And the Winners Are…: It’s Time for the 2024 Streetsie Awards!

Just as we do every year, we throw out the old year and ring in the new one with our Streetsie Awards, a multi-post compendium of the best and worst projects, people, policies and politics of the year that was. This is our first in the series, but if you want to read them all, they're archived here. Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, a Joyous Kwanzaa and a Happy New Year to all.

The year started so well: The MTA Board approved the $15 congestion pricing toll and everything was ready for the June 30 launch. But as the year ends, congestion pricing looks like the horizon — always right there, but never reachable.

So before we present all of the Streetsie Awards for 2024, it's important that we first recall the singular role Gov. Hochul played in dashing the hopes of millions of New Yorkers who want better transit, safer streets, less pollution and faster travel times through Manhattan.

So the winner of the inaugural "It’s So Over/We’re So Back" Award goes to gridlock governor, Kathy Hochul, not just for her multiple flip-flops but for how each flop and each flip only served to destroy a transformational policy and her own political future at the same time. (We'll have a separate year-in-review story on that subject later in the week.)

Whew, now that we've dispensed with the top award, it's time to really dig into what a crazy year 2024 was with this year's Streetsies:

The "Tommy Flanagan False Promise of the Year" Award: Remember back in January when former New York City Transit President Richard Davey promised he would "personally" clear out illegally parked cars out of the Livingston Street bus lane? Well, the illegal parkers are still there (and Davey has decamped to Boston). Honorable mention? Mayor Adams's announcement in January that he would — by the end of 2024 — create a "Department of Sustainable Delivery," which he obviously did not do.

The "Johnny, We Hardly Knew Ye" Award: The winner is Council Member Lincoln Restler. When the new City Council was sworn in in 2022, we had high hopes that it would build off the successes of former Speaker Corey Johnson (who was Streetsblog's "Vision Zero Hero of 2018"). Instead, it kicked Restler to the curb, banishing him from the all-important Transportation committee in January after he spent most of his first two years advocating for street safety, including his bill to allow people to write tickets to illegal parkers and get a portion of the resulting fine as a bounty.

The Meursault Award for Apathy: Named after the anhedonic main character in Albert Camus's "The Stranger," this award "honors" the organization, institution or person who did almost nothing in the face of great need. The nominees are:

• Gov. Phil Murphy of New Jersey, who has presided over multiple catastrophes with NJ Transit and shrugged ... and then raised fares.
• In January, City Comptroller Brad Lander issued an audit showing that DOT speed cameras are missing millions of speeders because they can't read temp tags (legit or fugazy) or many defaced or covered plates. The DOT response? Not much.
• In the face of Mayor Adams's failure to carry out the Council's legal mandates for bus and bike lanes under the Streets Plan, Speaker Adrienne Adams pretended to care by telling Streetsblog that she might sue the administration, but at the very least, she would create a tracker to monitor compliance. Neither of those things happened.
• The NYPD is, of course, notorious for ignoring warnings about corruption, but giving a tiny fine to the cop who harassed a 311 complainant with crank calls filled with animal noises and gay smears takes the cake for institutional apathy.
• In the face of strong public interest in knowing the people who influenced Gov. Hochul into changing her mind (twice!) on congestion pricing, the governor's office simply refused to release her public schedule, a clear violation of the Freedom of Information Law.

And the winner is: Gov. Phil Murphy! Congrats, governor. Please use the prize money to not widen a highway and spill more cars into Lower Manhattan.

The Sally Field "You Like Us, You Really Like Us" Award: In January, we reported that car drivers who wanted to avoid being towed away were increasingly just removing their plates at night. But in September, then-Sanitation Commissioner Jessica Tisch launched a task force to cut through existing driver protections and simply take illegally plated, or unplated, cars off the street. And by the end of the year, that task force was towing away about 80 cars a day. Honorable mention could have gone to Assembly Member Jenifer Rajkumar, who has sent us about 300 press releases about her bill, the "Ghostbusters Act," to rein in ghost cars ... except that there is no such bill on record with the Assembly. For now, it's just talk.

