So NYPD Commissioner James O'Neill resigned yesterday. We'll leave it to others (NYDN, NY Post, NY Times) to assess his place in the history of New York's crimefighters, but the Streetsblog crowd will always remember O'Neill as the guy who didn't care about placard abuse by his own rank-and-file, didn't want to expand the squad that investigates fatal crashes, didn't crack down on cops' reckless driving, didn't sufficiently crack down on other reckless drivers either, and was completely fine with abuse of cyclists by his own rank-and-file.
Oh, and he cracked down on teenagers without bells on their bikes even though he cycled around without a bell on his bike.
We haven't had many chats with the incoming commissioner, Chief of Detectives Dermot Shea (NYDN, NY Post, NY Times, WSJ, which pointed out Shea lives in Manhattan), but as far as we can see, the only top NYPD commander who has said anything reasonably sane about bicyclists in the last year or so has been Chief of Department Terence Monahan, who was apparently the driving force behind the decision to stop ticketing cyclists after a cyclist was killed by a driver.
We'll try to get more from Shea today, but until then, here's the news:
- Gothamist scooped our ass on our own damn story — the construction to restore the protected bike lane on Dyckman Street in Inwood. It's coming along nicely, albeit slowly.
- We mentioned all the taxis that were ferrying around Board of Election workers last week, but the Post went and figured it out — and it really looks bad.
- Is this how you make America great? The Trump administration is considering major changes to the nation's national parks (which are only our country's crown jewel as long as we, you know, keep them that way). (LA Times)
- Once again, the Times Metropolitan Diary leads with more "aren't cars fun?" garbage.
- Meanwhile, here's some depressing news: The transportation sector is now the biggest contributor to greenhouse gasses — yet none of the Democratic candidates is really talking about it (gee, wonder why). (Huff Post)
- The MTA unveiled a new Avenue A entrance to the First Avenue L train stop, which is nice. (amNY)
- Why does it take a state bill to get the Sanitation Department to stop parking its garbage trucks overnight on residential streets? (The Villager)
