Today’s Headlines

  • Transpo Ideas From Mayoral Candidates “Little More Than Political Theater” (WSJ)
  • Bloomberg: City Control of MTA? Albany Will Never Let It Happen (CapNY)
  • UWS Residents Make Their Case for an Amsterdam Avenue Bike Lane to CB 7 (DNA)
  • DOT Says Citi Bike Isn’t Set to Expand to LIC in September (WNYC)
  • HPD Axes Plan to Pave Chelsea Playground for Parking, Will Try to Build Parking Elsewhere (DNA)
  • Jason Gay’s Street Just Got a Bike Path, and Man, Is He Excited (WSJ)
  • Maloney’s Latest Second Avenue Report Card Misses Some Key Info (2nd Avenue Sagas)
  • Co-Op City Bus Study, Modeled on Subway Line Reviews, Precursor to Restoring Service (News)
  • DOT Adds Crossing Time at Amsterdam and West 79th; Study Suggests Ped Fixes in West 90s (DNA 1, 2)
  • A Preview of the Park Avenue Tunnel, Open During August’s Summer Streets (Gothamist)
  • Bike Snob on Army’s Cycling PSA: “Basically The Idea Is That Riding a Bike Is Tantamount to Suicide”

More headlines at Streetsblog Capitol Hill

  • Anonymous

    Regarding the Army’s cycling PSA:
    Meanwhile, more military people are killed in motor vehicle wrecks (not necessarily while they are on a bicycle) than in combat.

    Shameful… they’re targeting the wrong enemy.

  • Bolwerk

    Transpo ideas from the mayoral candidates are practically all comedy, but there could be constructive talk about the power/control dynamics (and: C-O-O-P-E-R-A-T-I-O-N) within the region that are better than power grabbing. The “MTA is a regional entity” argument Russianoff makes is a bit hard misleading – it’s actually several local entities (MTA Bus, NYCTA, SIRT, nominally others, some suburban buses) and two regional railroads, and the MTA exerts fairly nominal control over them all, and some of them don’t even want to cooperate with each other. Then, NIMBYs, community boards, grabby elected officials, and special interests (*cough* Russianoff) aren’t exactly offering constructive solutions to the transit system’s woes either. Nobody is responsible for fixing anything, basically.

    So, how about some more power sharing? The idea that it would even behoove Albany to give the city more control doesn’t fly either. Albany doesn’t actually lose any power if it delegates more power to the city. It can revoke the city’s power at any time. In theory, Albany could revoke the city.

  • Anonymous

    Ok Streetsblog, it looks like Bill De’Blasio’s making a run.

    Please tell me if I should be ok with him, instead of Sal Albanese from a livable streets perspective.

    Sal’s my fave, but, I realize he’s the long shot.

  • Bolwerk

    From that standpoint, pretty sure anyone plausible is better than Weiner and Quinn. But then, I may be discounting the plausibility a billionaire with a double digit IQ and a monorail fetish.

  • Daniel S Dunnam

    Bill was on the sidewalk in Williamsburg last week and I stopped and talked to him for a minute. We talked exclusively about bike infrastructure and how important it was to me. He seemed quite sincere in his insistence that he loves it and wants to add more of it, not less.

    Based on our brief conversation, his long-time closeness with TA, and his policy proposal book’s section on transportation, he’s definitely standing out as the best of the pack at this point I’d say.

    Oh, and, ya know, it helps that he’s good on virtually every other issue as well!

  • Anonymous

    With Catsimatidis, never forget the World’s Fair nonsense. He’s got a lot of ideas that don’t even rise to the level of “bad.”

  • Anonymous

    Kate Hinds’ article is sloppy reporting, as was the original Queens Tribune article from yesterday, and Streetsblog’s linking of that article. Van Bramer’s quote is actually from APRIL, not from yesterday:

    http://www.qgazette.com/news/2013-04-24/Features/Gianaris_Van_Bramer_Applaud_Citibike_Want_Expansio.html

    I wrote about this in the comments yesterday, but nobody listened

  • Ridgewoodian

    A bit off topic, but this supposed story has been making the rounds in my circles today. Apparently Citi Bikes have tiny little surveillance cameras up front. Now, to me, this seems patently absurd – it’s “reported” on a blog owned by a comedian – but near as I can tell some people have actually been believing it. Wrote one friend of a friend on Facebook, “Wow, I didn’t realize I can hate Citibike program more. Apparently, I can.” I wonder, is this a pure application of Poe’s Law or is it something a little different? What do you call it when someone decides to take a (fairly obvious) joke as the gospel truth?

    http://johnjpowers.blogspot.com/2013/07/citi-bike-latest-nyc-surveillance.html?m=1