Mass”.  All that said, something like this anti-Wall Street movement really needed to happen for the long-term good of the country (actually the entire planet).  What is happening is far from ideal, but the message is getting across.  Protests are spreading nationwide.  This isn’t about eliminating capitalism, but about reforming it so it works as it’s supposed to-namely a rising tide which lifts all boats, not a tsunami which washes away all but the few with the strongest shelters.  What we have now is a disgusting, greedy perversion of capitalism, coupled with government corporate welfare.  The sooner it ends, the better.

  • carma

    Joe, 

    I dont work directly on Wall Street, but my job supports Wall Street.  I too am pissed off at the culture.  Im also vocal about my disgust at wall street itself.  but there also is no denying that even though the coorporate culture is you can say “evil”.  it also creates A LOT of jobs.  more than small businesses and govt jobs.  and one of my points that its not just wall street to take the blame, especially when the protestors are adding on everything including the kitchen sink to complain about.

    and great comparison about cycling versus critical mass.  i too detest this anarchist behavior and  i enjoy biking a lot.  but you know looking back at protesting and this rebel attitude stuff.  that is the GREAT thing about this country, is that your fundamental rights guarantee that you can exhibit this behavior.  (albeit, you still do need to be within your bounds)