We're still in our December Donation Drive, so it would be wrong to open the daily headlines without a) reminding you about said donation drive and b) honoring the kind and generous (and great looking!) people who donated in the last 24 hours. So here's some heart-felt thanks to you, Ryan, Choresh, Carla, Jonathan, Justin and Michael!
And the rest of you, we hope we've earned your support for another year. In case you need a refresher on what we've done so far in 2021, here's a summary. And one more promise: Your donations will never be used to redesign our website with pop-up ads or auto-play videos that annoy readers of the Daily News, amNY, the Post and even the Times. Not gonna happen on this site, people.
OK, onto the news!
- We were happy to see WNYC/Gothamist covering the start of the DOT's Dangerous Vehicle Abatement Program, but we broke the story here. (No link, no love, Gothamist?)
- Kudos to Guse at the Newsuh for looking humanistically at the rise in homeless people on the subway and not turning into a tabloid-style call for a crackdown.
- Outrage: Two NYPD officers whose chase of a motorcyclist led to the death of the rider and his girlfriend ended up taking a plea deal to retain their jobs as cops. They'll both end up losing only 20 days of vacation time. (NYDN)
- A street vendor was stabbed in a robbery. (NY Post)
- Former Staten Island Rep. Max Rose appears to be looking for a little help from his friend Gerry (you know, Gerry Mander). (NY Times)
- Credit where due: The DOT improved the lives of tens of thousands of bus riders in Soundview with new bus lanes. (Mass Transit)
- DoorDash is getting into the 15-minute grocery delivery business, which DoorDash claims will not lead to more deliveristas doing more work faster because the new DashCorps is different from restaurant delivery Dashers. Kirstyn Brendlen's story in amNY was quite comprehensive. Julianne Cuba's Streetsblog story focused, rightly, on the safety issues for workers ... and everyone else.
- We were also happy to see the Times cover what appears to be a good project to "daylight" the long-buried Tibbetts Brook, but were disappointed that the paper didn't see the irony: The project will result in a greenway connecting Van Cortlandt Park and the Harlem River behind a Target, but that "greenway" is basically a narrow strip running alongside the Major Deegan Expressway ... itself an environmental problem about which the Times was mute. (Other than that, and the fact that the project has no funding yet.)
- From the Assignment Desk: On Tuesday night, Upper West Side Community Board 7 will take up a resolution calling for more regulation of legal e-bikes — a resolution (read it here) that our friends at StreetopiaUWS calls "baseless and discriminatory" and one that "will not increase public safety." (Wait 'til CB7 hears about cars!) Anyway, the action in the Zoom Zoom Room starts at 6:30 p.m. Sign up here.
- Council Member Laurie Cumbo revealed at a public meeting last night that DOT Commissioner Hank Gutman's father had died. We offer condolences to the commish and his family.
- And, finally, our friends at Transportation Alternatives put out a great thread on all the crucial bills that the City Council should pass before the majority of its members go into forced retirement on Dec. 31:
