First, let's start with the bad news. We sent reporter Jesse Coburn out to Austin, Tex. on Thursday night to collect his justly deserved first place award from the Local and Independent Online News, a national newspaper trade group now called LION Publishers. Earlier this fall, Coburn had been named a finalist in the group's Accountability Award (small outlets) for his exhaustive piece about the dangers of school streets in New York City.
Then, for some reason we simply can't fathom, LION gave the top honors to the Wausau Pilot & Review, a Wisconsin paper that revealed that city leaders hid from the public that the town's water contained toxic chemicals at levels higher than those recommended by government officials.
OK, so maybe those Cheeseheads deserved the trophy. But the least you could do today is re-read Coburn's story, which we still believe is worthy of a Pulitzer, a Polk, a Nobel or even a Cy Young. As we say in Flushing, "Wait 'til next year!"
Now the good news: Tonight is Halloween, when kids get to eat a lot of candy and, for the first time, will be dramatically safer on nearly 100 car-free streets set up for "trick or treating" by the city Department of Transportation. A map of all the streets is here. (As always, Gridlock Sam predicted traffic — though not from the city's "wise" Halloween street program, but from the Village Halloween parade, which starts at 7 p.m.)
Just do us one favor: No Nazi uniforms, please. (NY Post)
Now, onto the news from a busy weekend:
- The most bizarre story of the weekend was this NY Post exclusive that Gov. Hochul's mega-cars don't get speed camera violations because they are ostensibly ghost cars. Even the mayor's cars can be tracked. And so, of course, can Council Member Inna Vernikov's.
- We totally respect the New York Times's climate coverage, but the paper's weekend piece about efforts to avoid the next Sandy completely ignored the elephant in the room: transportation. Thankfully, our "Sandy: Ten Years After" story focused on that most important of topics.
- Speaking of elephants — this one white, Pete Davidson and Colin Jost are going to have problems turning that old Staten Island ferry boat into a bar and restaurant complex. Former deckhands say it's full of roaches and asbestos, the Daily News reported in what is Clayton Guse's swan song before joining WNYC.
- Several outlets covered the mayor's press conference about fixing 1,200 intersections so far this year. The Post's story, which played it straight, was riddled with errors (the city doesn't even claim to have built 100 raised intersections this year). Ours was a bit more critical, as was amNY's.
- New Yorkers say they don't believe Mayor Adams's latest crackdown on subway crime will work (NYDN). After all, just ask ex-NYC Transit President Sarah Feinberg, who became a victim herself (NYDN), or this guy, who got his nose broken in a random attack (NY Post).
- The Times did a deep dive on Hasidic power.
- The City covered Mayor Adams's announcement of how he'll convert fossil-fuel-burning schools to all electric, but former Oakland DOT boss Ryan Russo (now returned to New York) had the best take:
- The Daily News reviewed "Straight Line Crazy," the Robert Moses play at the Shed.
- And the Times did a soft feature on NYC Transit "chief customer officer," Sarah Meyer.
- And don't forget: Early voting continues this week (NY Post). Our old man editor didn't like that there were only 12 candidates for 12 seats on the civil court — and all but one was endorsed by the Democrats and the Republicans:
