Thursday’s Headlines: Happy New Year Edition

Happy New Year, Friends of Streetsblog. We look forward to another year of bringing you the hottest livable streets coverage — and want to thank our readers for their generosity during our December donation drive, when we raised more than $82,000 (including a gift from our headline sponsor, Dutch Kills Centraal, a great place for a meal and a local craft brew in convenient Long Island City).

We promise to put your donations to good use, starting ... right now, with today's headlines:

• The Times did a deep dive on the rise in road fatalities this year, the first time that deaths went up in the Vision Zero era. The story never really answered its question-mark headline, but kudos to reporter Emma Fitzsimmons for not absolving drivers for the singular role they play in last year's carnage, a refreshing break from months of pro-car, anti-safety coverage in the Times.
• The top Republican in the state Assembly was busted for drunk-driving his massive GMC Acadia update on New Year's Eve. (Patch, NY Post)
• Cars make people crazy. (NYDN)
• The MTA's $51-billion capital plan was approved, without any oversight by the mayor's office, which blinked first the latest tete-a-tete with Gov. Cuomo (NY Post). Politico's Dana Rubinstein saw that coming earlier in the week.
• On the plus side, the mayor did get his big ask from the governor, who approved the city's ability to do "design-build" projects. (NYDN)
• The Tabloid of Record is covering the Pulaski Bridge pedestrian path like it's Watergate, this time with newcomer Vin Barone handling the update.
• Finally, New York City Transit President Andy Byford has embraced the nickname Train Daddy (NY Post). Can the ire of Gov. Cuomo be far behind?