You didn't need Clayton Guse of the New York Daily Newsuh to tell you that Citi Bike hasn't rolled deep into communities of color. You only had to look at the map to know that.
But that said, Guse's piece was important because it reminds us anew that "the bike-sharing network neglects many of New York’s low-income neighborhoods and communities of color while giving priority to the most well-to-do parts of the city." And Guse wisely pointed out that Citi Bike's bias towards rich neighborhoods is a legacy of the original sin of bike share: unlike every other form of public transit, the city does not put any public money into the system, forcing Citi Bike to make a profit.
Indeed, would the MTA's Bronx bus map have all those multi-colored lines all over it if the agency was forced to make a profit?
NY1 and WPIX11 also focused on the obvious angle, but Streetsblog spun the story forward, looking at how Citi Bike could achieve its long-promised equity — not that there is unanimity about how to get there.
And if that's not enough, here's the rest of yesterday's news:
- Sure, the private sanitation truck blew through the red light, but why was the city street sweeper making a U-turn? (NYDN, with a great lede by Thomas Tracy, NY Post)
- The Daily News followed Wednesday's Post scoop with more details of MTA graft and corruption. But the Post's David Meyer also had a bite — or two or three— more at that wormy apple.
- John Raskin, who founded the Riders Alliance and turned it into a powerhouse advocacy group for beleaguered straphangers, is moving on. No word yet on where he's going, but given Raskin's successes over the years, Gov. Cuomo should pay him six figures and hide him in a back office just to shut him up! (NYDN)
- One measly car-free block. One block. (amNY)
- Three cheers for a construction foreman or forewoman who gets it! (Reddit)
- In case you hadn't heard (our invite must have gotten "lost" in the "mail"), but WNYC and Gothamist's "We the Commuters" series is hosting a fun, jam-packed night of comedy and transportation talk tonight at 7 in SoHo. Details are here.
- A Queens community board did that Queens community board thing, voting down a bus lane because it would have repurposed some curbside space that drivers seem to believe exists for the storage of their private vehicles (Daniel Coates via Twitter)
- New York City's speed camera systems will gradually expand to 750 school zones by next year, but the big news is that starting today, the cameras will operate not just during school hours, but from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. every day (ABC7). City officials will mark the life-saving, recklessness-curbing occasion with a presser in the Bronx.
- And, finally, Mayor de Blasio has no public schedule today, but Speaker Corey Johnson will throw out the first pitch at the Brooklyn Cyclones game tonight in Coney.
