Wednesday’s Headlines: Atoning for Sins Edition

A bunch of us will be marking the sin-cleansing Yom Kippur holiday today (and a few of us will be at the Mets game, where we hope the Amazin’s will atone for their sins of last weekend), but yesterday’s news was dominated, as it so often is, by Streetsblog.

The New York Post’s editorial page (of all places) took a moment to call out Schools Chancellor David Banks for repeatedly declining to discuss the agency’s failure to address the city’s school street safety crisis that reporter Jesse Coburn documented earlier this year — and then having his security escort Coburn from a media event.

The Post’s editorial said it even better than we could have:

“Sure, Banks has a lot on his plate, and some reporters are bent on grinding silly axes. But some answer was surely in order,” the paper opined. “Banks didn’t need to have an immediate, in-depth response, but his minions’ kicking the reporter out of the building was a terrible one. Dealing with fair questions, even annoying ones, is part of your job, sir.”

In other news yesterday:

• Other than the praise we got from Rupert Murdoch’s minions, our favorite story was the Dana Rubinstein-Jeffrey Mays joint in the Times about even some of the mayor’s biggest allies are suddenly realizing they helped elect an empty suit — and are now rushing to create a think tank to give him some actual policy ideas. The lede was positively devastating: “A group of New York City business and civic leaders is backing an initiative to create a handful of important, realistic policy goals for Mayor Eric Adams, filling what they believe is a critical hole in his administration’s vision for the city.” When a mayor’s vision lacks “realistic policy goals,” that’s not just a critical hole — that’s a terminal illness.
• The big breaking story was the ruling that clears the way for the Open Restaurant program to continue. (NYC Planning via Twitter)
• The city has approved 1,000 more cabs — oh, but relax, they’re electric. (NYDN)
• A Bronx electric bike rider was killed by a driver almost two weeks ago, but the NYPD only put out the scant details on Tuesday. (NYDN)
• A man was struck and killed by a truck driver in Williamsburg. (amNY, NYDN)
• Jose Martinez is still the man at the apex of the open stroller beat. (The City)
• This is off our beat, but we loved Hell Gate’s likely true ranked-choice voting ballot for Fran Lebowitz.
• Also off our beat: Hat tip to Aaron Judge for capping a great season with a new American League home run record. (NY Post, NY Times, with a pun in the headline)