Wednesday’s Headlines: About that Moped Bust Edition

The NYPD has finally given Streetsblog details of that Aug. 17-20 moped crackdown we wrote about last month. The agency had told us on Aug. 21 that statistics about the operation “will be available in the near future,” but then declined to provide them for two weeks.

Finally, on Tuesday, here’s what we received:

• 145 motorcycles were invoiced.
• 269 mopeds and/or “non-street-legal motorized scooters” were invoiced.
• 22 motorcycles with license plates were towed due to being parked improperly.

We have been asking a slew of questions, such as how many precincts were involved in the alleged four-day, citywide effort, and seeking interviews with top police officials, but beyond the stats above, all we’ve heard is crickets.

In other news from a super slow return to normalcy:

• Speaking of crickets, that’s all we’ve heard from New Jersey officials about cracking down on ghost plates that are being churned out of the Garden State like silk used to roll out of Paterson. Meanwhile, Missouri is taking action. (Fox2)
• Speaking more of crickets: Bloomberg got the scoop/handout from DOT about an alleged curb management pilot about to roll out on the Upper West Side, but the story had so few details that we emailed DOT all day for more information. Yet even though we cover curb management like no one else, we never heard back… On the plus side, the DOT said it would be releasing a broader plan soon. Fox got the story, too:

• What a surprise: The pandemic recovery benefitted higher-wage workers than lower-wage ones. (Crain’s)
• The Daily News’s coverage of crashes has taken a decided turn for the worse, once again falling back to the tired trope that crashes are inevitable and lack human agency. Yesterday’s fatal crash in Queens had this lede: “A driver lost control of his car and plowed into a couple and their grandchildren outside their Queens home on Tuesday.” (Turns out, one member of the couple, a 67-year-old man, was killed.)
• The Crain’s editorial page took Mayor Adams to task for not following through on his bike and bus lane promises.
• The French are at it again — and by “it,” we mean doing urbanism right. (NY Times)
• Hot enough for ya? It’ll be hot again today (NY Times), so head for a cooling center (Gothamist).
• Leave it to the Times Vows column to put a positive spin on a car crash.
• This pool problem is even worse than a lifeguard shortage. (NY Times)