Wednesday’s Headlines: Tuesday Bloody Tuesday Edition

Photo: Gersh Kuntzman
Photo: Gersh Kuntzman

Just once, we hope a voter in Ottumwa, Ia., or Powdersville, S.C., will sidle up to Mayor de Blasio and say, “We love your brand of progressive politics, but for now, why not had back to New York City, where fatalities on your roads are up 21 percent over the same period last year?”

It would be a fair question, especially after Tuesday, when two people were killed in separate crashes by truck drivers backing up over them. The Daily News and the Post both covered the 76-year-old man who was run down on First Avenue in Manhattan (Streetsblog had it, too). And that back-over incident occurred a few hours after a motorcyclist in Queens was run over by a backing-up private sanitation truck.

There wasn’t much other news yesterday, but here’s what we got:

  • Someone was pulling emergency brakes on subway trains, delaying everyone. (NY Times)
  • Advocates for the disabled appear to be closer to winning a case against the MTA for failing to install enough elevators. (amNY)
  • Council Speaker Corey Johnson trolling the NYPD’s 13th Precinct might just be the best thing we have seen all year. It’s peak Johnson. (via Twitter)
  • City Council Member Ydanis Rodriguez says taxi drivers should be exempt from congestion pricing — even though taxis are roughly 50 percent of the congestion in Manhattan, and the surcharge cabbies currently charge is passed along to passengers. This misguided bid to help struggling cabbies — who do need help — is probably DOA. (amNY)
  • The 7 train is improving! (NY1)
  • In case you missed it, the Brooklyn Navy Yard now has a ferry stop. (NY1)
  • And, finally, Streetsblog’s David Meyer is going deep on his walk along Memory Lane (which, we’re told, has a protected bike lane!).

  • Larry Littlefield

    Again, $600 million is a lot of money. At $100 per hour in wages and benefits (admittedly those who are paid, directly or indirectly, by the government in NYC and live in the suburbs average much more), that’s 60,000 hours of work, between those producing the equipment and those installing it.

    This was supposed to be a pilot project. NYC’s serfs can only afford one-sixth that amount. Particularly its younger serfs — and remember, those older get lots of tax breaks and don’t have to pay.

    https://www.wsj.com/articles/playing-catch-up-in-the-game-of-life-millennials-approach-middle-age-in-crisis-11558290908?mod=trending_now_1

    Christopher Kurz, an economist at the Federal Reserve and his colleagues last year analyzed income, debt, asset and consumption data to figure out how millennials compared at similar ages with Generation X, people born between 1965 and 1980, as well as baby boomers, those born from 1946 to 1964. They found that millennial households had an average net worth of about $92,000 in 2016, nearly 40% less than Gen X households in 2001, adjusted for inflation, and about 20% less than baby boomer households in 1989. Wages didn’t look much better. At the same ages, Gen X men working full time and who were heads of households earned 18% more than their millennial counterparts, and baby boomer men earned 27% more, when adjusting for inflation, age and other socioeconomic variables. Among women, incomes were 12% higher for Gen Xers and 24% higher for baby boomers than for millennials, using the same measures.

    So, $600 million per track segment? With the money borrowed so those later-born generations will have to pay for of, with interest, not those heading for Florida?

  • Larry Littlefield

    Here is an interesting article, and some rare good news about the MTA.

    https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-05-22/nyc-subway-s-new-way-to-pay-has-banks-in-a-rush-to-update-cards?srnd=premium

    More than 20 years after the initial switch to MetroCards from tokens, the Metropolitan Transit Authority is unveiling the ability to use tap-to-pay credit and debit cards for subway and bus fares. And it’s not just public transportation. Visa Inc. says 80 of the top 100 U.S. retailers now accept the cards, with companies including Target Corp. and CVS Health Corp. adding the technology in recent months.

    The transition has prompted banks around the country to quickly update cards. JPMorgan Chase & Co. was the first major lender to commit to tap-and-go technology for its entire portfolio of credit and debit cards, in November, and Bank of America Corp. and Wells Fargo & Co. made similar announcements months later. Outside the U.S., almost half of all in-store transactions use the tapping technology.

    The MTA stalled on replacing the MetroCard, even as it became obsolete and began to fail, hoping that in the end the banks would provide most of the system for them, cutting their costs. It appears that was the right strategy.

    It gives me hope that failing to replace signal systems at the pace needed to prevent system collapse will somehow lead to something better and cheaper.

  • kevd

    least Larry Littlefield like post ever

  • HamTech87

    I find the tap to pay tech in stores only works about half the time. I can imagine backups at turnstiles already.

ALSO ON STREETSBLOG

Today’s Headlines

By Stephen Miller |
Gitzella Katz, 93, Killed by Williamsburg Driver Backing Up for Parking; No Charges (Post, News) Bronx Hit-and-Run Driver Ditches Vehicle After Leaving 24 Year-Old in Critical Condition (Post, News) Midtown Driver Hits Van, Injures Five; Charged with Drunk Driving and Vehicular Assault (News) 26 Year-Old Motorcyclist Pinned Between Taxi, Tour Bus in Harlem, Dies (Post, News, DNA, NY1) Truck Driver […]