Thursday’s Headlines: Boozing with The Mayor Edition

Tonight is the annual holiday party at Gracie Mansion — and somehow Streetsblog managed an invite, despite our aggressive coverage (which needs your support, by the way).

We’ll have so much to talk about tomorrow, but nothing we can share as the entire night is “off-the-record” (which is really just shorthand for, “Why, yes, bartender, I will have another”). It will be our first trip back to the mayoral residence since we sang anti-car Christmas carols there last week (ICYMI: don’t miss it). Our choral group will be on NY1 on Friday at 7:40, too!

Here’s the news:

• Hat’s off to New York City DOT for building 20.9 miles of protected bike lane this year — though Streetsblog found reason to quibble. Watch this space for more soon.
• The Daily News editorial board deserves credit for condemning Kevin Parker for the right reason: for the placard abuse! (NYDN)
• Uber is upgrading the already excellent Jump bikes — now, if Uber will just fix the app! (The Verge)
• The Brooklyn Paper covered Senator Kevin Parker’s Suicidegate — and added in a nice detail about gun restrictions that might include a review of a would-be gun owner’s social media feed for evidence of Parker-esque craziness. And Mayor de Blasio slamed the senator’s “Kill yourself!” tweet — though said nothing, it must be noted, about the placard abuse that started it all off. (NY Post)
• Oslo became the latest European city to take cars out of part of downtown. We asked Mayor de Blasio if he’d consider it and we got [insert cricket mp3 here]. (NY Times)
• Students at CUNY J-School put together an impressive package on how badly New York City does in prosecuting road violence. Hire those kids…somebody! (NYC News Service)