Today’s Headlines

  • The Governor Claims He Fought for Congestion Pricing But His Budget Says Otherwise (Politico, WNYC)
  • De Blasio: “No More Excuses” for Cuomo Now That He’s Got the MTA Funding He Asked For (Politico)
  • Cuomo’s Fine With an Uber Cap and Says de Blasio Didn’t Fight for Speed Cams (News)
  • Robin Chase: If We Don’t Get the Price Right on NYC Car Trips, Our Streets Will Fail (NYT)
  • The Times Previews the L Train Shutdown in Manhattan
  • It Was Obvious Already, But Dorothy Bruns Should Not Have Been Allowed to Drive (News)
  • Red Hook Students Petition DOT for a Safer Hamilton Ave by the BQE (News 12)
  • Corey Johnson Caught Using SUV Emergency Lights on His Way to Morning TV Spot (Post)
  • Fourth Ave Bikeway Disruption By 72nd Precinct Is Worse Than We Thought (Bklyn Paper)
  • The Peaks and Valleys of Subway Cleanliness (NYT, News)
  • A 400-Word Dose of Pure NYC Motorist Entitlement (NYT)

More headlines at Streetsblog USA

  • Reader

    The Fourth Ave bike lane is a real “tale of two cities” problem. There’s no way DOT or City Hall would allow this to happen on the Park Slope/Gowanus end of the project. Just a shame that the city still has the gall to call this stuff Vision Zero when prioritizing parking over safe mobility is the exact opposite.

  • Larry Littlefield

    “The Governor Claims He Fought for Congestion Pricing, Says de Blasio Didn’t Fight for Speed Cams.”

    Fight against whom, who is fighting for what? Fight where?

    This is the situation we’ve allowed our country to be in. You elect a President, Governor, Mayor and expect you are electing a dictator to solve all your problems, and you don’t need to bother with anyone else.

    That leaves the Congress and state legislature to fester as a bi-partisan, self-perpetuating representative of already-privileged interests at the expense of the vast majority of people and the common future. One that needs to be paid off in exchange not only for any attempt to make things better, but also any attempt to prevent things from getting worse.

    Here you have two Democrats, with a state legislature that is majority Democrat, with one house having a veto-proof majority. You want a fight? Get someone on the ballot against these SOBs, all of them, and back them up.

  • reasonableexplanation

    Re alternate side parking during snow events:

    I always felt it was kind of backwards that we suspend it. Unless it’s a big snowstorm where the governor declares a state of emergency/closes the roads, ASP should absolutely stay in effect, and plows should come and clean that side of the street.

    Having said that, if there was never a plan to do that in the first place (during many snowstorms, the street sweepers aren’t operating, and the plows are only clearing the main roads), I guess it makes sense to suspend ASP, since there’s no point causing extra traffic for no reason.

  • Flavanation

    Yesterday it would have been better if they’d suspended it – the roads were pretty dodgy in the morning, and drivers moving their cars around generates extra traffic. I was surprised they were in effect the Monday after Easter – would have thought that would be a holiday.

  • MatthewEH

    Eh, there’s a similar thing that happens with the (unprotected/simple paint) eastbound bike lane disappearing on 20th Street in Chelsea. This is on the block between 8th & 7th. The police parking on this block is more orderly — angle parking to add incrementally more spots than simply parallel parking does, just fwiw.

    Anyway, this is not exactly a low-rent neighborhood!

  • MatthewEH

    Don’t forget the DINOs in the state senate actually caucusing with repubs.

  • Reader

    No one with kids who want to ride on the street or who’s not an able-bodied male would say “eh” to this news.

    This city will never solve its mobility problems if it keeps building infrastructure like this and letting NYPD hijack street designs for parking. It would be like building a bridge that had a giant section missing in the middle.

  • urbanresidue

    What am I missing with the Fourth Avenue bikeway? Why couldn’t they run protected lanes along the median like they’ve done on Queens Boulevard and the Grand Concourse and avoid the conflicts with the first responders?

  • Ken Dodd

    If “more orderly” involves obstructing every fire hydrant on the block then I guess you’re right.

  • ItsEasyBeingGreen

    20th Street is the exact opposite of what NYC should be doing to encourage more and safer cycling.

  • AMH

    Exactly–suspending ASP “for” snow removal actively prevents snow removal.

