Eagle-eyed reporter Kevin Duggan spotted something amiss on his way into work on Monday: a Sanitation Department truck parked illegally on Centre Street.
He barely did a double-take — after all, everyone in Lower Manhattan knows that the civic center is an epicenter of placard abuse. But when he did indeed look again, he was alarmed to find that the Sanitation worker was making a larger political statement than merely placard parking on a daylighting zone:
We sent the pictures to the Department of Sanitation to see if someone was going to get fired, but learned that MAGA also stands for "Make Amnesty Getable Alas."
"This employee has been reminded that every single thing done in a Department vehicle is representative of the Department, and that regardless of the specifics, expressions of personal politics in a Department vehicle are not appropriate," DSNY spokesman Joshua Goodman told Streetsblog.
Moving on... In other news:
- More Biden bucks are flowing to New York, this time in the form of a grant to electrify more buses. Mayor Adams said his first charging depot would be in the South Bronx, a neighborhood that has dealt with so much pollution over the years. (NYDN, Gothamist, Crain's)
- In a slightly related story, the Times pointed out that electricity has to come from somewhere — and the U.S. isn't doing a very good job of generating it cleanly.
- Two cops who got into crashes were charged with drunk driving. (NYDN)
- And there was some civilian carnage in Brooklyn, courtesy of a driver with a long record of reckless driving. (amNY)
- Speaking of the failure of our justice system to keep killer drivers off the road, there's the fact that Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz didn't win a revocation of a killer driver's license at a recent arraignment, Streetsblog reported.
- Here's some great news for two of Manhattan's grimiest subway stations. (Gothamist)
- Manhattan's Midtown community board is in turmoil over alleged politicization. (Crain's)
- Great outlets think alike: amNY followed our look at the QueensWay/QueensLink battle.
- From the assignment desk:
- First, at 1 p.m. today, the DOT and the NYPD will hold its first e-bike safety education campaign. According to the DOT, the "Get Smart Before You Start” will "promote the safe use of e-bikes, including educating newer e-bike riders on how to safely operate them." Yeah, great. But now do cars.
- And on Friday, there will be an "emergency" rally for safe streets in Queens after four people were killed by drivers in one week. (Transportation Alternatives)
- Former federal transit man Larry Penner to Janno Lieber: Fill out this federal paperwork and get $100 million. (Mass Transit)
- And, finally, we thank reporter Jon Campbell for his Mayor Adams supercut:
