The man who wants to be your next Public Advocate is also a man who is statistically more likely than most drivers to kill your son or daughter. Yes, the Daily News reported Sunday that Council Member Jumaane Williams received 18 school zone camera violations between March, 2016 and July, 2018. That's worse than street safety pariah Marty Golden, who even meekly apologized for the 14 tickets his car has gotten. (Williams declined to apologize in Jillian Jorgensen's News story.) But we at Streetsblog haven't been fooled by Williams and the progressive cloak he hides under. Last year, he opposed speed limit reductions (and got into a Twitter beef with our own David Meyer). And he's also tangled with our editor Gersh Kuntzman over his epic (and ultimately jettisoned) opposition to gay marriage. And Streetsblog also called him out for favoring parking over dedicated lanes along the B82 SBS route.
He would go a long way to easing the concerns of New York City cyclists and pedestrians — i.e. the majority — if he just apologizes and vows to do better. We've reached out and will update you if he calls.
Now, the news:
- Gov. Cuomo will apparently be in Brooklyn on Monday to help Andrew Gounardes defeat Marty Golden. (Ben Max via Twitter)
- Alec Baldwin denied he punched a guy in a dispute over parking. But, curiously, he never denied that he punched the guy. (ABC News) (ICYMI: Here was Streetsblog's epic take: Don't blame Baldwin; blame free on-street car storage!)
- The NYPD brought in one of its own — a drunk wrong-way driver. (NYDN)
- Kids have joined the fight to save the Brooklyn Heights Promenade from the city's plan to temporarily tear it down to rebuild the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway. (PIX11)
- Remember that time Staten Island was supposed to be connected to the rest of the city via subway? So does amNY.
- Oh, if disgraced State Sen. Jesse Hamilton had only used his campaign funds to buy a bike instead of Mercedes, we might not be writing this right now! (NY Post)
- In case you missed it, David Meyer did a long analysis on why we need community board term limits. Crain's printed an op-ed from a community board member who agrees. The Times didn't even bother to argue the point as it editorialized against Ballot Proposal 3 — then was mocked by community board member Peter Beadle on Twitter. And Doug Gordon reminded us of this ultimate argument for term limits from Queens last year.
- And, finally, Bike Snob had the perfect takedown of a Daily News headline regarding that Queens pedestrian who was killed by a driver.