The "Joe Biden No Good Deed Works Out" Award: This award, named after the president who thought he was doing the right thing by dropping out, only to find that his good deed was decisively punished, honors other efforts that looked good at the start, but ended up so very very bad. And the nominees are:

• In February, there was much talk of getting rid of the judges' parking lot inside Columbus Park in Downtown Brooklyn. That went nowhere.
• And there was a great bill in Albany to require the state to reduce vehicle miles traveled. Did you really think that a bill that would require the state to find ways to reduce driving was going to pass the fauxgressive Assembly? You're crazier than we are!
• Council Member Lincoln Restler revived his bill to let people keep 25 percent on tickets issued to illegal parkers, but Council Speaker Adrienne Adams won't let it stand for a vote.
• After the Council passed a deliverista minimum wage, the app companies started locking out workers. Similarly, the city unveiled great designs for a deliverista hub near City Hall ... but it was never built.
• And adding fiscal insult to the injury of simply not being appreciated enough, the city was slow to pay back open street volunteer groups.

And the winner is (obviously): Albany fauxgressives who don't care about climate change!

The "Mr. Blake 'Always Be Closing' Award for Unwarranted Brass Balls": Obviously, the winner is the NYPD for yet another year of completely disregarding Vision Zero. Examples include: Refusing to follow parking rules on Second Avenue, forcing the DOT to paint a bus lane around officers' personal cars; ignoring even the threat of a federal lawsuit to continue parking illegally all over the place; conspiring with the Department of Investigation to water down any effort to rein in placard abuse; conducting an astounding number of high-speed chases — even in the largely residential 114th Precinct in Astoria, where one such crash led to the death of cyclist, Amanda Servedio.

The Julie Andrews "The Hills are Alive" Award: No matter how many times the FDNY or DOT sings from the mountaintop that car drivers are the reason there's so much traffic, it never sinks in. And no matter how many times we report that business improves on car-free or car-light streets, Mayor Adams doesn't add any. And no matter how many people are killed or maimed by the drivers of cars, the City Council only seems to have time for a discussion about bills to regulate electric bikes that won't even work and ignore the sound of DOT's music.

The annual "Streetsblog Gets Action" Award: We're very proud of the outsized role that our little newsroom plays in getting change in our city, but this year was especially gratifying. The nominees are:

• After months of coverage by Streetsblog, the Department of Investigation did issue a report on the NYPD's egregious placard abuse, which, although being pretty toothless, led to the NYPD issuing fewer placards and writing more tickets for misuse of placards.
• After we wrote about the racial bias in NYPD jaywalking tickets, the Council decriminalized it.
• We spent most of the year extolling the benefits of eliminating mandatory parking and, lo and behold, the Council did it (albeit carving out low-density neighborhoods where car-reduction should be a priority, not an afterthought)!
• After Gov. Hochul killed congestion pricing, our relentless coverage of her foolishness clearly carried the day, as she ended up green-lighting the tolls in November.
• A bill we covered that mandated the registration of e-bikes at the point of sale, passed in Albany.
• We wrote about the one flaw in the MTA's Interborough Express plan — namely that it would need to run on congested local streets. But in October, the agency announced that it had decided to bury the light rail tracks to avoid conflicts with cars.
• After we exposed a weakening in city idling law, the city backed off.
• We called for safety for cyclists near the United Nations and we got a permanent tunnel.
• We covered the lies on McGuinness and in Oct, the city relented.
• We had been warning of loopholes in the DMVs points system, but fortunately, the agency added some egregious violations that are now subject to points.

And the winner is: Streetsblog, of course!

The semi-annual "Streetsblog Fails to Get Action" Award: This ignoble dishonor goes to the story that should have generated outrage or some government initiative yet did not. And the nominees are:

• We heard about a guy who had a criminal record yet somehow was also a chaplain, so we did an investigation that revealed that almost all chaplains are fake. Editor Gersh Kuntzman even got a metal badge and a parking placard just for sitting through an unsanctioned online course. But did anyone tighten the restrictions or bust these fake chaplains? No!
• In marking the 10-year anniversary of Vision Zero in February, we offered Mayor Adams some sound advice on how to save the street safety initiative. He ended up doing only one-quarter of the things we recommended. And by the end of the year, more than 115 pedestrians were dead and close to 9,000 were injured, earning Hizzoner the "Mr. Loaf 'One-Out-of-Four Is Bad' Award" as well.
• We consistently demonstrated the benefit of an all-year outdoor dining program for struggling restaurants and their outdoor-loving customers. Nonetheless, roadside dining setups started disappearing during the year and by year's end were almost totally gone. What a waste.
• We always pointed out that opposition to safety and cycling improvements on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan was a classic example of rich people ignoring the rest of us. But in the fall, the city confirmed that it had abandoned an ambitious proposal.
• How many times did we have to point out that the city's bike lane on Ashland Place is dangerous? Many, yet Ashland remains Crashland to this day.

