We'll have a mostly nice day today before whatever's left of Hurricane Isaias slams into us on Tuesday, so let's take a few minutes to go over the busy weekend of stories you might have missed while you were socially distancing from your beloved Streetsblog over the weekend:
- A woman was run over and killed by a hit-and-run driver in Chelsea. The victim, Maria Christina Villacres, had just gotten off her shift at a Manhattan Whole Foods (NYDN, NY Post, Gothamist)
- The Times's Christina Goldbaum helps dismantle the myth that the subway is a COVID-filled Petri dish.
- Get this: A basket that the MTA installed at an elevated subway station to catch debris falling off the subway itself became debris falling off the subway. (NYDN, NY Post)
- Shame on the Wall Street Journal for completely letting drivers off the hook for crashing into the new curbside dining areas. Worse, the New York-based paper had to go to Florida to find an "expert" who spoke gibberish: “It doesn’t surprise me that there have been accidents,” said traffic safety "expert" Beau Biller, using a word — accident suggests drivers don't have control over the situation. “All of a sudden, there’s something in the roadway with no warning. That’s going to be a problem." (Fact check: That "something" isn't in the roadway — it's in parking lane.)
- The Department of Education is making some moves to find buses to get kids to school safely, but the Post reports that the school reopening plan sent Friday to state officials is asking families "wherever possible," to drive their kids to school themselves — the latest element of a carmageddon that the de Blasio administration isn't stopping.
- Sure, no one likes a restaurant that takes up too much sidewalk space, but the Post's coverage of a minor conflict on Central Park South reminds us again how pedestrians and eateries are quarreling over crumbs while cars still get way too much space (after all, the photos illustrating the article show that there's plenty of asphalt real estate that could accommodate diners and strollers).
- In case you missed it, Larissa Ortiz, a city planning commissioner, opined in City Limits that she's nervous about the future of our city. "This is the time to make bold moves," she wrote, though we're not sure Mayor de Blasio is listening.
- Speaking of which, Streetsblog broke the news that the city was delaying the Flushing busway, announced with much fanfare in June, but delayed twice now.
- City Journal offered a think piece on cycling.
- And finally, things are looking great or terrible for baseball fans in New York, depending on where your allegiances lie.
