Well, it's happened. Someone has gotten a tattoo of our reporter Dave Colon on his leg.
The saga began early in the pandemic last year when former Brooklyn Paper reporter Noah Hurowitz vowed to get a tattoo of a New York icon once COVID restrictions were lifted — a way to show support for his beloved city. Readers and friends suggested that our beloved scribe and Citi Field cycling advocate was the only New York icon worthy of permanent placement on a calf. One GoFundMe page later, and hundreds of dollars rolled in.
The problem: Raising money so a self-described "local idiot" can get a tattoo of another reporter is not a good look during a pandemic. So Colon and Hurowitz donated the money to the Homeless Can’t Stay Home campaign, which provided rooms for homeless individuals in hotels, rather than in shelters.
But Hurowitz pressed on with his pledge (as you can see from the photo at the top of this page).
“I feel nary a drop of regret,” Hurowitz said last year when he proposed the leg Colonic. “Dave Colon is the heart of this city.”
For his part, Colon had no regrets about the role he played in getting tattooed above Hurowitz's tendons.
“We owned Noah straight to hell," he said. "Promises made, promises kept.”
In other news:
- ProPublica once again raised the bar with its story about how the NYPD shielded itself from investigations by the office created to investigate problems in policing.
- Lots of outlets covered Andrew Yang and Eric Adams's kerfuffle over placard abuse. Yang opposes it. Adams commits it (Streetsblog, Politico, NY Post, Brooklyn Paper). Meanwhile, the usually dead-on NY Magazine was sneering and condescending about Yang's foray into the "less than pressing" issue of placard abuse. Um, sorry, but corruption starts somewhere ... and it's here.
- In other Adams news, it really doesn't look like the former cop is going to be a police reformer. (NYDN)
- Here's something to worry about: If big firms allow workers to work from home one or two days a week, it will completely throw off the calculations commuters make before buying monthly transit passes on the LIRR, Metro-North or the subways and buses. That could mean a lot of people using their car rather than pulling out a pay-per-ride MetroCard. This is the coming budget crisis and car crisis. (NYDN)
- Mayoral candidate Dianne Morales tweeted her condolences after hearing about the death of Harold Dixon of Dixon's bike shop. (Morales via Twitter)
- Annie Weinstock and Walter Hook's Reorientations blog points out that the MTA needs to beef up transit service into the future congestion pricing zone before the central business tolling begins — that way, people will see better transit service as a direct result of the new revenue.
- Gothamist was a day late on the e-scooter share announcement on Wednesday, but the story was solid.
- In case you missed it, the Daily News did a great investigation of the driving records of Yankee players and executives down at the spring training facility in Florida. In a related story, there are thousands of New York City cops who — right now — are racking up serious moving violations at rates that are twice that of the general population, as Streetsblog has relentlessly reported. But New York's Hometown Paper hasn't covered that local scandal.
- A Queens judge dismissed a case against a Bronx prosecutor who drunkely crashed her car into a line of other cars in Astoria in 2019. Makes you wonder — what the fuck? (Queens Eagle)
- People have long complained about the car dealerships in Bay Ridge treating the sidewalks like their parking lot. Well, yesterday, a driver pulled a new car off the lot at Bay Ridge Volkswagen ... and killed a pedestrian. (NYDN)
- Funny how the business owners in the Belmont section of The Bronx were so nervous about open streets when the pandemic started. Well, Piazza di Belmont is back for another year. (6SqFt)
- It was a busy week for former federal transit man Larry Penner. He wrote a blistering critique of Elizabeth Crowley's plans for a Queens light rail system in the Queens Eagle, and he also took down Gov. Cuomo's Empire Station Complex plan in This Island Now.
- The Daily News had incredible video of a shooting, an attempted escape on a bike, and a driver who rammed the alleged shooter (twice!) wit his car.
- And, finally, we kinda glossed over Wednesday's Riders Alliance protest in front of Gracie Mansion (where activists painted a mini bus lane to get the mayor to do more), but Clarence Eckerson Jr.'s coverage for Streetfilms reminded us that every bus caught in traffic is dozens or scores of delayed bus riders caught behind single individuals who have chosen the most selfish manner of getting around. Watch the film here:
Bus Turnaround Coalition Paints Bus Lane in front of Gracie Mansion! from STREETFILMS on Vimeo.
