It's bad enough that our old man editor had to go to the suburbs yesterday — a cyclist expects to be treated like garbage in the supposedly family friendly Disney zone surrounding Gotham — but it's inexcusible that there's no place to park a bike at Grand Central Terminal.
As the pictures at the top of this story show, there are plenty of people who want bike parking at the landmark.
But instead of friendly Complete Streets, we get a line of waiting taxis and bollards as far as the eye can see (below left). Oh, and what's this (below right)? A perfect place for bike parking ... just sitting there on the western side of the station.
We got a lot of support on Twitter for our pictures, but didn't hear from anyone at DOT or the Grand Central Partnership. Maybe today. Until then, here's the news:
- Wow, the city's Trumpist cops declared "war" on Mayor "DeBlasio" over his apparent lack of support for cops (SBA via Twitter). This is a terrible look for police, who are supposed to take their orders from the mayor and who are supposed to protect and serve the people who elected him.
- The Times's Christina Goldbaum did a masterful job of properly portraying Brad Lander's Reckless Driver Accountability Act as a win for safer streets with only a tiny nod to the car lobby with a random quote from a random four-wheeling yahoo from Far Rockaway and one from the toxic "National Motorists Association" in an otherwise commanding story.
- Check out our own Dave Colon interviewing TransAlt's Chelsea Yamada about Canal Street on Racket Media.
- Like the proverbial broken clock, car-loving Staten Island Advance columnist Tom Wrobleski is right: It's nice to talk about closing the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, but it only works if it includes a "massive commitment" to public transit.
- Exhibit A: Gateway tunnel. (NYDN)
- We haven't seen anything in the News or the Post, but amNY wisely followed our story about a seemingly minor rewording of the city's double-parking rules that may make a big difference.
- The City Council's women's caucus wants Manhattan DA Cyrus Vance to resign because of his apparent mishandling of sexual assault cases. We've also criticized him for the kid gloves he suddenly dons for prosecututing reckless drivers. (Gothamist)
- Gothamist followed the Village Sun's coverage of Arthur Schwartz's lawsuit against the city over its plans for saving the Lower East Side from flooding.
- Actor Orson Bean, an icon of our old man editor's childhood, but someone we loved in "Being John Malkovich," was killed by two drivers in Los Angeles on Friday night. Local media in LA didn't seem very concerned about the manner of the death (all the editor's drive cars, no doubt), but if you read between the lines, it is clear that the city-loving Bean was betrayed by the car-centric streets of the City of Angels. Shame. (LA Times)
- And finally, City Council Member Brad Lander took to Twitter to defend his less-ambitious, but still important Reckless Driver Accountability Act, which is expected to pass on Tuesday. (Brad Lander via Twitter)
