Tuesday’s Headlines: Put Away the White Edition

OK, everyone, you’ve had your fun (and your understaffed public pools), but Labor Day is now in the clip-on rear-view mirror, so it’s time to put away all your summer clothes (and your Met playoff dreams) and get back to the grind.

And the easiest way to slide into the work week is with our comprehensive news roundup from a busy weekend:

• The great Henry Grabar (author of “Paved Paradise: How Parking Explains the World,” but you knew that) had a Streetsblog-friendly op-ed in the Times about the necessary war on parking. Here’s the key takeaway: “Parking also offers a clear example of wasted, underused space, set aside for the free storage of private property. The Upper West Side, a neighborhood of about 220,000 people, has surrendered nearly all its curbs for free parking for just 12,000 cars.”
• The FDNY discovered a fake “UL” sticker on a lithium-ion battery that sparked a fire back in April, and is now concerned that there are many wrongly labeled, substandard batteries out there (though the Daily News story couldn’t quantify it).
• The NYPD’s policy on high-speed chases remains muddled, Daily News Police Bureau Chief Rocco Parascandola pointed out in a deep dive (that we wish had linked to our earlier story about the NYPD failing to publish the pages of the patrol guide about chases).
• Carnage was widespread over the weekend:
  • There were two vicious fatal crashes, one in The Bronx involving a man driving way too fast on the Hutchinson River Parkway (NYDN), and the other caused by a reckless Corvette driver in Staten Island (NYDN).
  • An electric bike rider was killed in a crash with a Jeep driver. Ben Brachfeld and Lloyd Mitchell in amNY reported that the “e-bike” was actually a motorcycle and that the Jeep has racked up 46 camera-issued speeding tickets since 2016 and five red light camera tickets since 2013. In additional excellent reporting, the paper also pointed out that the crash was the third fatal collision in less than 18 months at Eastern Parkway and Schenectady Avenue. The Daily News didn’t offer any of that in its shamefully under-reported piece.
  • And a motorcyclist was killed in Staten Island. (NYDN)
  • The Post rounded up all the violence.
• This doesn’t bode well for congestion pricing: The head of the Transit Workers Union, John Samuelsen, blasted the MTA for committing “criminal fraud” in its negotiations with railroad workers. What does that have to do with congestion pricing? Well, Samuelsen just happens to be on the Traffic Mobility Review Board, which is right now trying to set the right price for the MTA’s central business district toll, not that the Post story mentioned that.
• The City pointed out that Mayor Adams is acting hypocritically by calling for work permits for migrants while also seizing the mopeds (albeit illegal!) that they use to eek out a living. Because the NYPD makes it impossible to get information, it’s unclear if Gwynne Hogan’s piece was making reference to our earlier coverage of moped seizures.
• Connecticut state troopers faked traffic stops to boost their numbers. We’re sure that never happens anywhere else, right? (NY Times)
• Remember that e-bike battery “trade-in” program that we wrote about a few months ago? Well, apparently the DoorDash and Uber-funded plan isn’t working. (NY Times)
• And finally, my Criminal Mischief series made a brief return when I spotted something I’d never seen before: a fake fake New York State temporary plate: