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Thursday’s Headlines: Andrew Cuomo, Dinosaur Edition

12:01 AM EST on March 4, 2021

The governor loves cars. Photo: Kevin P. Coughlin/Office of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo

Yesterday, the Andrew Cuomo Less-Than-Total-Contrition Tour did another round, in the form of an Albany presser in which the governor refused to resign in the face of calls that he do so because of the sexual-harassment scandal engulfing his administration.

Cuomo "apologized" to two female former government employees who said that he had pulled moves on them, hemming and hawing that he feels "terrible" and "embarrassed" that the young women perceived his remarks as predatory and insisting that he "never ever meant" anything inappropriate by them. As for a third woman who was aghast that he grabbed and kissed her face at a wedding, he said, "you can go find hundreds of pictures of me kissing people, men, women," which, he explained, "was my father’s way of greeting people."

We'll see if it all flies.

Still, Cuomo acknowledged an uncomfortable truth for a guy his age (63): He may be the most powerful man in New York, but he's behind the times.

"I understand that sensitivities have changed and behavior has changed and I get it. And I’m going to learn from it," he told reporters.

Count us as skeptical. We may have a one-track mind, but we'll believe that Big Dog Excelsior Car Guy really "gets" that it's not Mario Cuomo's New York when he ... ditches the muscle cars. Because if there's one area in which "sensitivities have changed and behavior has changed" and, not to forget, climate has changed, it is that this state needs to jettison the dominant car culture, stat. So you want to be a progressive, governor? Fess up to the harassment and bullying of women and subordinates more generally. And, for our part, we'd ask you to mothball the Trans Ams, which many New Yorkers of your generation (perhaps you, too?) remember as sex aids.

In other news:

    • You know it's a slow news day on the transportation beat when The Post's David Meyer is writing about an Albany law. Guse of the Newsuh took a different angle on the same story, which was about penalizing subway spitters.
    • Is this why we needed all those new subway cops? Police arrested a man who used keys to beat fares. (NYDN)
    • Streetsblog and amNY wrote up Mayor de Blasio's call for expanding the NYPD's crash investigation squad.
    • Ted Cruz, of all losers, put Polly Trottenberg on the hot seat in a Senate hearing yesterday. (NYDN)
    • The Department of Transportation will revamp a dangerous Prospect Park traffic circle. (Bklyner)
    • And, finally, the DOT is proposing some relief for cyclists coming off the hairpin turn on the Manhattan side of the Queensboro Bridge (via Twitter)

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