The James K. Polk Award for Winning the George Polk Award: Named after the lone president to promise to serve a single term — and then actually do it without the editorial boards of every paper demanding it — this award honors a very specific award for excellence in journalism handed out annually by Long Island University. And, sure, there were other Polk Award winners this year, but the greatest triumph, of course, belonged to Streetsblog's Jesse Coburn for snagging the gold for his "ghost plates" series. Honorable mention: Gersh Kuntzman for back-to-back appearances on "The Daily Show" and "This American Life."

The "Eric Adams Fauxgressive(s) of the Year" Award: There are so many nominees it's hard to pick just one neighborhood, person or policy that appears at first to be liberal, but turns out to be revanchist when it comes to transportation policy. This award honors the turncoats, so obvious regressive like Council members Joe "Leadfoot" Borelli and Bob "New York City is the Most Dangerous it has Ever Been" Holden need not apply. And the nominees are:

• The entire Upper West Side, for accusing the DOT of engaging in a war on cars for merely trying to add loading zones or curb extensions.
• Teachers union president Matthew Mulgrew for opposing congestion pricing (which will benefit his members and, more important, the working-class people who depend on transit to get to school, as this teacher pointed out)
• "Street safety charlatans" who don't understand that if you want to make the roads safer, job one is to make the roads safer, don't punish e-bike riders, as the stats consistently show. Worse, don't complain about delivery workers when you live in neighborhoods that order the most takeout food!
• Gov. Hochul for worrying more about how much it would cost a driver to get into Manhattan than transit riders, who on average are less wealthy.
• People who say they want housing, but really just care about parking.
• And Gale Brewer for so many reasons, but for these this year:
  • saying she supports transit, but then rallying against a bus lane on 96th Street.
  • supporting a bill to register e-bikes, which would end up hurting the lowest-paid workers in the city.

And the winner is: The entire Upper West Side! Leave us alone and go fight a bus lane somewhere else.

The annual "#StuckAtDOT Award": This dishonor marks the biggest disappointment from our Department of Transportation this year. There are so many nominees we probably can't get to them all, so here are the really big disappointments:

• Ever ride on the Ocean Parkway bike lane? It's awful ... and there's no plan to fix it.
• Like the swallows returning to Capistrano, seasons come and seasons go ... but the Queensboro Bridge pedestrian path is never completed.
• We ask for basic public information and don't get it, so we have to sue the agency.
• The agency is way behind on its promise to daylight 1,000 intersections.
• The agency failed to help bus riders on Fordham Road and Flatbush Avenue
• In February, there was lots of talk of extending to Bay Ridge the safety benefits of the DOT's Fourth Avenue redesign in Park Slope and Sunset Park. That didn't happen (why not, Council Member Brannan?)
• And what happened with that talk all year about a road diet for Third Avenue in Brooklyn? Nothing.

And the Streetsie goes to ... all of them!

The "Mitch Albom Five People You'll Meet in Hell" Award: Named after the altered title of a treacly writer's best-seller, this award honors the person or institution who is just so loathsome. And the nominees are:

• Council Member Vickie Paladino is definitely we will want to hang out with in the Inferno, but we're not loving her vitriol and abuse on this side of the hereafter. Not only does she put forward bad bills to reduce bike use, she lies about DOT's intentions so she can completely take over and ruin public meetings and she berates members of the public who take time out of their day to testify before the Council, which should earn her a reprimand at least:

• We'll definitely see the state Department of Transportation in Hell for its desire to build yet another highway through the Bronx — times two!
• MTA Board member David Mack is awful — he opposes congestion pricing, which is bad enough for a person on a regional transit board, but he also drives around for free and then justifies it. But worst is that he misuses his Nassau County police parking placard to park illegally at the MTA headquarters in Lower Manhattan and then complains about traffic.
• The delivery app companies that, as we reported, need to be reined in, but refuse to accept any responsibility for an industry that has disrupted street life in New York and also has exploited workers.
• Speaking of exploitation, we reported on how Instacart takes advantage of new immigrants — and then a tech-funded Astro-turf group rose to the company's defense at the City Council. Gross!

And the winner is ... Vickie Paladino!

Have a happy New Year everyone (including you, Council member).