Remember Charon, the ferryman who carries the dead over the River Styx? That's who we feel like in the Streetsblog newsroom this week — transporting this dead week to the dustbin of history where it belongs. We'll be cranking out some top-notch copy this week — catch Dave Colon's post-mortem of Mayor de Blasio's poor performance for bus riders today and Julianne Cuba's look at the mayor's failure to stop carmageddon tomorrow, plus so much more — so please stay with us through until New Year's Eve Day.
Until then, here's the news you might have missed from the long weekend:
- Like Streetsblog, the New York Post also found it newsworthy how incoming Department of Transportation Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez issued a statement promising to do more after Friday's fatal truck crash — and then visited the scene personally on Saturday.
- And Rodriguez returned on Sunday for a vigil for both victims, delivery cyclist Taurino Morales, 37, and pedestrian Delfino Maceda, 46. A fundraising website has been set up for Morales (click here to donate). Transportation Alternatives Executive Director Danny Harris was at the vigil, too:
- Get ready for the latest glitch in congestion pricing: The MTA doesn't know how to handle complaints about errant tolling, the inspector general says in this Post exclusive.
- We mentioned it in the headlines a few days ago, but the Post did a whole story on the DOT's Avenue B speed limit typo.
- Why can't we have nice things — like final runs of historic subway cars? Because vandals are being jerks. (AP)
- Here's why we need protected bike lanes — because drivers are clearly not paying attention. (Williamsburg News via Twitter)
- The Daily News got around to its post-mortem of the de Blasio years and ruled that his record was "a mix of municipal ‘sleaze’ and ‘impactful’ policies." Ginia Bellafante offered her own view in the Times. Her takeaway? "Almost nothing has distinguished Bill de Blasio’s eight-year reign at City Hall as much as the distaste New Yorkers have maintained for him, often in spite of a quiet, begrudging appreciation of his policymaking." And this: "Defying the first rule of love and politics, he couldn’t make people feel as if they really mattered."
- If you're a real suburban transit nerd and need something to read, why not click on Larry Penner's piece about rail service west of the Hudson in Mass Transit magazine?
- You may have noticed that we're still in our December Donation Drive, so we're hoping you'll find a way to make a contribution. Here are our thanks to our newest benefactors, who gave over the weekend: Thanks, Michael! Thanks, Arkadiusz! Thanks, Erik! Thanks, Peter! Thanks, other Michael! Thanks, Sonny! Thanks, Andrew! Click here to join them!
- This year will be the year that deliveristas get better working conditions, according to Gothamist.
- Finally, it is with sadness that we mention that Bishop Desmond Tutu has died (NY Times). In addition to his well-known integrity, dignity, courage and moral clarity, he was also a fan of cycling, once quipping, "Give a man a fish and feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and feed him for a lifetime. Teach a man to cycle and he will realize fishing is stupid and boring." (Seriously.)
