Today’s Headlines

  • More Pedestrians Killed on Hempstead Turnpike Than Any Other Road in the Region (MTR)
  • Daily News to Albany: No More MTA Service Cuts; Curb Pension Costs (1, 2)
  • Shocker: The Post Firmly in the “Drill, Baby, Drill” Camp
  • So Many People Want to Weigh in on Tappan Zee, U.S. DOT Extends Comment Period (Transpo Nation)
  • More Scenes of Community-Based Bike Planning From Western Queens (News)
  • Parks Dept Still Hasn’t Fixed the Washed Out Mess at the Plumb Beach Bike Path (Sheepshead Bites)
  • Under Pat Foye, Is the Port Authority Planning to Keep the Container Port in Red Hook? (Bklyn Paper)
  • Looks Like the MTA’s “Fastrack” Maintenance Approach Is the New Normal (NY1)
  • Double-Parked Driver Drags Cop in Attempt to Flee (Post)
  • Streetsblog Publisher Mark Gorton Takes on Universal’s Lorax Impostor (MNN)
  • NBBLs of the Future Will Get Bots to Do Their Commenting Dirty Work (Harvard Law)

More headlines at Streetsblog Capitol Hill

  • Larry Littlefield

    They can cut the pay of all future workers to the minimum wage and eliminate their health and retirement benefits. That does absolutely nothing to eliminate the existing pension hole and the need for ongoing fare increases and service cuts.  Particularly since rising debt and retirement costs mean those new employees cannot be afforded.

    The Daily News has consistently maintained that the top priority is that existing retirees and employees get everything they were “promised.”  Even if they in effect promised themselves extra compared with what they were hired. 

    It would not surprise me if the public employee unions (the TWU excepted, so far) were up in Albany negotiating even worse pay and benefits for new hires — in exchange for yet another pension enhancment or incentive for those cashing in and moving out.

    They, the Times, the Post, Bloomberg, Cuomo, the unions and the state legislature are absolutely silent on the generational inequities.  They are arguing about who among the young and in what way younger generations will be made worse off by the selfishiness of those coming before.  Including Daily News readers.  They don’t even bother to rationalize.  When will people start screaming “face up to what you have done!”

  • petemarsh

    i would love to see pension reform in some way applied to current workers / retirees, particularly those who gamed the system via pension spiking, and those that benefited by retroactive enhancements & political deal-making..However, is there a legal route to do this?

  • Larry Littlefield

    “i would love to see pension reform in some way applied to current workers / retirees, particularly those who gamed the system via pension spiking, and those that benefited by retroactive enhancements & political deal-making..However, is there a legal route to do this?”You mean is there is legal way to do this despite the fact that every single public official, media outlet and political party is in favor of even more benefits for themselves at the expense of those coming after? No. Otherwise — yes.  Retiree health benefits could be reduced proportionate to how young a worker retired and how high their retirement benefits were compared with their pay level a few years earlier.Meanwhile, in the economy at large:http://lifeinc.today.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/03/07/10600839-paychecks-for-young-adults-getting-slimmerThey only looked at young adults.  But I expect that the trend of falling well being reaches right up the age distribution, depending on when you were born.  And I expect it isn’t just a matter of the recession, but a long-term trend adjusted for the business cycle.
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  • Morris Zapp

    That Post story is all wrong. It should read like this:

    Bx. cop hospitalized after being dragged 10 feet by runaway car

    A cop was dragged for about 10 feet by a runaway vehicle in The Bronx last night after the officer approached the double-parked vehicle, police sources said.

    The cop went up to the vehicle at East 193rd Street and Jerome Avenue in Fordham at around 10:30 p.m.

    After the cop asked for license and registration, the vehicle pulled away, taking the officer with him, the sources said.

    The cop was rushed to the hospital with a possible broken leg.

    Police were still searching for the vehicle early this morning.

  • Clarence Eckerson

    Check out CBS2 News totally missing the boat again, filing their report on the pedestrian dangers of Hempstead Turnpike from behind the wheel of Mobile 2.  Really.

    http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2012/03/08/new-report-details-most-dangerous-roads-in-the-tri-state/

  • @3d646071e947d5002d3014aad003290b:disqus here’s a screen shot of Kathryn Brown filing her report about the dangerous thoroughfare from behind the wheel.

    Everytime I see a CBS2 reporter file one of these Mobile 2 reports, I feel like I’m watching a deleted scene from “Anchorman.”

  • Larry Littlefield
  • Joe R.

    I’m not at all surprised.  Romney and the rest of the GOP grossly underestimate how much people are looking for alternatives to the auto as gas prices continue to climb. Instead of saying “drill, baby, drill”, which incidentally won’t make a dent in gas prices, they would do better to give people viable alternatives to driving.

    Regardless, I think this election campaign will go down as the most inept in history for the GOP. Obama will probably win reelection, and I think the GOP will lose their majority in both houses, thanks to their retrograde social, energy, and transportation policies. The GOP should have divorced the Tea Party wackos long ago.

  • Larry Littlefield

    Sorry Joe R, I was making a joke.  The real headline is Obama Facing Swing State Anger over Rising Gas Prices.

  • Joe R.

    Yeah, I just noticed that. Still, I do think Romney and the GOPs stance on transit will cost them votes in swing states.

  • Anonymous

    Does the GOP look at cutting transit as just another method of keepIng likely Democratic voters from making it to the polls? Too cynical?