There was much sadness and rending of garments when it appeared that I had retired from committing "criminal mischief" against the scofflaw cops and other ne'er-do-wells who deface their plates to avoid detection by speed- or red-light cameras.
But with congestion pricing looming — and a recent Comptroller's report showing that speed cameras are missing millions of speeders — you may have noticed that I've gotten back in the game (and my hit song remains, as The New Yorker called it, an "earworm").
And Tuesday was a busy morning, catching two cops who defaced their plates, plus much larger corruption on Second Avenue between E. 22nd and 18th streets, where cops simply block the bus lane all day.
First, I'm not sure why Police Commissioner Caban allows his officers to blatantly violate the law by defacing their plates. Here's a guy I caught near the Ninth Precinct station house in the East Village:
Then I caught this guy on Lafayette Street in the placard perp zone of Lower Manhattan:
But the most fun I had all day was exposing how cops park their squad cars, equipment, personal cars and even the official recruiting van in the Second Avenue bus lane, selfishly and illegally delaying commutes for 10s of thousands of commuters. (Recruiting pitch? "We're cops! We get to park wherever the fuck we want!"):
The NYPD declined to comment on the bus lane blocking, not even responding to my questions. But given that Mayor Adams claims he's such a supporter of bus riders, one would think someone would, um, do something about the situation.
In other news:
- The Brooklyn Paper became the first non-Streetsblog outlet to finally cover the horrific death of Greenpoint pedestrian Danielle Aber.
- Just because Mayor Adams is visible doesn't mean that his administration is open and transparent. (City and State)
- Gothamist picked through the new edition of MIT's spacial equity tool to find that New Yorkers of color are less likely to live near a car-free pedestrian plaza.
- A Williamsburg man was killed in a hit-and-run (Brooklyn Paper) and a cyclist was doored into traffic and fatally struck (Streetsblog, Brooklyn Paper).
- The Post gave some heartfelt coverage to the family of a Bronx cyclist who was killed last week.
- Finally, N.J. Gov. Phil Murphy does something to support transit. (NY Times)
- The City pointed out what we've long been complaining about: Adams administration officials promised safe charging stations for delivery workers, but didn't deliver them.
- Fare-evasion busting EAGLE team members are a bunch of kiwis when it comes to passengers who hit their fare cap for the week, according to Hell Gate.
- We were already working on a scoop, but Gothamist got handed the exclusive on the "look" of the new outdoor dining areas that conform to DOT's specs.
