We have a big day ahead of us in the livable streets world. New Jersey drivers are having a presser in Jersey City to complain about our pollution- and congestion-reducing transit plan in the morning. Then our editor will buy another illegal temp tag — "It's temp tag Tuesday!" as the song goes — and we'll end it all with a book party to celebrate Henry Grabar's "Paved Paradise: How Parking Explains the World" (Penguin Press) hosted by Open Plans.
So let's get to the news you can use so your views aren't a snooze:
- The NYPD says it will improve its response time to 311 calls, the Daily News reported, citing its own coverage (and ignoring our voluminous and award-winning coverage that not only revealed horrendous response times to traffic safety issues, but also outright fraud and a pattern of harassment).
- Meanwhile, one NYPD hand doesn't know what the other hand isn't doing; the Daily News also had a great story about a Harlem man who has made 232 complaints about illegal parking in front of or around the 28th Precinct station house — all of which were ignored. Hmm, sounds like what we found at that same Harlem post during last year's March (Parking) Madness contest.
- Jordan Neely's family says his murder should be in jail, yet our law-and-order pols can't figure out how to do it (Gothamist). Indeed, the mayor hasn't even called the victim's family, The City reported.
- Did you notice that there were two mass killings in Texas the other day: One was the shooting at the mall that everyone heard about. The other was the killing of immigrants waiting at a bus stop by a driver which received little press coverage — and the coverage it did receive was terrible, as legendary academic Greg Shill pointed out:
News organizations just seem constitutionally unable to assign agency when the agent in question uses a car. Imagine a headline reporting "Man Whose Gun Fired Bullets" where the police and witnesses had identified him as the one squeezing the trigger. pic.twitter.com/5WcdLuDDgS
— Greg Shill (@greg_shill) May 8, 2023
- So who really owns the subway? Former federal transit man Larry Penner gives the long view. (Mass Transit)
- In case you missed it, Bike NY's Five Boro Bike Tour was a huge success. (amNY, Hell Gate)
- Also in case you missed it, Clarence Eckerson Jr. did a Streetfilm about the need for more city resources being invested in the open streets program so that volunteers don't get burnt out from all the work they are doing ... for the city's open streets program. Watch it below:
