Today’s Headlines

  • Schools Terrorized By Speeders Already Have Traffic Signals — They Don’t Have Speed Cams (Post)
  • Post: “Marty Golden Thinks Laws Apply to Everyone But Him”
  • Gateway Shakeup Puts Port Authority Squarely in Charge of Tunnel Construction (News)
  • Daily News: Forget About Cuomo’s “AirTrain to Nowhere” and Extend the N to LaGuardia
  • Speeding Hit-and-Run Driver Kills Heriberta Ramirez, 42, on Bay Street Median (News)
  • Driver Kills Jose Cardoso, 32, on Brooklyn Sidewalk and Flees; Charged With Vehicular Manslaughter (Post)
  • Watching His Mother Die in a Collision Has Completely Traumatized 6-Year-Old Jayvon Williams (News)
  • Personal Cars Are Out of Central Park But the City’s Own Drivers Can Still Wreak Havoc (Gothamist)
  • The Times Checks in on the MTA’s Evolving Social Media Service Alert System
  • MTA Decides to Keep Bike Racks on the S53 and S93 (Advance)
  • Two More Astoria Subway Stations Close for Rehabs That Don’t Include Elevators (AMNY)
  • Shocker: Brooklyn CB 13 Preemptively Whining About Dockless Bike-Share (Bklyn Paper)

More headlines at Streetsblog USA

  • 8FH

    From the Post: “State Sen. Marty Golden (D-Brooklyn)”

    The old Fox-News-A-Roo.

  • Larry Littlefield

    To be fair to Senator Golden, he probably doesn’t think the rules apply to anyone else like him either. Just to the serfs.

  • 8FH

    My point is that Golden is a Republican, and the conservative Post Editorial Board is referring to him as a Democrat. This seems to be the MO of these outlets.

  • Maggie

    From CM Mark Treyger in the Bklyn Paper: “While I am strongly supportive of additional multi-modal transit alternatives, given Coney Island’s limited public transportation access…”

    what. Is there a different Coney Island than the one with four subway lines and five bus routes?

  • Fool

    This is probably the most cynical NY area governments are functionally useless sequences of headlines I have ever seen. Bail to Texas while you still can.

    Ref: “Schools Terrorized By Speeders Already Have Traffic Signals — They Don’t Have Speed Cams”
    –And some schools are directly across the street from police precincts. They don’t work either.

    Ref: “Gateway Shakeup Puts Port Authority Squarely in Charge of Tunnel Construction (News)”
    –There goes that plan.

    Ref: Daily News: Forget About Cuomo’s “AirTrain to Nowhere” and Extend the N to LaGuardia
    –lol

  • Larry Littlefield

    Probably just assume he is a Democrat, coming from Brooklyn. Not much difference at the state and local level, is there?

  • redbike

    Ha! I missed that. Thanks for catching it and pointing it out.

  • 8FH

    There’s a huge difference at the state level on infrastructure, energy, gun control, schools, election laws, etc. The state parties also both follow the national platforms.

  • AnoNYC

    Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on mass transportation:

    https://youtu.be/cZ_qOQlQCio?t=8m29s

    Sum up:

    Takes the bus and subway, realizes the importance of mass transportation in her district.

  • Larry Littlefield

    I saw an interview in which she said the most important concerns were education, health care and housing. Mass transit was not mentioned.

    Everyone claims they are in favor of everything and lower taxes on people like themselves. But in the end more is spent on some things and less on others.

  • Ian Turner

    Meanwhile in Texas…

    Speed cameras prohibited statewide. https://www.autoblog.com/2007/05/23/they-do-it-different-in-texas-speed-cameras-banned-statewide/

    Houston has “no zoning”, but requires >1 parking space for a studio https://www.houstontx.gov/planning/DevelopRegs/docs_pdfs/parking_req.pdf

    TXDot: Wider lanes are safer! https://twitter.com/TxDOTAustin/status/1010919278059630592

  • Fool

    Yes but the lower cost of living morethan makes up for the net increase of three cars you need!

  • Larry Littlefield

    I don’t see it.

    Infrastructure — borrow money and spend actual cash elsewhere.

    Schools — spend more and expect less in return in exchange for campaign contributions, varying only in which part of the state gets more money.

    https://larrylittlefield.wordpress.com/2018/07/01/census-bureau-public-school-finance-data-fy-1996-vs-fy-2016-for-new-york-city-other-school-districts-in-ny-state-and-other-areas/

    Election laws — throw up obstacles to keep challengers off the ballot. No term limits.

    Yes there are differences on the tribalist issues like guns and immigration, but not as much as in other places. And those differences are phony — used to distract attention from the things they all do to the rest of us together.

  • 8FH

    I can’t agree with you on this. The whole “both parties are the same” trope is tired and toxic.

  • Larry Littlefield

    You mentioned differences. I explained why I don’t see them. Which one do you not agree on? I’ve been following what they actually do for three decades.

    New York City Democrats showed up at a rally to protest the separation of immigrant children for their parents. Upstate Republicans did not. That’s a difference. But on practical issues of what we get in public services in exchange for what?

  • 8FH

    Education: free college, more funding for public schools, and less support for charters. Bussing is opposed by Republicans

    Election laws: Automatic voter registration is a Democratic plank, opposed by Republicans

    Gun control is not just a wedge issue. Most Americans, including gun owners, support common sense gun control.

    Transit: Though Cuomo and DeBlasio have been disappointing in this regard, moveNY and congestion charges had much more support from Dems than Republicans. Republicans consistently vote for road spending over transit spending.

    Energy: Republicans support coal and fracking. Democrats generally don’t.

  • AnoNYC
  • Larry Littlefield

    I actually think generation and year elected is more telling.
    As for school funding, New York State is just like those unjust states where taxes and school funding was slashed. But in the opposite direction. Follow the link above and download the spreadsheets to see to what extent.
    Within education and transit, both parties vote in favor of more retroactive pension increases for those cashing and moving out, and more special tax breaks for seniors. Maybe Democrats want a special deal just for public employees — exemption from property taxes to go along with the exemption from state and local income taxes they already get. And Republicans want all seniors to be exempt from state and local income taxes, even Mike Bloomberg. But if you aren’t someone looking the system to screw everyone else, are will be on the receiving end, those are details.

  • AnoNYC

    Streetsblog or StreetsPAC should reach out to her directly.

  • Larry Littlefield

    That’s interesting. I wonder if they will put together a combined membership — Citibike for local travel, Lyft for trips out of town.

    I don’t use either, but my family members use both.

  • Larry Littlefield

    It’s a thought.

    I’d like to see these elected officials and challengers presented with tables showing what we pay in taxes compared with the U.S. average and other places, and what we spend on, and how this has changed over time. Give them time to think about it. And then ask how they would change things.

    In her case, however, the general rule that the MSM doesn’t even cover challengers — and thus discourages contested elections — applied.

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/alexandria-ocasio-cortezs-victory-points-to-a-media-failure-that-keeps-repeating/2018/06/28/68f05130-7aca-11e8-93cc-6d3beccdd7a3_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.cc313acddaea

    Right on. She must have been a heck of a candidate to overcome that.

  • AnoNYC

    “will invest to establish bike offerings in our major markets and pursue growth and innovation in the markets where Motivate currently operates,”

    Hoping for expansion.

  • redbike

    from https://blog.lyft.com/posts/lyft-to-acquire-us-bikeshare-leader

    As part of this agreement, Lyft is acquiring Motivate’s technology and corporate functions, including its city contracts. Motivate’s bike maintenance and servicing operations will remain a standalone business, retaining the Motivate name, and will continue to support bikeshare systems across North America.

    Unclear — at least to me — who will own what and who’s responsible for what.

  • Larry Littlefield

    Question is, we’ve heard Uber is losing money despite low fares for drivers. How about Lyft?

    Lyft is Facebook to Uber’s Myspace, Target to Uber’s Wal-Mart. It is out of the controversy, so people have no idea what it is doing.

  • Guest

    That was not one of the “city’s own drivers” that was involved in a collision with a cyclist in Central Park. It was a private trash hauler. What a surprise.