  • ItsEasyBeingGreen

    There’s no service road on 4th Avenue. You’d be riding in the middle of the road immediately adjacent to high speed traffic, and with frequent stops to give the turn lanes a green light.

  • Vooch

    every other city in the US declares a snow emergency and the curbs are clear of car storage.

    In Chicago, they go so far as making it illegal to store your car overnight curbside the entire winter. period.

    NYC is a exception to the perfectly sensible rules followed elsewhere

  • Vooch

    worth reading the Dorothy Bruns article linked today – huge amount of detail on her life and husband. Lots of financial information.

    I still argue she has some connection to protected class, there is no way she could rack up that many camera violations and zero human written tickets.

  • Toddster

    So disappointed in Corey Johnson. It’s interesting him and De Blasio don’t have a better relationship because when it comes to endangering others with their (debatable illegal) transportation choices and making bad excuses, they are exactly the same.

  • Larry Littlefield

    Oh they are Democrats allright. They agree that we should be paying more in taxes, and deserve less in services in return, because the political/union class deserves more and everyone else deserves less.
    So do NY Republicans, provided that the higher taxes and service cuts are confined to New York City, but a large share of the pillage is elsewhere.

  • MatthewEH

    I’m just speaking to the point that “this would never happen in a tonier neighborhood.” I don’t like it either; didn’t mean to come across as blasé, sorry.

  • MatthewEH

    It’s… maybe better than nothing? I remember the neighborhood before and after the lanes on 20th & 21st were installed, and similarly with the lanes between West Street and Union Square on 15th & 16th Street. The previous design — in each case an overwide single traffic lane — encouraged more speeding. Speaking completely anecdotally.

  • MatthewEH

    Though honestly, for my money the least stressful way to get crosstown around here is to ride in the bus lane on 23rd Street. Not legal, though it’s morally acceptable so long as you clear out for any bus traffic that comes up behind you.

    The only place I’ve had some trouble on 23rd is westbound at 10th Ave, where eastbound drivers turning north have a tendency to not look for cyclists and incipiently left-hook them instead.

  • Joe R.

    Reading between the lines, I don’t think her finances are as bad as the article makes out. One of her clients recalled bumping into her at different nail salons on Staten Island. You don’t go to nail salons if you’re broke. In fact, it looks like a lot of her financial problems were caused by simply living beyond her means, like lots of people unfortunately do these days.

  • Vooch

    agreed she and her husband are stereotypic living on credit card types.

    However, on reading the article I couldn’t parse any protected class connection. It’s likely a relative or perhaps a cousin.

  • Reader

    “Better than nothing” designs inevitably fail and then lead people to point to the failure and say that we don’t need bike lanes.

  • Larry Littlefield

    More to the point, here is the sort of leadership we have on offer. Another Upstate Republican announced he was challenging Cuomo, on the grounds that we need less taxes (presumably outside NYC) and less government (presumably inside NYC).

    They got a quote from the Governor on his new challenger. It went something like this.

    “Trump, guns, abortion, gays, immigrants, Trump.”

    You want the other side on these things to win? No? Then whichever set of SOBs is running your area as a one-party fiefdom gets to do to you whatever they want.

  • MatthewEH

    You seem… very eager to gainsay me. Not quite sure what’s going on, I think we’re both pro-livable-streets. Maybe you’re failing to read ironic weariness in my tone? Later. 😉

  • MatthewEH

    A cousin is a kind of relative, no? 😉

  • Vooch

    in Staten Island cousins might also be sisters or aunts. It’s a bit like the movie Deliverence over there

  • Andrew

    In Chicago, they go so far as making it illegal to store your car overnight curbside the entire winter. period.

    Only on arterials: https://www.cityofchicago.org/content/dam/city/depts/streets/supp_info/Snow20112012/Snow20172018/overnightL_120617.pdf

    Elsewhere, the chairs come out: https://www.economist.com/news/united-states/21737316-chicagos-snow-etiquette-may-be-most-sophisticated-land-life-liberty-and

  • Vooch

    Good point.

    And I agree, let’s make it on arterials only

  • Vooch

    I’m thinking more of the Vinnie and Looie type of ‘cousin’

  • kevd

    no, but there is a median and currently its probably safer than the side

  • AMH

    “Along with buses, she is also bracing for a rise in ride-sharing vehicles like Uber and Lyft.”

    The press have gotten better at referring to TNCs as “ride-hailing” and “car service” apps, but they still lapse into that “sharing” fallacy pretty often.