The news broke late Monday afternoon that longtime Albany power broker Shelly Silver, whose misuse of said power led to his eventual conviction for corruption, had died at age 77.
Lots was written — obits and post-mortems were in the New York Post, the Daily News, the Times, amNY — but none of the "major" outlets focused on Silver's deleterious effect on transit, as we have done over the years. It is not "speaking ill" of the dead to point out that Silver was long an impediment to progressive transportation policy.
"Better Bus Service in Jeopardy Thanks to Shelly Silver and Assembly Dems" was a typical headline in these pages back when Silver was at the top of Albany's food chain.
He did support speed and bus lane cameras, a little, and late — but had also opposed them, opposed congestion pricing and supported a rollback in the commuter tax, as Streetsblog reported in 2008. (The Post's obit did mention Silver's failure on then-Mayor Bloomberg's congestion pricing proposal, but that's about all.)
Now Sheldon Silver is gone. 'Nuff said.
In other news:
- After taking enforcement of street vendors away from the NYPD, ticketing is actually up against the hard-working vendors, Gothamist found.
- There was lots of news from the MTA Board committee meetings yesterday:
- The NYPD told the agency that there will definitely be more cops on the subway. (NY Post, NYDN, amNY times two).
- Meanwhile, The City's Jose Martinez took a broader look at how other transit systems deal with homelessness.
- The MTA's OMNY pay system isn't fully ready to take over from the MetroCard yet. (NYDN, NY Post)
- MTA overtime was up during the pandemic, which sorta makes sense. (NY Post)
- Besides us, only the Daily News covered the bloodshed in Manhattan yesterday as two pedestrians were killed.
- As part of his discussion of crime, Mayor Adams jumpstarted a recurring Streetsblog dream of requiring NYPD cops to live in the five boroughs they serve. Currently, 51 percent of cops live in the suburbs. (NY Post)
- It's bad enough that the DOT and the Parks Department have totally botched the plans to repair the Rotunda at 79th Street, but apparently, the Parks Department is also messing up building a new marina structure there. (Gothamist)
