It's too hot for a long, newsy lead-in to today's headlines, so let's just embed a great Streetfilms video about how Paris is eating our lunch when it comes to reducing the "urban heat effect" through the main levels available to cities: adding greenery and reducing car use.
Enjoy:
Now here's the news you need to start your day:
- After the amazing, stupendous success of the NYPD's Shotspotter, Mayor Adams announced that weapons detectors would soon be deployed at some subway stations. What could possibly go wrong? (NYDN, Gothamist)
- Can we have nice things ... like a 100-minute train ride to Boston? Apparently not, for all the reasons Nolan Hicks posted on Twitter about this Gothamist piece:
- It takes a LIRR train making five stops 73 minutes to go between Manhattan and Ronkonkoma;
— Nolan Hicks (@ndhapple) July 17, 2024
- HSR can't work on 3rd rail, so you'd need to rewire
- You'd need a whole new ROW connecting RON to Stony Brook
- Gateway is $13b for 3 miles of tunnel (so that'd be $50b right there)
- Oh and while we're on the topic of bad priorities, David Zipper pointed out this one, following up on our scoop about the Citi Bike price increase:
If you're visiting NYC, a 15-minute e-bikeshare trip now costs $10.19. (pricing: https://t.co/iD7qLNr2mH)
— David Zipper (@DavidZipper) July 17, 2024
That's 3.5x the subway fare -- for 15 minutes on an e-bike.
What the hell are we doing? pic.twitter.com/tdR0tjPGA2
- Hat tip to Council Member Chi Ossé for a great video on the importance of protected bike lanes — and holding Mayor Adams accountable — that mentioned Streetsblog. (Ossé via Twitter)
- And a hat tip to our friends at the Micromobility NYC sub-Reddit for finding a great way to shame the NYPD for its failure to rein in illegal parking along the Queensbridge baby greenway:
- Could congestion pricing still happen in Boston, despite Gov. Hochul's flameout? Stay tuned. (MSN)
- Speaking of congestion pricing (aren't we always?), transit workers sued the MTA yesterday claiming that the governor's "pause" caused the MTA to cut day-to-day service, which may not be accurate (at least yet). (The City)
- And Crain's has officially called it: We're in the latest Summer of Hell (thanks, governor!).
- In other congestion pricing lawsuit news, both Streetsblog and amNY somehow got exclusives on the same story about Comptroller Brad Lander's potential legal action. (Ours was the real exclusive, we swear!)
- Hell Gate followed Streetsblog's seminal coverage of the ongoing shitshow that is Mayor Adams and the City Council's abject failure on outdoor dining.
- Find out what happened in one Maine town when a homeowner wanted to protect her kids from reckless drivers (guess what? Her neighbors supported the drivers!). (NY Times)
- The mayor's signature housing initiative, City of Yes, is going down in the Bronx, where housing is desperately needed. Oh well. (Bronx Times)
- Additionally, Council Member Shaun Abreu picked an odd way to show his support for the mayor's City of Yes zoning change that would eliminate parking mandates, liking the scourge of parking to yesterday's incident involving his colleague Susan Zhuang allegedly biting a cop during a protest:
#CityofYes pic.twitter.com/nL9fBm7zQH
— Shaun Abreu (@ShaunAbreu) July 17, 2024