Wednesday’s Headlines: It’s Sort of Unfare Edition

The big news on Tuesday was the announcement that fare collection on the city’s MTA buses would return on Aug. 31.

As most outlets (NYDN, NY Post, WSJ, amNY) pointed out, the return of fares is a double-edged sword: Obviously, collecting fares helps the cash-strapped MTA stop losing $30 million per month, but charging essential workers to ride the bus in bad economic times feels icky.

Gothamist played up the notion that New York should start debating whether to just stop collecting fares and financing transit in a more equitable way (hear, hear!).

In other news:

• The Times finally woke up to one of the major inconveniences for cyclists: Where to store their bike. Yet the Paper of Record has still not looked at how drivers inconvenience the rest of us with their car storage.
• Our own Julianne Cuba broke a story about some safety changes coming to Revel scooters that was later followed by the Post’s gracious David Meyer.
• The Post says the city is being overrun by rats, which may be true, but neither the Tabloid of Record nor Gothamist pointed out that the mayor’s driver-friendly changes to alternate-side-of-the-street parking certainly played a role.
• The Independent Budget Office has debunked the myth that Mayor de Blasio and City Council Speaker Corey Johnson cut $1 billion from the NYPD budget. (amNY)
• And, finally, journalist Aaron Gordon is signed, sealed and delivered for his new, vitally needed new project on the Postal Service.