All of New York's political class*, will attend the funeral service for State Senator Jose Peralta, who died last week at age 47. We had a beef or two with Peralta, but he was a strong supporter of many street safety issues, including speed cameras. He will be missed.
Now, the news:
- * Except for Peralta's rival Jessica Ramos, who beat him fair and square in the September primary — she was turned away from his wake on Monday night. (NY Post)
- Horrific carnage in Chinatown, as a driver — not a car, MSM, but a driver — killed one and injured six near Canal Street. (NYDN, NYT, amNY) The Post had some video. By early Tuesday, the NYPD said the driver had been arrested.
- The Post echoed Streetsblog's ongoing complaint that it's next to impossible to find one of those great electric Citi Bikes.
- NYC Transit President Andy Byford promised us more capacity on the 7 line, thanks to new signals — which promptly malfunctioned on Day 1. We guess no one told Byford that you have to open on the road! (NYDN, NY Post)
- Let's face it, Alec Baldwin is going to beat the rap for punching that guy over the parking spot, right? (amNY)
- Our own DOT Commissioner Polly Trottenberg was honored as one of the Public Officials of the Year in Governing Magazing. (Insert snark about how Mayor de Blasio should listen to her more here.)
- Friend of Streetsblog, @placardabuse, penned an op-ed in Gotham Gazette (under his or her Twitter handle!) demanding an end to rampant illegal parking by city employees. This seems to be the lowest of the low-hanging fruit in law enforcement, but no one does anything about it (the DAs don't want to piss off cops because cops are needed to testify in criminal cases, and the mayor doesn't want to piss off cops lest his already tenuous control of the NYPD crumble in dissent).
- We need more loading zones. Everyone says it. Now there's a report on it. (amNY)
- One of the insurgent Democrats who beat a tired incumbent State Senator from Brooklyn proudly declares that he's not a driver and will be exclusively using transit on the job. Can we have more leaders like Zellnor Myrie, please? (amNY)
