Today’s Headlines

  • “World Class” BRT Among Recommendations From Cuomo Sandy Commission (TransNat, SAS)
  • DOT Cleans Up Parking Signs; Read All About It: NYT, News, TransNat, WSJ, CBS, Observer
  • For Just a Few Dollars, You Too Can Join the Ranks of New York’s Finest Law Evaders (Post)
  • DA Richard Brown, NYPD File No Charges for Hit-and-Run Death of Miguel Torres, 11 (DNA)
  • Wrongful Death Suit Claims Cab Driver Who Killed 5-Year-Old Timothy Keith Was Speeding (STR)
  • 2 Hit by Fung Wah Bus Driver (Post); Pedestrian Critically Injured in Kew Gardens Hills (DNA)
  • Upper East Side NIMBYs Protest Audible Pedestrian Signals (DNA, Post)
  • CB 12 Mem Who Said Cashless HHB Tolls Would Doom Inwood Is Running for Council (CapNY)
  • Queens Neighborhoods May Get Their Own High Line (NYT)
  • Atlantic Yards Critic Whom Markowitz Booted From CB 6 Priced Out of Carroll Gardens (Post)

More headlines at Streetsblog Capitol Hill

  • Benjamin Kabak

    “Queens Neighborhoods May Get Their Own High Line (NYT)”

    No. No. No. No. Return rail to the Rockaway Beach Branch first. That Times piece is an abomination.

  • Anonymous

    “Manhattan Community Board 8.”  That is all.

  • Cashless tolls haven’t doomed Inwood but despite the installation of the slow zone features, it does seems like when the cashless tolls first started there was an uptick in cars speeding along Seaman, Dyckman Riverside (the streets I ride and walk most often) during the morning and evening rush hours. It seems to have mellowed a bit lately. 

  • Sigh. The PBA card article in the NYPost is as breathless as it is silly—OMG people use the Internet, NYPD once again shocked to discover! The cards don’t do anything if you’re just some random joker who bought one. You hand one to an NYPD officer they *will* insist on being able to call and speak to the officer who supposedly gave it to you. The notion that “the practice must be ended,” and that the police should crack down on sales of these things on ebay? Pernicious. That’s offensive, the rest of it is authoritarian bullshit and fainting salts.

  • Bolwerk

    Squandering resources on BRT while turning a railroad ROW with helluva transit potential into a meh park. It was a slow Monday, but the anti-transit advocates are having a field day this week. 

  • Larry Littlefield

    I wonder how the cost of sign revisions compares with the cost of bicycle infrastructure.  I never had a problem with the old signs.

  • @f9b2cb395abd5a101456b3b0a40912e1:disqus I was thinking the same thing about the cost, even though I like the new signs and think they’re a welcome development.  When a street is changed to benefit cyclists and pedestrians, critics claim that in this time of budget crisis we shouldn’t spend money on green paint and plazas. Funny how those concerns evaporate the minute a change benefits drivers.

  • Niccolo Machiavelli

    Thanks Ben for your observation below.  The article mentions funding from the Cuomo Administration for a study.  Three guesses what that study will conclude.  What should be studied is the value of that Right of Way for mass transit purposes, the original use commuter rail from the Rockaways and Nassau, a Port Washington Branch for the Rockaways.  I contend it is the most valuable dormant right of way in the US, possibly the world.  And, I suspect the the advocates are using a bike path Trojan horse to guarantee that no trains will ever run on it again.  Cuomo will get a lot of support for rails to trails conversion here from the same people who lament how Queens is under-served by the MTA. Go figure.

  • Larry Littlefield

    “Funny how those concerns evaporate the minute a change benefits drivers.”

    I wouldn’t assume that drivers will jump for joy.  If the signs are better, then replacing them as the old ones wear out will not cost anything.   But for a large scale overall replacement, it is unlikely that costs will exceed benefits.  It’s sort of like a new subway map.

