NYPD Transportation Chief Kim Royster apparently doesn't have enough to do at the bureau.
Even though the cops have written 10 percent fewer moving-violation tickets under this mayor than under the previous one, and even though road violence has claimed more New Yorkers so far this year than in any other of the de Blasio administration, Royster (a one-time NYPD spokeswoman and its first Black female chief) is back flacking for the department.
Her new gig? Podcaster. She's the host of the new NYPD/iHeart Media "Color of the Day" podcast, which aims "to deliver lively, thoughtful, and authentic conversations with leaders around the country."
For her first installment of "Color of the Day," Royster interviewed Florida Rep. Val Demings, a former Orlando police chief who is frequently mentioned for higher office. Demings expounded on, among other things, "authentic leadership" and the lessons of sainted civil-rights leaders the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and John Lewis. She delivered her standard stump speech, bromides about caring and inspirational rifts such as this:
Royster asked Demings, "You’ve coined the phrase, ‘Never tire.’ What does, 'Never tire,’ mean?"
Demings replied: “You know, and I am so inspired by John Lewis, 17 years old when he first got involved in the Civil Rights movement. Dr. King was 26 years old. Let’s think about all that Dr. King has done in his lifetime. He died at the age of 39. And so, young people have always been involved in helping to make this nation a great nation. They’ve always been out there doing what they could, whether using their voices, or their feet, their influence. ...And so, the joy of it all is that it’s so good to see that young people are still the wind beneath our wings. 'Never tire,’ means that we still have so much work to do if we’re going to become that more perfect union.”
Ah yes, "that more perfect union." But wasn't it only on Monday that the Civilian Complaint Review Board recommended disciplining 65 NYPD officers for brutality against those same young people during the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests? And isn't it the head of one of the NYPD's own unions who thinks that BLM is more dangerous to said union than the Jan. 6 insurrectionists?
Rather than making happy talk about Lewis and King, maybe Royster and Demings could have discussed those pressing current events in pursuit of a more perfect union?
In other news:
- Poor Rick Cotton. The executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey had to report to its board yesterday, and he looked as if he had sucked a lemon. It was the first meeting since Gov. Hochul slammed the brakes on the little-loved LaGuardia AirTrain, and Cotton had to explain to the public and the press just what the authority was doing, if anything, to find alternatives to the boondoggle people mover. Cotton intoned monotonously that PANYNJ had already begun "planning a review" of alternatives for presentation to the governor, and that the review would happen "expeditiously" and would be thorough and careful. Moreover, "outside experts" and stakeholders would help guide the review — the morsel with which amNY led its report of the meeting.
- Months after it emerged as an issue, the Times finally hears all those choppers destroying the peace.
- Amtrak is bringing back the dining car. Hooray! (Eater)
- The Department of Transportation hailed the completion of the Northern Boulevard bike lane and its self-congratulatory bike study. (Sunnyside Post)
- The Post's Morgan Grenz and Julia Marsh had the unappetizing task of covering the Curtis Sliwa anti-bike-lane presser. Uh, Curtis, we don’t turn parks into roadways in the winter when they’re not widely used. Some space is set aside for people to use for reasons that go beyond only their immediate use of it. We have monuments, too, even though people don’t visit them every minute.
- SEE IT: Some drivers will do anything to resist arrest. (NYDN)
- The state trooper who is being investigated for killing a girl during a high-speed Thruway chase last year allegedly used his vehicle as a battering ram two more times, according to Hochul. (NYDN)
- In 14 years, the entire school-bus fleet must be electric, says the City Council (amNY)
- CityLab previewed the streetscape-improvement plan of the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership.
- A Metro-North engineer rescued a red-tailed hawk from the tracks. (Stamford Advocate)
- Early voting begins tomorrow. Find your poll here.
- Don't forget to donate to the GoFundMe page for the family of the late Jose Ramos, the deaf man killed by a motorist last week on Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn.
