Let's start with the MTA: The agency was excited about its first ever press conference on moving trains — yesterday's "take the train to the game" confab aboard a 7 train and a LIRR train bound for Citi Field, home of the soon-to-be-World Champion Heartbroken Runner-Up New York Mets.
Our own Dave Colon was the pool reporter for the press conference, which wasn't very newsy, except for Colon's pool report, which was extremely colorful (right down to his footwear). Colon's most subversive act? He closed the official MTA pool report with a bit of Streetsblog/"Bike to the Mets" activism: "Although the train is the best way to get to Citi Field, there's still a need for safe bike routes to get two-wheeled fans to the game."
In other Streetsblog news, our parent company, Open Plans, commissioned a survey from the reputable pollster Data for Progress that revealed (among many things still to come) that a vast majority of the public supports the return of 24-7 service on the subway system.
The results were overwhelming, with 67 percent calling for full service to return. Here’s how that breaks down:
- 48 percent said they “strongly agree.”
- 19 percent said they “somewhat agree.”
- Only 11 percent said they don’t want the 24-7 subway to return, with just 3 percent voicing strong opposition.
Here's the fancy Data for Progress chart on that:
We sent the poll out to our friends in the media. And our friends — amNY and Bklyner — covered the public's clear preference for a subway that never sleeps in the city that never sleeps.
What a day. And the Mets won (a cheapie, but we'll take it)!
In other news:
- Lots of outlets covered the crash that killed a 97-year-old man in Brighton Beach man on Wednesday (Bklyner, NYDN, NY Post). Our coverage pointed out that victim Volf Ferdman was a Soviet war hero — and that the driver totally should have been charged with at least failure to exercise due care.
- Gothamist did a second day on the police union's unproven assertion that villains are targeting cops because of their placards.
- Three Brooklyn pols are calling for a third Downtown busway for the borough — this one on Livingston Street. (NYDN)
- And from the assignment desk: Today is going to be a big day for suburbanites who don't want to contribute to mitigating the societal cost of all the driving they do: Two New Jersey congressmen — Democrats Bill Pascrell, Jr. and Josh Gottheimer — will have a presser in Fort Lee to, as they put it in a press release, "to fight back against the proposed New York City congestion taxes that would target hardworking New Jersey families driving into Manhattan."