Wednesday’s Headlines: More Mayoral McGuinness Mendacity Edition
The big story of the day was the news that Mayor Adams had decided to double-down on his betrayal of his own Department of Transportation and redesign the southern half of McGuinness Boulevard in the same shoddy way he redesigned the northern half.
As reported by our own Kevin Duggan, The City, the Daily News and Gothamist (confusingly), Adams will indeed build a bike lane on the stretch between Calyer and the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, but he has again missed a chance to return to the original DOT plan for a bike lane and a road diet for the notoriously dangerous speedway.
In doing so, he’s defying not only his predecessor, who promised a $40-million redesign, but also his own DOT, which says road diets and protected bike lanes make roadways safer for all users.
But such defiance isn’t anything new for this mayor, who once promised to build 300 miles of protected bike lanes, but yesterday told reporters that he no longer thinks they’re safe. Based on what? His own lyin’ eyes and the lyin’ eyes of people inside cars who conflate a repurposed parking space with the end of civilization as we know it. Here was the exchange at his weekly press conference:
“During your first campaign, you said you’d build 300 miles of protected bike lanes in your first four years,” Hizzoner was asked. “In the first two years, you built just 58. Are you still going to do that?”
“That’s the desire,” he said. “I’m a biker, and I enjoy riding. But there are those who are not bikers. And we get a lot of concerns that people have throughout the year on how do we go about building out the bike lanes? How are we communicating? How are we talking to people? How do we do it in the right way? And how do we make it safer? Because you go to some of the locations that I have, you know, watch some of our bike lanes that we have, you see people speeding at high speeds. And so we have to really adjust to make sure the streets are safe for everyone.”
Given that DOT thinks its bike lane and road diet designs do indeed make the streets safer, the mayor is clearly saying he doesn’t trust the city agency in charge of the roads to do their job. That’s not a good look for anyone, but it’s an especially bad one for a mayor presiding over a blood tide of road violence — 74 pedestrians are dead already this year — and way behind on building the legally required miles of bus and bike lanes.
Hell Gate also covered the bizarro moment.
In other news:
- Given the mayor’s comments about bike lanes, he’s likely to appreciate this self-serving “survey” by a Crown Heights Jewish group that (what a surprise!) discovered widespread opposition to a bike lane project there. (Bk Reader)
- Why can’t we have nice things? Because cars basically negate the positive environmental benefits of trees, that’s why. (NY Times)
- Business cents: It was inevitable (just ask my boss — I told him!) that a start-up would design, built and rent out new dining sheds that meet the new city code. (NY Post)
- It’s not that Amtrak is a lame railroad; it’s that its equipment is really really old. (NY Times)
- The Daily News had more about teenager Umedjon Juraev who was killed by a truck driver on Monday. The Post, Gothamist and Streetsblog also covered.
- Cops are hunting for a U-haul driver and passenger involved in a fatal hit-and-run in Queens. (NY Post)
- The fires this time … are in these subway stations. (Gothamist)
- Finally, our own David Meyer wrote a piece about outdoor dining for The Sick Times.
