Is there anyone left who hasn't yet berated the Adams administration over its last-minute scrubbing of the opening of the Queensboro Bridge south outer roadway for pedestrians?
We already covered the massive rally two weeks ago on behalf of creating dedicated walking space on the bridge — where currently drivers have nine lanes and cyclists and pedestrians share a single lane — and we've mentioned all the cards and letters the city Department of Transportation is receiving from local pols.
This week, came more outrage: Both Manhattan Community Board 6 and Manhattan CB8 — covering adjoining neighborhoods straddling the bridge — sent letters demanding "immediate" action to make more space for pedestrians, the most vulnerable of the vulnerable road users that we all wake up every day hoping to serve.
CB6's letter spoke of the board's "frustration" with DOT for taking so long — five years and counting! — and still failing. CB8 said the "current situation" of cyclists and pedestrians in such close contact in both directions is "beyond dangerous." (Read the letters here and here.)
The Adams administration canceled the ribbon-cutting more than a month ago, and neither City Hall nor DOT provided a comment for this story, despite me asking. So, in other words, no one knows what the QBB is going on!
In other news:
- Welcome to amateur hour: The Trump administration turned a one-day story — its bizarre public release of a legal memo saying its case against congestion pricing is weak (broken by Streetsblog) — into a two-day story, what with the U.S. DOT blaming the Department of Justice for the release ... and suggesting that DOJ lawyers are part of the resistance to Trump. As we said on Thursday, these people are so bad at this rule-of-law stuff. (NY Times, Gothamist)
- U.S. DOT Secretary Sean Duffy followed that up by sitting down with Semafor and decrying the "incompetence" of the leaked memo. In addition, he lied again, saying that congestion pricing is $15, when it's actually $9, adding more BS about Gov. Hochul's desire to fund the transit system by tolling drivers (a fairly common method): "You're taking them out of their car and moving them onto the subway. ... It's fundamentally an affront to fairness to the average American who's forced to use that system because they can't afford to use the road that they already paid for." (Watch the full economic summit here.)
- Also, Mr. Secretary, what's the deal with these pants?
- And what's with the fact that even the Post has abandoned the federal effort to kill congestion pricing?
- MTA boss Janno Lieber says he's OK with the federal takeover of Penn Station. (amNY)
- As we predicted, the electric-taxi initiative has unleashed too many vehicles on the streets, so now the city says it will slow it down. (Crain's)
- We had it a few days ago, but our sometime friends at City Journal also weighed in on how difficult it will be for Sean Duffy to fix Penn Station.
- We're sick of bike lanes that don't connect to other bike lanes. And so is the group Ridgewood Rides. If you share the belief that bike lanes should create a safe network, sign the group's petition. A campaign launch will be held on Saturday, April 26, at Grover Cleveland Park at 12:30 p.m.
- Reddit really freaked out about the new Lorde video (she's on a bike!). But we get that. So did we.
- The City Council wants to ban non-essential helicopter flights (is there another kind?). I feel like we've heard that one before. (NYDN, Gothamist)
- The Post followed up the killing of 101-year-old Crown Heights matriarch Taibel Brod by a driver earlier this month.
- Mayor Adams wants the wind farm that Trump killed. (NY Post)
- I can't comment on this website about individual candidates, but I can call out straight-out loathsome, repugnant, disqualifying racism when I see it, so I'd like to thank Public Advocate candidate Jenifer Rajkumar for helping me explore my voice. (NY Post)
- Kids today. Max Rivlin-Nadler totally botched the "work from Citi Field" thing by failing to do what we deans of the New York press corps routinely do when we want to see a Met day game but still stay plugged in (email me if you want the secret, Max). (Hell Gate)
- Finally, it looks like there's need for a lot more bike infrastructure in Red Hook even before the Economic Development Corporation plans to build hundreds of units of new housing. We'll have some coverage of that later today, but until then...
