Friday’s Headlines: Corey Tells It Like It Is Edition

They say a gaffe is when a politician says something honest. But New York has another version: A transcendent moment is when a politician says something honest — and the New York Post tries to spin it as a gaffe.

We’ve seen that before with Cuozzo defending killer drivers and arguing that cycling is destroying the city.

But the latest example came on Thursday, when Council Speaker Corey Johnson spoke the truth — New York City has way too much free parking, which enables way too much driving, which destroys the livability of the city itself — and the Post said he had just destroyed his mayoral prospects.

It’s a classic move by the Tabloid of Record. Except one thing: Johnson is right. “We need to break the car culture,” he said in response to an entitled Village resident complaining about how hard it is to find free parking. “It is choking our streets. It is literally killing people. And that means we need to prioritize pedestrians and cyclists and mass transit over private automobile use.”

Good for Johnson for speaking truth to power the conservative elite of the city. But will the rest of the mainstream media cave before Rupert Murdoch’s minions — or will we have the courage to say, “Wait a second, that Johnson guy is right”? It’s up to you, New York, New York.

As you ponder that, here’s the rest of the news:

• You have to watch this video of a man almost getting killed by a flood in the Court Square station. (NYDN, NY Post)
• Confused about the MTA reorganization. Emma Fitzsimmons has the primer you’ve been waiting for. (NY Times)
• If you really want to know about the confirmation hearing of the Mayor’s new TLC commissioner, there’s no better copy than Vin Barone’s at amNY. Actually, David Meyer’s story in the Post was good, too.
• Like Streetsblog, Gothamist can’t get an answer on when or if Mayor de Blasio will restore the protected bike lane on Dyckman Street, which he removed last year.
• Christopher Robbins offers a cycling etiquette guide that is totally on fleek. (Gothamist)
• We’ve been enjoying Robert Sietsema’s food reviews and obscure finds for years, so we were crestfallen to hear that this stalwart two-wheelin’ culinary anthropologist was injured in a crash with a car — and that he might give up his bike entirely. (Eater)
• In case you missed it, City & State joined the chorus of outlets realizing that the NYPD has a cultural bias against cyclists.