Wednesday’s Headlines: Corey’s Master Plan Edition

Corey Johnson in mid-air.
Corey Johnson in mid-air.

We’ll start our coverage today at 1 p.m. at City Hall for a hearing on Council Speaker Corey Johnson’s bill to require the city Department of Transportation to create a master plan for streets, sidewalks, and pedestrian spaces every five years to “prioritize and promote the safety of pedestrians and bicyclists, access to and the use of mass transit, the reduction of traffic congestion and emissions, and improved access to streets, sidewalks, public spaces, and mass transit for individuals with reduced mobility, hearing, or visual impairment.” (Gotham Gazette)

Who could oppose that? Wait and see.

For now, here’s the news from a busy Tuesday:

  • Mayor de Blasio only said he’d make a transportation announcement at 1:30 today, but Politico’s Dana Rubinstein got the scoop — he’s going to extend the Uber-Lyft driver limit. Meanwhile, in the Daily News, it’s Uber drivers vs. Uber moguls in the battle over that app-taxi cap.
  • In a related story, in the midst of a fiscal meltdown for yellow cab drivers, never let it be said that the de Blasio administration didn’t do the least it could do. (NYDN)
  • Gov. Cuomo’s battle with his own MTA is getting uglier now that he’s hired a prosecutor to dig deeper. (Politico)
  • Then again, maybe the governor has a point. Look at this brand new subway platform leaking already. (NY Post — byline by former Streetsblog vet David Meyer)
  • What, now pedestrians have to look both ways — and up? (NYDN)
  • City Journal looks at how scofflaw cops and firefighters make a mockery of the very notion of law enforcement (and cite’s Streetsblog’s own “S-cop-laws” investigation!).
  • Courtesy, professionalism, reject. (NY Post)
  • We think we can all agree that bike vigilante and former NHL enforcer Sean Avery is a hero (Page Six) — or anti-hero (Gothamist, featuring a great Marxist lede by Jake Offenhartz)
  • NY1 covered the city’s latest attempt to speed up buses.
  • TransAlt and other activists ordered pizza for State Sen. Liz Krueger — and had them delivered via illegal e-bike (amNY). The senator apparently opposes a state bill that would legalize the bikes and allow cities to regulate them — replacing the brutality of Mayor de Blasio’s arbitrary and capricious crackdown.
  • Residents of Tribeca think placard abuse is really crappy. Literally. (Tribeca Citizen)
  • And, finally, Bike New York posted an epic Twitter thread about how far the bike network has come — and how way way way further it needs to go.

  • Larry Littlefield

    What Cuomo actually as to hire someone to do is forensic engineering. And identify all the signal, rail, and subway car parts that would have been replaced under the engineering replacement schedule, and those that actually were under the budget cut replacement schedule, from 2011 to 2014.

    And then go out, with no advance notice, open up the equipment and check a sample of the serial numbers on those parts.

    1) Did the workers not replace some of those parts, like in the old days? The sample should be big enough to identify particular locations where that might have happened.

    2) Or did the workers do what they were supposed to do, but the parts failed?

    3) Or was the entire meltdown caused by the cutback in scheduled maintenance, despite the fact that MTA budget documents don’t show that big a cutback in maintenance staff?

    You have to hope and pray it’s number 3 on the subway, because otherwise we’re back to the bad old days. But the way to bet would be on number 1 for the LIRR, where the bad old days never left. In any event, we need to know.

  • Larry Littlefield

    And by the way, the reason Cuomo needs a prosecutor is because the generations that were allowed to commit overtime fraud and spike their pensions have not retired, and it is time to allow the transit system to collapse and crack down on those to follow to pay for it.

    Is overtime abuse any more unjust for the rest of the people than this deal Cuomo signed?

    https://disqus.com/by/nys-sso-fcd593dd5004ac5144cac5082013c721/

  • AMH

    The media still confuse President Byford of NYCT with the MTA Chair rather than explain the difference. NY1 identified him as “MTA CEO Andy Byford”.

  • Larry Littlefield

    Pretty poor. Again, when there are abuses on the LIRR, it’s “the MTA.”

  • alvera

    Only one yr earlier I made a decision to give up my old job and I am very thrilled at present…. I started doing business on-line, for a business I noticed over the internet, only a few hour or so everyday, and I receive even more than I actually did on my office workplace job… My pay-check for prior thirty days was 9,000 $… The most advantageous thing on this is the additional free moments I managed to get for my family…and that the single requirement for this task is simple typing and access to broadband… I am also capable to devote quality time with my family members or good friends and also take good care of my little kids and also going on holiday break with them very consistently. Don’t skip this chance and make sure to act quick. Take a look, what it’s about… xnarecipe.and-you.de

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