Monday’s Headlines: Paris Bids Adieu to SUVs

The biggest story of the weekend was the vote in Paris to dramatically raise parking fees on SUVs — a bid to reduce the size of cars being driven into the French capital that will never happen here because no one wants to “get stuff done” if the stuff is “inconveniencing drivers.”

Per the AP, 54 percent of Parisians supported the referendum to triple parking fees for large SUVs from out of town. That’ll bring the price to $19.50 per hour in the city’s center. (Our first-hour charges max out at $5.50.)

Mayor Anne Hidalgo had successfully argued that SUVs take up too much space, pollute too much, cause more crashes and injuries than smaller cars, and “threaten our health and our planet.” All of that’s true in New York City, too, not that anyone will do anything about it, of course. We’re New Yorkers! We’re exceptional! What do you think this is — Paris?

The other big story this weekend was that the sun came out — a natural phenomenon that will continue all week. Beyond that, here’s what else you might have missed:

• The MTA is on the wrong side in the battle to pay workers a fair wage. (amNY)
• Days after Council Member Yusef Salaam was pulled over with his out-of-state plate, the Post dug into his driving record (which isn’t good, but it’s certainly better than other pols that the Post has left alone).
• Then the tabloid took up the issue of people who register their cars outside New York, presumably for the insurance savings. One problem: Does anyone believe that only 18,000 people in all of New York State did that? There seems like there’s that many out-of-state plates in one neighborhood in New York City (which is why I did my insurance fraud series, “Where Do My Neighbors Live” last year. And, yes, it had a song.)

• Amy Cohen of Families for Safe Streets did a first-person story in The Post — an implicit endorsement by the paper of allowing New York City to set its own speed limits.
• Speaking of first-person pieces, Hell Gate got a first-machine piece out of Knightscope K5, the recently fired robo-cop in Times Square.
• Bronx residents are now getting discounts on the toll at the Henry Hudson Bridge. (News12)
• Ewe animal, you! Cops collared a lamb with a beef in Sunset Park. (NYDN)
• The Times did a nice obit of Al Butzel, who fought Westway … and won. Also, Komanoff is quoted.
• And finally, we hate everything to do with fast cars, but Tracy Chapman killed it at the Grammy’s: