We've quibbled with the Times's techy opinion columnist Farhad Manjoo in the past — especially when he gushed all over his big electric Escalade. But Manjoo hit an Alonsoan blast with his latest column, bemoaning just how dangerous it is to be a cyclist or pedstrian in America.
"Our roads are deadly because officials will still call the inevitable consequences of this ill-design a tragedy rather than a choice," Manjoo wrote, citing Jessie Singer's seminal recent book, "The Are No Accidents." "The only way for America to reverse its traffic death spiral is to make a radically different choice."
Now, if Manjoo can only get the ear of his colleagues at the car-loving broadsheet, especially new Executive Editor Joe Kahn, we'd have something.
In other news:
- Like Streetsblog, the Daily News and The Post covered yesterday's crash that killed a man on a moped and injured his passenger, but unlike Streetsblog, neither paper pointed out that the moped rider crashed into a double-parked truck — and that the truck driver who caused the death does not appear to have received even a ticket. (Nor did the Daily News even run the plates on the truck — which has more than 345 parking summonses, two red-light tickets and one camera-issued speeding ticket, evidence that this truck is regularly driven by a safety menace. The Post called the moped an "e-bike," which it was not. Reminder, people! We did a Field Guide on this last year. The Brooklyn Paper got the story right.)
- Gothamist looked at new New York City Transit President Richard Davey.
- Wondering why one of the entrances to the Union Square subway station is such a shithole? Wonder no more, thanks to Jose Martinez at The City.
- Even libraries love open streets. (NY Times)
- Mayor Adams hopes to reduce the carbon footprint of buildings. (NY Post)
- Finally, the DOT put out its full list of programming for Saturday's Earth Day celebration. Previously, our old man editor shared his concern about the minuscule "car-free" part of the festivities. But today, looking at the list, we just feel sad. New Yorkers don't need programming to make their streets great — they just need permanence. New Yorkers know what to do with great spaces: look at Union Square, pedestrianized parts of Broadway, Dyckman Street, 34th Avenue, Vanderbilt Avenue, Willoughby Avenue — any place where the city has removed cars has blossomed as great public space. That's the ticket. Save the jugglers for the circus. We know how to enjoy our city.
