What a day! Just when we thought nothing was going on, a Brooklyn State Senator with a history of violence and bad driving told a legislative staffer to commit suicide after she fingered him as the outlaw who parked in a Midtown bike lane.
"Kill yourself!" Senator (though maybe not for long) Kevin Parker tweeted. Yowza. (The Daily News, the Post, the Wall Street Journal, amNY and the Times also covered it, with the Paper of Record even using a meme as a lede!)
Then we got into a mini-flameout with otherwise nice guy Council Member Barry Grodenchik because he suggested that congestion pricing is elitist, which it definitely is not. Grodenchik tweeted that we're still on speaking terms (see, people of good will can disagree and still be friends, though the jury is out on Kevin Parker).
Meanwhile, here's today's news:
- The big story yesterday was the state's MTA workgroup report. amNY played it straight. The Daily News focused on congestion pricing. The Times focused on a lot of stuff that doesn't matter (is the MTA really going to be "dissolved"?). The Wall Street Journal focused on how everyone is really taking the financing issue seriously this time. Streetsblog focused on the fact that there is no way a bunch of craven Albany pols are going to pass congestion pricing.
- Dollar van drivers to the rescue? Drivers say they can help during the L-train shutdown, but the city is balking. (City Limits)
- As New York considers legalizing e-scooters, here's a deep dive on their many issues from Mobility Lab. Fact one: Scooters are surprisingly popular!
- "War on Cars" host Doug Gordon kindly translated a story from the Belgian paper De Standaard which revealed that the word of the year is "murderstrip" — aka a painted bike lane next to fast-moving cars. Why give Belgium all the fun? New York is lousy with murderstrips, as Queens bike queen Angela Stach pointed out two of her (non) favorites. (Sure enough, a pedestrian was killed on Cross Bay Boulevard on Tuesday.)
- A cabbie went berserk in Midtown. Here's hoping this isn't the kind of guy Ruben Diaz Jr. and Fernando Cabrera were trying to protect with their lame TLC bill last week. (NY Post)
- Here's something that will finally make Mayor de Blasio see that there's a problem with private carting companies: A man was injured by a garbage truck at one of the mayor's events! (NY Post)
- Upper Manhattan gets its own mini-L-pocalyse in the form of closed stations. (amNY)
- Some cyclists don't like the city's plans for W. 79th Street. (West Side Spirit)
- Congrats to the Brooklyn Daily Eagle for publishing (surprise!) a legitimate story on the dangers of the coming repairs to the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway. Watch out for serious pollution, says journalist Laurie Garrett. Even the NY Post followed the story.
