Gov. Hochul has at least one thing in common with her disgraced predecessor.
Politico's New York Playbook PM newsletter revealed that beneath Hochul's homespun, woman-of-the-people demeanor beats the heart of a person who believes that important people doing important things need to do them in cars.
“Not only have I been to every one of your counties many times every single year," she told the state Association of Counties, "I just want to point out that [it] was all by car. I drove to all your counties. Some people fly to the counties, I just want to say I drove — 370,000 miles."
Granted, it's hard to get to Franklin County by public transit, but easily half of New York's counties are accessible through a buses, trains, bikes, subways, feet or a combination thereof. Instead of boasting of her fuel-burning travels, we would have been happier if the governor had said, "I've been to all of your counties — half by train and bus, and now I'm working to get the rest of you connected, too!"
That said, the governor's car use was probably not the reason she was so lustfully booed by Rangers fans at Madison Square Garden on Tuesday night. Rather, the jeering was likely due to Rangers fans being mostly sexist, homophobic jerks (just ask Dancing Larry). "Misogyny is alive and well in nyc,” one person posted on Twitter, the Post reported. (Some comments on social media suggested Hochul's stance on masks and banning on unvaccinated athletes from home games (NY Post), amNY) may also have played a role in the blue seat boorishness.)
Yankees slugger Aaron Judge certainly wasn't booing, but he did decline to answer a question about his vaccination status yesterday, leaving fans of the Bronx Bombers wondering if they'll be able to root, root, root for the slugger at home games this season:
In other news from the second consecutive slow news day on the streets beat:
In case you missed it, Curbed did a detailed synopsis of last week's bizarre public forum on the long-established and popular Willoughby Avenue open street.
If you see some uncomfortable people on the subway in the next few weeks, they may be top NYPD brass. (NYDN, NY Post)
Another person — this time a senior — has been killed by a driver backing out of his driveway. For now, the driver has not been charged even though a backover crash is one of the definitions of failure to exercise due care and failure to yield. (NYDN)
Nice to see Queens Council Member — and 34th Avenue Linear Park supporter — Shekar Krishnan get some good press for his first proposal as leader of the Parks Committee. Access to parks and recreation facilities is one of the city's basic equity issues. (Gothamist)
Thinking of buying MTA bonds? Um, think again. (Fitch Ratings)
The city's taxis are not getting fully wheelchair accessible fast enough. (The City)
And, finally, Friend (Most of the Time!) of Streetsblog Nicole Gelinas has finished writing her book about the 75 year effort to take back public space from car drivers. We have it on good authority that Streetsblog is mentioned a few times in the course of the erudite tome.
"In Stockholm, people really thought that congestion pricing would be the end of the world, the city will come to a standstill, no one would be able to get to work anymore and all the theaters and shops would just go bankrupt. None of that happened."
