Friday’s Headlines: Bread and Circuses Edition

After weeks of questions about his corona-inspired bread baking, our grizzled editor put his dough where the mayor’s mouth is and bike-delivered a fresh sourdough boule to Hizzoner at a sadly empty City Hall yesterday.

The socially responsible handoff was captured by mayoral spokeswoman Freddi Goldstein:

We chatted off the record with Hizzoner for a while, but the mayor was definitely on the record about one thing: That’s a good sourdough. We trust he’ll be mentioning the luscious loaf during his morning press conference today (and if not, we’ll remind the mayor that we have pictures of him tearing into that bread like it was his last meal).

Until then, here’s yesterday’s news today:

• There was a lot of coverage of the Council’s bill to — again! — force the mayor to create open space, this time for restaurants. The Times managed to make Nassau County’s chief executive look more visionary than ours. The Post played it straight (and also focused on Chicago’s effort). Bklyner, Streetsblog and the Daily News played up the discontent of restaurateurs at the mayor’s deliberate pace. And the Brooklyn Paper found a restaurateur who’s pissed off because the bill requires the city to find the spaces. But nothing beat Eater for channeling Streetsblog’s coverage yesterday with this headline, “City Council Introduces Outdoor Dining Bill Following Complaints of Mayor’s Sloth Pace.”
• Speaking of pace, Gothamist and The Post were alarmed that the mayor still doesn’t have a plan for the expected increase in car traffic. Streetsblog, of course, also posted on the issue, spotlighting advocates’ call for dedicated bus lanes now (amNY did that, too).
• The City’s Greg Smith had a good scoop about how the MTA’s disinfectant may not be disinfecting so well.
• The Conversation reminded urban planners that not all cyclists are riding in the neighborhoods where urban planners put bike lanes.
• Gov. Cuomo won’t let Mayor de Blasio’s two MTA board appointees get their rubber-stamp from the state legislature, tightening the Big Dog’s grip on an agency the city desperately needs to survive. (NYDN)
• It’s the end of the world as we know it: The Centers for Disease Control put out new guidelines yesterday that not only discourages commuters from taking transit, but recommending employers give works incentives to drive to work alone. (NYT). Maybe we should start calling this website “Streetsclog.”
• Why did this form of basic human decency take so long? (NY Post)
• Brooklyn Eagle legend Ranaan Geberer crunched the numbers on the bike surge.
• Our frenemy Council Member Joe Borelli of Staten Island complains that speed limits are too low on The Rock. We wonder what he’ll say about this driver, who injured four people, claiming his accelerator got stuck. Yeah, that happens when you’re going 60 MPH above the limit! (Advance)
• In case you missed it (we did!), Council Member Brad Lander penned his own plan to save transit (City Lab). We also forgot to tell you about Doug Gordon’s excellent “future of cities” story in the much-vaunted The New Republic.