We got roped into covering a two-hour community board meeting in Queens (and writing it up!) last night, so we're going to get right to the day's news summary. Here goes:
- Over the weekend, as we reported, Mayor Adams said he would talk to his precinct commanders about road violence — but somehow that appears to have morphed into yet another crime convention. (NYDN, NY Post)
- Shiny object of the day: Don't be distracted by Gov. Hochul's announcement that the Q70 bus — aka the LaGuardia Link — would now be free; the bus was always a free transfer from the E, F, M, R and 7 subway trains at Roosevelt Avenue in Jackson Heights or would give you a free swipe into the subway if your trip started at LaGuardia. A better announcement would have been to make a car-free busway from the 74th Avenue station to the airport. (NYDN, amNY, Gothamist)
- Mayor Adams wants New Yorkers to send him pictures of cops doing nothing but playing on their phones, but Gov. Hochul isn't a fan of that. (NY Post)
- MTA CEO Janno Lieber isn't too concerned about a decline in mask wearing on the subway (NY Post). But he is hoping to improve weekend service (Streetsblog).
- Speaking of yesterday's MTA board meeting, it's about time someone is talking about the "other" fare evasion — the $50 million that the MTA loses from people who obscure or deface their license plates to avoid tolls. You don't see them getting tackled on a dirty subway floor, do you? (amNY)
- Also on Wednesday, the MTA outlined its very long plan to fully electrify its bus fleet (The City). But you knew all that because you read our deep dive last year, right?
- The Post wrote up that horrifying hit-and-run crash by the driver of a stolen flatbed truck in the Bronx that we mentioned in Monday's headlines.
