And so ends a pointless, completely destructive experiment in pleasing Andrew Cuomo.
On Monday, the governor who says he doesn't run the MTA was nonetheless the one to announce that full, 24-7 service would return to the New York City subway system for the first time in a year. And he did so in outrageous fashion — telling riders that he wouldn't be caught dead on the subway because it's so crime-ridden and filthy.
We were sitting around the virtual Streetsblog newsroom discussing whether we needed to do a story or merely summarize everyone else's stories, when transit reporter Dave Colon reminded our old man editor (who is really slowing down lately) of two things: the 12-month shutdown revealed so much of what is truly contemptible in Cuomo's personality and that any coverage of the year-long subway shutdown would naturally conclude like this scene from "Burn After Reading."
In the end, Colon offered his own analysis here, which might be the first of the coming tidal wave of "Lame Duck Cuomo" stories.
Everyone (well, almost everyone) covered the full service restoration, too:
- The Post played up the governor's contention that no one should ride the subway because it's too dangerous. The Tabloid of Record also played the main news straight.
- The Daily News played it so straight that it was almost creepy.
- amNY also played it straight. And Mark Hallum also added in a second story about the mayor's belief that the subway is safe.
- Gothamist also covered.
- The Times buried the news in a coronavirus blog post.
- The Wall Street Journal featured some nice shade on Cuomo from the mayor's press office.
In other news:
- We don't understand what this headline in the Daily News means (bus lanes — love 'em or hate 'em? Um, doesn't anyone at New York's Hometown Paper ride the bus?), but we enjoyed Clayton Guse's interview with mayoral hopeful Kathryn Garcia.
- A cop reportedly rushing to a report of a gun crashed his squad SUV into a cab and ended up seriously injuring a woman waiting for a bus on Staten Island. (NY Post)
- The Post had more on the 62-year-old woman who was run down by the teenage driver on Staten Island. But for the second straight day, the paper that obviously knows how to run the plates on drivers when it wants to embarrass Brad Lander, failed to run the plates on this reckless teen: Turns out, he has a speeding ticket on his record, from June 25 ... a few blocks from the crash site.
- We appreciated Charles Passy's big takeout on the construction of Legoland in upstate Goshen, but for our taste, the really really underplayed the Route 17 boondoggle, which our own Eve Kessler wrote about earlier this year. (WSJ)
- The Atlantic ran a first-person piece by a man who has been in two serious car crashes — and is now exploring the lingering effects of millions of crashes on our nation's collective psyche.
- In case you missed it, The City had a great story about the need for more subway bathrooms.
- The term "the Big Apple" turned 100. (NYDN)
- And, finally, today is Jane Jacobs's birthday. Why not celebrate the late urban planner's life with a virtual lecture by her biographer, Glenna Lang, at 6:30 p.m.? Register here.
