Monday, May 17: the day stranded essential workers and boozy journalists have been waiting for for months — full 24-7 service has returned to the Cuomo Conveyor (doing business as the New York City subway system).
MTA officials were all over the press on Sunday and they released a slick video aimed at getting people back onto transit — countering a message they have been pounding into riders for more than a year, namely, that the subway is unsafe because Mayor de Blasio isn't doing enough (and would-be mayors Dianne Morales, Maya Wiley and Scott Stringer won't do enough either). (On Friday, MTA CEO Pat Foye held a press conference with TWU leader Tony Utano, who said that de Blasio had "blood on his hands" for not filling the subway with cops, as Gothamist reported. And in a pre-taped interview, New York City Transit President Sarah Feinberg was still on the de-Blasio bashing bus, as the Post reported)
On Sunday, at least, officials played mostly nice. (NY Post, amNY) And they released a silent montage video for the #TakeTheTrain campaign. Ridership is still a third of what it was pre-pandemic, but at least for a day, Foye and Feinberg weren't telling people the subway system is a crime-ridden tube of hell.
In other news from a slow day:
- Just as we declined to quibble when the New York Times endorsed Kathryn Garcia, we will again not dispute the logic with which the Daily News similarly picked the former Sanitation Commissioner for mayor, but we do take exception at New York's Hometown Paper for its short-shrift dig at Dianne Morales, Maya Wiley and Scott Stringer (surprise! The only three progressives in the race). Pretty much everything the Daily News writes these days about the future of the city can be translated into "cops cops cops, cops cops, and cops cops cops cops." (Then again, maybe Morales, Wiley and Stringer are out of step with the public, if the results of a new poll are any indication, as the Post reported.)
- A man was killed by a driver as he ran across the Grand Central Parkway. (NY Post)
- Newsday's Jesse Coburn co-authored an investigation into how few drivers are ever charged for killing cyclists and pedestrians on Long Island. Coburn is obviously an emerging talent, and we'll keep our eye on him.
- Remember James Huang, the kid who rode up Bear Mountain on a Citi Bike? Well, now he has a real bike to continue training for triathlons, thanks to a Park Slope filmmaker. (NY Post)
- And, finally, Transportation Alternative activists and locals gathered on Hylan Boulevard to celebrate the reduction in speed limit on Staten Island's dangerous spine, and call for additional safety measures. Here they are at Bay Street
