Monday’s Headlines: ‘Criminal Mischief’ is National News Edition

NBC News did a nicely in-depth piece on scofflaws who cover or deface their license plates to avoid tolls and camera-issued tickets.

The NBC News Now segment aired on Friday night and was an immediate hit (in my household, especially) because it not only featured videos of me repainting scratched off numbers or pull off decals or other coverings, but also featured Jimmy and the Jaywalkers’ hit song, “Criminal Mischief” (which the New Yorker once called an earworm, despite not providing a link to the song).

As promised, I’ll be ramping up my plate correction efforts as we get close to congestion pricing.

Speaking of congestion pricing:

• There really is no limit to the anti-congestion-pricing story angles they’re cooking up at the Post. This time, they wrote about how real estate brokers are promising “Avoid congestion pricing” to buyers or renters outside the zone. You know, there’s another way to avoid paying a toll for driving: stop driving into the most congested part of the city that happens to have the best transit.
• Crain’s had a bizarre story that suggested that last week’s subway shooting had a connection to the forthcoming toll.
• On the plus side, Open Plans (our sister organization) presented 10 demands to ensure that congestion pricing works as designed. (amNY)
• We’ve covered this before (and so has Council Member Gale Brewer!), but Upper East Site suggests that the Department of Transportation is again talking about residential parking permits north of the congestion zone. The problem? It’s not a panacea and might not be necessary, despite what congestion-pricing foes believe.

In other news:

• The New York Times continued to elevate the privacy rights of reckless drivers over the rights of every other human to be safe from said drivers’ recklessness.
• The Commercial Observer took a look at the stalled fix of the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway.
• You could take a fancy train to Niagara Falls to see the eclipse next month (NY Post), or just join me on Amtrak’s Ethan Allen Express to Burlington.
• A man taking a bath on a subway is welcome comic relief (NY Post), given all the other terrible things that sometimes happen on subways and get turned into multiple Times think-pieces.
• Speaking of crime in the subway, amNY continued its copaganda.
• The yellow taxi industry is still in trouble. (NYDN)
• Finally, people rallied for a safer Bedford Avenue on Saturday: