Monday’s Headlines: We’ve Done It Again Edition

12:03 AM EDT on March 20, 2023

Jesse Coburn has won an international award for his story on the dangers of school streets. Photo: Bess Adler

Jesse Coburn's investigation on school streets. Click to read.

The awards continue to pile up for Streetsblog's Jesse Coburn for his 2022 piece on the sheer danger that cars pose tocity kids as they go to and from school.

On Friday, the Sigma Awards — which honors "the best data journalism from around the world" — named Coburn's piece as one of the 11 best projects... in the world (and that's a big deal, considering that the other winners include Le Monde, Der Spiegel, El Pais and other major news outlets).

If you haven't read the piece, you missed one of the most important stories about the danger of New York City streets for the most vulnerable — an omnipresent fact of life ignored by the political elite, even though in 2022, 16 people under the age of 18 were killed in car crashes.

But don't just take our word for the fact that this story was an amazing piece of American journalism; this is what the esteemed panel of judges said about the story:

The findings not only revealed the dangerous journey to school each day by thousands of children, but also that the streets near schools serving poor students and students of color are seeing even more accidents. All of this despite millions spent by the city to make school streets safe. What’s stunning about the work here is the size of the outlet — Streetsblog — a small, nonprofit, with just one person on the byline. Yet Streetsblog leveraged the power of available public data and invested in a deep dive into understanding what was putting children in harm’s way and told a compelling story along the way.

You don't need to be Frank Rich to know that's a rave. So allow us to publicly congratulate Coburn on the victory while also hinting to our readers that he has much more to come in the next few weeks. Stay tuned.

In other news:

Speaking of kids dying in car crashes, five kids were killed in a fiery wreck on the Hutchinson River Parkway. A 16-year-old was at the wheel. (NYDN, NY Post, NY Times)
We like to save the New Yorker for the weekend, so we finally got around to reading William Finegan's amazing deep dive on the challenges of building a truly outstanding Penn Station. This story had it all, so we highly recommend it.
There was another fatal lithium-ion battery fire over the weekend. (NYDN)
Hat tip to Open Plans's Sara Lind for her op-ed in the Daily News about the need for the outdoor dining program to maintain its year-round status. We like eating outdoors, no matter the weather!
And, speaking of our parent company Open Plans, we'll mention it again later this week, but please set aside an hour on Thursday morning for the "Plan for People, Not Parking" rally in City Hall Park at 11 a.m. It's time to tell the City Council and the mayor that it's time to repeal outdated, Robert Moses-era parking mandates that increase car ownership, increase housing costs, and misuse space that could be used for important community amenities. It's on the Streetsblog calendar, so check it out here.
Macho bullshit from the cops on the Upper East Side, courtesy of Upper East Site.
Sanitation Commissioner Jessica Tisch wants to offer citywide composting. But where will she put all that shit? (Gothamist)
Electric taxi drivers are having problem finding a good charge. (The City)
There's still a few hours to vote in our March (Parking) Madness first-round bout between the 100th Precinct and the 101st Precinct, both in the Rockaway. Vote now!
Subway ridership keeps going in the right direction. (NYDN, amNY)
Speaking of the importance of transit, N.J. Gov. Phil Murphy spouted some inaccurate stuff about congestion pricing on the predictably inaccurate John Catsimatides radio show. (NY Post)