If you missed this weekend's transformation of the Meatpacking District into a flower-filled, Barcelona-style, car-free superblock, you missed something special.
But fortunately Clarence Eckerson of Streetfilms was there, capturing the fun and, more important, the historic context of how one of the city's true car sewers — Ninth Avenue — made the transition to true public amenity. It's all in his brief Streetfilm here:
In other news:
- The Post did an incomprehensibly bad job with its story about the supposed threat of e-bikes, not the least of which because it equated e-bikes with Vespa-style scooters. The paper also reported that e-bike fatalities are way up (233 percent!) without also reporting that the rise in deaths (from six to 20) occurred after e-bikes were made legal, leading to a massive surge in e-bike use. Two pedestrians have been killed this year by e-bike or scooter riders — while 56 were killed by car drivers, so it would be nice if the paper followed the real story.
- In case you missed it, the rezoning of Willets Point is moving ahead. (Astoria Post)
- The MTA at least is cracking down on fake temporary license plates (NY Post), which we reported on a while back.
- An unlicensed driver killed a Lyft driver in a crash early Sunday in Queens, cops said (NYDN). Also in the borough, another driver was killed by a reckless motorist (NYDN). The Post and amNY did them as one story.
- The NYPD has abandoned its 10 p.m. weekend curfew in Washington Square Park (NY Post).
- Uber and Lyft may be pricing themselves out of the cab game. (NY Times)
- Kevin Duggan of amNY followed the story about the mayor's $40-million plan to redesign McGuinness Boulevard.
- Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (who represents an island that will be reclaimed by the sea if global warming is not stopped) is the latest short-sighted pol trying to make sure Staten Islanders don't have to pay the congestion pricing fee (even though Staten Islanders will benefit from the transit funds created by the toll). (NY Post)
- And, finally, we don't really cover raccoons, but this is the best animal-related news photo of the year. (NYDN)
