Nothing gets tabloid blood racing more than hypocrisy by beloved politicians. So reporters at New York's tabloid of record, the New York Post, were right to go after Green New Dealer Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for her gas-guzzling transportation choices. Or were they? On Wednesday, Laura Bliss at City Lab took the longer, broader, more-intellectual view, concluding that it's a missed opportunity to focus on mocking our elected officials when they make the same missteps that we all make. Instead, we should all be working to make it easier for everyone to avoid the missteps in the first place.
"If her every MTA swipe (or lack thereof) is interpreted as a brick in the ethical foundation for her climate advocacy, AOC will fail — because everyone who aspires to live by an environmental ethic 100% of the time fails, too," Bliss wrote. And it's not AOC's fault that public transit is insufficient between the Bronx and Queens.
Fair enough, but the first step to a greener world is taking public transit whenever possible, even if just symbolically, followed closely by passing the Green New Deal. The convenience of other modes of transportation is what got us into this mess in the first place — but AOC should be the change she wants to see in the world.
Enough soapboxing! Here's the news:
- No surprise here: Gov. Cuomo, who is poised to gain more control of the MTA, naturally threw a bucket of cold water on Council Speaker Corey Johnson's bid to have the city take over the subway system. (NY Post)
- More debris rained down from the elevated 7 train in Woodside, even after the MTA said it would clean up its mess. (Gothamist, NY Post)
- Given that the ADA passed under H.W., is it possible that the MTA still needs a federal court order to add elevators to subway stations? Apparently, yes. (NY Post)
- Yes, it's fun to laugh at the Bronx cop who lost control of an e-bike he had just confiscated, thanks to Tom Tracy's story in the Daily News, but that seized e-bike belongs to a hard-working delivery person who now has lost a week or more of wages and may not even get his bike back in good repair.
- Ugh, the Times’s Metropolitan Diary has evidence that owning a car is a mental illness. (H/T Jessie Singer)
- Police disciplinary records are sealed. But that blue wall just got a big hole punched through it, thanks to the Legal Aid Society. (NY Times)
- Residents of Morningside Heights had sought a safety redesign of the area where former Columbia dean Peter Awn was hit and killed by a driver. Fortunately, now the city is doing something. (West Side Rag)
