The big story yesterday was how depressed you all apparently are!
No kidding — on Tuesday, the Citizens Budget Commission put out one of its sexennial citywide polls, and it showed that pretty much everyone is upset about the state of the city. Only 30 percent of New Yorkers said they felt positive about our overall quality of life — down from 51 percent just six years ago (when we vaguely remember everyone hating de Blasio).
Half of New Yorkers said they won't even be here in five years!
All the media outlets had a particular take on the survey (which can be read here):
- The Daily News focused on subterranean safety: 78 percent said they did not feel safe riding the subway at night.
- The Post focused on the people who claim they'll leave the city in a few years.
- The Times played it way too straight and passive: "The quality of life in New York City has suffered."
- Crain's wrote about the general disorder of the city.
- And we jumped on our parochial angles, of course: Cyclists and pedestrians don't feel safe from cars on our mean streets:
In other news:
- We skipped the DOT's e-bike safety announcement after seeing the generally benign public service ad the agency created to help first-time electric mobility users stay safe. But the Daily News used the event to peddle the pernicious, victim-blaming lie that e-bike riders are killing themselves in large numbers because of their supercharged rides. The vast majority — in fact, virtually all — injured or killed cyclists, no matter the bike, are killed and injured by the drivers of cars, trucks and other massive assault vehicles. And just to make sure everyone knows it, we crunched the numbers on every single injury causing crash from 2023 and put it in a nice, convenient thread for y'all in the mainstream media (which Gothamist blew off):
And, of course, the great Jessie "There Are No Accidents" Singer had a take. And she has a point; after a year of rising cyclist deaths, then-Mayor de Blasio announced new road safety efforts, while this mayor announces a public service ad (and, yes, DOT press shop, no need to troll us on Twitter — we know Mayor Adams is doing more than just an animated ad! But we're talking about optics here):
- Lots of outlets covered the sentencing of the "Wolverine"-glove-wearing racist who tried to run over Black Lives Matter protesters with his SUV. (Streetsblog, NBC4, NY1)
- A cyclist was killed on Monday in Harlem. (Patch)
- Uber customers are seeing yellow over the app's use of regular cabs. (NY Post)
- Earlier this week, we covered the federal cash infusion for the QueensWay linear park, which seems to be sending the QueensLink rail idea into the dustbin of history. Well, Hell Gate dove head first into the controversy, which prompted a long — and interesting! — back-and-forth-and-hither-and-yon discussion among park and rail enthusiasts in the Borough of Roses:
