Skip to Content
Streetsblog New York City home
Log In
Carnage

Friday’s Headlines: Adams Sheds No Tears Edition

12:03 AM EDT on August 19, 2022

The mayor always seems to have a tool at hand. Photo: Mayor’s Office

Gotta hand it to Mayor Adams: Whatever the contest may be, he is crushing it. Literally.

The Mr. Clean look-alike, who has sent cops to tear down homeless encampments and recently bulldozed hundreds of illegal dirt bikes, yesterday took a sledgehammer to a derelict dining structure in Koreatown, the better to illustrate the wages of defying the rules of the Open Restaurants program (or of mucking up the Augean stables).

Everyone covered what was essentially a big photo op. How could they not? The guy revels in spectacle.

The Daily News worked the "restaurants not restrooms" angle: “I have a New York nose and, listen, someone has used this as a urinal, I can clearly smell it,” it quoted the mayor as saying. The Post, meanwhile, went with "Dirty Dining": "One Greenwich Village dining shed was even used by a couple for alfresco sex, with a horrified resident catching the encounter on video," it wrote (a fine irony for former Posties who remember how much sex used to happen at the newspaper's Sixth Avenue digs).

Hell Gate led with the idea that Adams, a la Tom Petty, won't back down on wildly popular outdoor dining because of a noisy minority of naysayers. amNY outlined the rules that will govern the takedowns. Streetsblog emphasized that the space vacated from any derelict streetery should revert to people, not cars.

In the end, however, it was all about the mayoral M.O.: Strut loudly and swing a big truncheon.

In other news:

    • An anonymous artist who hates mopeds in bike lanes is taking things into his own hands — tactical-urbanism style. (Village Sun)
    • David Zipper explains why the city fleet's speed-governor pilot is so important. (Bloomberg)
    • The Upper East Side's parking-ticket-prone drivers are the city’s cash machine. (Upper East Site)
    • The New York Times waddles in with an explainer on congestion pricing.
    • Alden Global Capital, the owner of the New York Daily News, is such an awful employer that staffers are "quitting in droves." (NY Post)
    • Sen. Andrew Gounardes lists five ways to save the MTA in a Daily News op-ed.
    • Speaking of dirty, the Adams administration is piling up 311 trash complaints. (Politico)
    • The Tri-State Transportation Campaign created a nifty electronic map of the MTA's long-term transportation projects and their needs.
    • Finally, we like this charming John Surico suggestion. (Via Twitter)

Stay in touch

Sign up for our free newsletter

More from Streetsblog New York City

What is the Life of a Dead Pedestrian Worth?

A cop laughed that a normal person is only worth $11,000 — and that figure was partly due to his racism, but also how little we value the lives of people on foot.

September 25, 2023

Monday’s Headlines: ‘What is Up With All These Flip-Flops, Mayor?’ Edition

It's the same old story with this mayor and his chief adviser, Ingrid Lewis-Martin. Plus other news.

September 25, 2023

Why Sustainable Transportation Advocates Need to Talk About Long COVID

Covid-19 transformed many U.S. cities' approach to sustainable transportation forever. But how did it transform the lives of sustainable transportation advocates who developed lasting symptoms from the disease?

September 24, 2023

Analysis: ‘Dangerous Vehicle Abatement Program’ is a Failure By All Measures

The Department of Transportation wants the Dangerous Vehicle Abatement Program to simply expire in part because it did not dramatically improve safety among these worst-of-the-worst drivers and led to a tiny number of vehicle seizures.

September 22, 2023

School Bus Driver Kills Cyclist in Boro Park, 24th Bike Death of 2023

Luis Perez-Ramirez, 44, was biking south on Fort Hamilton Parkway just before 3:15 p.m. when he was struck a by school bus driver making a right turn.

September 22, 2023
See all posts