  • Bolwerk

    Backing QueensWay over rail restoration (and, preferably, subway amalgamation) casts Cuomo in a whole new light.  We knew he was short-sighted, but at least the Tappan Zee is expensive and suburban. QueensWay is a quick solution to a pressing problem. Already unilaterally spending taxpayer money trying to rob the future of such a service suggests his contempt for transit and transit users runs deeper than anyone expected.

  • jrab

    Who remembers the outcry over the replacement of street name signs with new ones in a new, federally approved, typeface? That was decried in the tabloids as a waste of money, but the new signs only went in when the old ones were being replaced.

  • Anonymous

    Vallone’s quote in the union card article is abhorrent. It’s an affirmative statement that cops should be able to grant immunity to whomever they want, just because they’re cops. It’s fundamentally a rejection of the rule of law. 

  • Anonymous

    Okay, I have friends on both sides of the Queensway “rail or trail” issue, and I’m undecided.  Is anyone on the “rails” side organizing?  The “trails” side has certainly been organized for some time.  Also, are the two necessarily mutually exclusive?  

  • Danny G

    @google-eef280db617836352784f51307aa5ed8:disqus The people that purchased homes along old rail lines are understandably concerned that their neighborhood might change. If it’s going to be a train once again, then the MTA and DCP should be working together to upzone areas around where future stations would be.

  • Bolwerk

    @36056f95783f8cfb512e9d49d4187ce6:disqus : they have little reason to be concerned. Meanwhile, where’s the concern for rest of the city, which could use the link? That counts at least as much, if not several times as much. 

  • Clarke

    The people that purchased homes along old rail lines had incredibly poor foresight if they didn’t factor in the investment “risk” of having the line restore to activation. Just because a couple people made poor investments doesn’t meant the whole city should suffer.

  • Danny G

    @74ee541f9be77c8f9980591d872699a3:disqus @9d09155ec93b2956f9a187fc183dc5b7:disqus You are both correct about homeowners and the city as a whole. Regardless, the city should still figure out where future stations should be and upzone accordingly. Some homeowners that would’ve simply been against it will be happy to be sitting on property that is now much more valuable.

  • Bolwerk

    @36056f95783f8cfb512e9d49d4187ce6:disqus : I don’t favor this outcome, but it could conceivably be reactivated with very little disruption to the community and no or virtually no new stations along the abandoned ROW.  Even then it would provide a useful link between Queens Blvd and the Rockaways, and potentially the airport. However, it would be virtually impact-free for the locals then, and the rest of the city could benefit.

  • Guest

    I was going to post about Vallone.  I see  beat me to it.

    So let me just emphasize what the Chair of the Public Safety Committee in our City Council had to say:

    “It’s a way for a police officer to vouch for another person,” said City Councilman Peter Vallone Jr. “That type of recommendation shouldn’t be available to the highest bidder.”

    It should not be available to ANYBODY.  Under the law, everybody should be held equally responsible for their actions, regardless of WHO they might happen to know. 

    The fact that the person responsible for legislation and representative oversight for our police does not believe the law applies to everybody goes a long way to demonstrating why corruption is so persistent in NYC.

  • Rails-WITH-Trail – it’s been done.  It works.
    Most, if not all of the Rockaway ROW is wide enough for both two tracks and a trail.  South of Atlantic Ave the trestle is 4 to 6 tracks wide.  Sure, I would prefer a separate bike path and a parallel walking path, rather than the single conflicted “Shared Use Path” that Parks Department thinks is appropriate.  But if rail-with-trail requires that a single 12 foot shared path is all that will fit, then let’s do it. 

    Where have the rail proponents been for 60 years?  Rip Van Winkle?
    The apartment house at Union Tpk Montauk Line Junction has long stolen the Rail ROW for their private parking lot.  Unless those cars are moved, even a single 12 foot trail would have to be put in on pilings to reach Forest Park.
    The rail ROW is so close to be encroached at many points, and lost, that the rail trail idea may be the only way to save a complete ROW from total closure.