Tuesday’s Headlines: All Hail ‘Street Wars’ Edition

We gotta hand it to the Times Metro section (which we don't do very often!). The latest episode in the Gray Lady's "Street Wars" column — in the able hands of Dana Rubinstein — was a home run.

"What Happened to the Bus Lanes New Yorkers Were Promised?" the headline asked. And Rubinstein's answer was clear: "New York City is on track to build just seven miles of bus lanes by the end of this year, according to an analysis by Streetsblog," she wrote, very nicely crediting us ... but then going further: "Three Transportation Department officials, who requested anonymity to discuss internal projections, told The Times that the Streetsblog estimate is in the right ballpark, with one saying the mileage might actually be lower."

Might actually be lower? He's supposed to build 30 miles this year. Lower than seven?! That's criminal, if Speaker Adrienne Adams would do something about it, that is.

Rubinstein's story was great, it forgot two things: 1. The mayor's chief adviser, Ingrid Lewis-Martin, has boasted that she never takes public transit, a lifestyle choice that no doubt influences her chief advisee. And 2. Bronx Little Italy booster Peter Madonia, the owner of the family bakery that bears his name, needs to be fact-checked every time he opens his mouth.

Madonia has long been a thorn in the side of anyone who wants to get to his neighborhood by bus or bike. But in the Times story, Madonia let forth his latest whopper: “In Belmont, 85 percent of our clientele comes from 10 to 40 miles away, and they come by car. And they bring dollars and jobs from the tristate area to New York City."

Well, we crunched the numbers on that claim, using data from Replica, the transportation analysis firm. First, we drew a 30-mile ring starting from 10 miles away from the three ZIP codes that make up the Belmont section of the Bronx. That zone includes parts or all of 17 counties in and outside New York City.

Then we ran the numbers on all trips from that large zone to those three ZIP codes. According to the data, on a typical Saturday (presumably the busiest day), about 2,700 people from that large zone visit Belmont for shopping, dining, to run errands, for social reasons or to stay overnight on vacation.

And Madonia is right: virtually all of those 2,700 people arrive in Belmont by car. But that's not Madonia's only customer: On the same typical Saturday, nearly 10,000 people — a much bigger customer base — comes to Belmont from Manhattan and other neighborhoods in the Bronx — and a sizable majority of those people come to Belmont on foot, on transit or on a bike.

And more than 40 percent of the people who take transit are stuck on four Bronx bus lines: Bx19, Bx15, Bx12 and the Bx9. According to the MTA, those average weekend speed of those four buses is less than 7 miles per hour.

Perhaps Madonia should care about these customers, since they constitute the majority of the people who spend money in Little Italy.

Oh, and there's an interesting footnote to this story about Peter Madonia's love of car drivers: According to his own website, Peter's brother Mario "was killed in a car crash in the neighborhood." May his memory be a blessing.

In other news:

• The other big story yesterday was a reminder that it's amateur hour in Albany. One day after the Post reported that Gov. Hochul is considering a lower congestion toll (which she can't do, by the way; that's the Transportation Mobility Review Board's legal mandate), Politico did an interview with Hochul out at the DNC in Chicago, where the Gridlock Guv claimed that she'll present a new plan before the end of the year. And what is the plan? Come on, we all know there isn't one — or, as Politico put it, "No broader progress on an alternative revenue plan has been made this summer."
• Speaking of amateurs, the governor also addressed Democratic delegates at the national convention in the Windy City. Was she terrible? Yes, though the Times was polite. Twitter was much less so:

• Also, our friend Sam Schwartz was on WCBS radio yesterday with reminder about Hochul's congestion pricing pause: "She erred. We need the money for transit."
• Gov. Hochul's congestion pricing pause also means that $155 million in environmental mitigation for the Bronx is on hold. Funny, but we haven't heard her talk about that.
• Nor have we heard her talk about renovating Penn Station. Interesting, isn't it? (Crain's)
• And let's close out the Gov. Hochul section with another example of just how terrible she's become in such a short time (the Post also covered):

• Wow, read between the lines of this Williamsburg 365 story on the Department of Transportation's Bedford Avenue bike lane outreach into the Hasidic community and you could be forgiven for asking if Rabbi Moishe Indig has a veto power over street safety. And check out City Hall staffer Richard Bearak in the background of the photos. Bearak, as all Streetsblog readers know, is the Adams administration functionary who makes sure street redesigns are deemed so controversial that they need to be killed. Or, as Council Member Lincoln Restler told us, "DOT let us know they were directed [emphasis ours] to do further engagement with community leaders." Hmm, interesting. (Restler reiterated his support for the bike lane, which. he said, "should have already been implemented.”)
• We were happy to see The Real Deal's Erik Engquist share our support for phasing out parking mandates — and especially like his take: "Not only is it bad policy, but it's bad capitalism!"
• Good news: The DOT is accepting applications for trucking companies to get incentives for increasing off-hour deliveries. (amNY)
• Can't get a tow truck? The city is finally ramping up booting. (Gothamist)
• A teenager on a bicycle was killed and another injured when a truck driver ran them over in Brooklyn. (NYDN, NY Post)
• A reckless teen driver hit a cop with a stolen car. (NY Post)
• Rest in peace, FDNY fire marshal George Snyder, who had just started as the leader of the lithium-ion battery task force, when he died last week after a shift. (NYDN)
• And, finally, "car brain" is in Wikipedia.

One last thing: