You saw the gorgeous drone shots by Mingomatic that Gothamist posted, but Mayor de Blasio made it official yesterday in a surprise tweet: The "Black Lives Matter" mural on Fulton Street between New York and Brooklyn avenues in Bedford-Stuyvesant will get added respect by having the city pedestrianize the block for the entire summer.
The Post also covered, with the Daily News adding in a detail that Mayor de Blasio said the car ban would "make it easier for New Yorkers to continue the anti-police brutality demonstrations."
JUST IN: Fulton Street in Brooklyn will share the message that #BlackLivesMatter all summer long. We're making the block pedestrians-only and working with the MTA to coordinate nearby transit.https://t.co/WO0raIrJaq
— Mayor Eric Adams (@NYCMayor) June 15, 2020
That's a good move, though it created a minor headache for the barely notified MTA, which has rerouted the B25 onto Atlantic Avenue for a few blocks.
In other news:
- Those anti-brutality protests that the mayor spoke about are having increasing success. Over the weekend, the City Council put out a statement supporting a $1-billion cut in the NYPD's bloated $6-billion budget. And on Monday, NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea said he would disband the plainclothes "anti-crime" units operating inside each precinct because they have been involved in a “disproportionate” number of shootings and misconduct complaints (NYDN, NY Post, highlighting the connection to the killing of Eric Garner). The disbanding is a bit of a bait-and-switch: All 600 cops will retain their jobs (NY Times). In amNY, Shea's claim that this is a "seismic shift" in policing got the above-the-fold treatment.
- Meanwhile, two council members want to strip the NYPD of its oversight of school security guards. (NYDN)
- Now the MTA has pulled all its pricey R179 trains. (NY Post)
- The MTA got some more bad news: The agency's inspector general put out a report saying the MTA's $7.6-million effort to help the homeless was a waste of money because very few homeless people accepted services. (NY Post, amNY)
- Our post yesterday about how cops are stealing public space to wall themselves off from the public filled our inbox with tips: One reader told us that Midtown North precinct cops had put up barricades so she couldn't return her Citi Bike. Another told us the 76th Precinct in Brooklyn had stolen part of Union Street. Another complained of the same problem at the notorious 114th in Astoria. Maybe the Times Metro section will follow up this obvious story.
- Streetsblog NYC board member Gabe Klein has an op-ed in the Washington Post calling for cities to reckon with their racist pasts.
- And, finally, the Long Island City Post covered the sad demise of Dutch Kills Centraal, which sponsored these headlines for the last year.
