Our hearts always ache whenever the membership of Families for Safe Streets grows. But our tickers palpate whenever the newest member makes a debut on the most painful of stages: standing at a lecturn, cameras rolling, to beg lawmakers in Albany or City Hall to, at long last, make roads safer.
So it was yesterday on the West Side. Department of Transportation Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez, Rep. Jerry Nadler and Assembly Members Emily Gallagher and Linda Rosenthal are accustomed to their role as supporters of safe streets, but we gasped when Joe Jankoski took his turn at the microphone.
Jankoski is still mourning Amanda Servedio, his partner — the word "doesn't do her justice," he said — who was killed by a recidivist speeder last year as he fled from cops. Since then, the NYPD has altered its high-speed pursuit policy, but the state legislature has not responded in a commensurate fashion: by passing the Stop Super Speeders bill, which would force the worst speeders to install technology in their cars to prevent them from driving so recklessly again.
"The driver who killed Amanda had racked up over 90 speed camera and red light camera violations," Jankoski said, voice quaking. "Those who repeatedly violate our driving laws should lose the privilege or have those privileges limited to make our street safer. We need the state legislature to pass the Stop Super Speeders bill." (amNY also covered, albeit poorly.)
Gallagher and Rosenthal said they were optimistic that their colleague Sen. Andrew Gounardes's bill would pass, but it's still an uphill battle, as our Albany correspondent Amy Sohn has reported.
Passing these street safety bills seems to always require appearances by the very people who are in the most pain. And that's just awful. But maybe this session, the stern, stoic visage of Joe Jankoski will shake lawmakers into action.
In other news:
- In a related story, members of Families for Safe Streets will present stacks of petition signatures in support of the Stop Super Speeders bill today at the Astoria office of Senate Deputy Leader Michael Gianaris, who does support the bill but will bring the petitions to his recalcitrant colleagues. The rally begins at 9:15 a.m. The info is here.
- A lot of outlets covered the "trash revolution," but none better than our Kevin Duggan. (NY Times, amNY)
- More Brooklyn Heights residents oppose expanding the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway. (amNY)
- Thursday is going to be hot. (Gothamist)
- We've long appreciated Council Member Lincoln Restler's approach to street safety, but it is truly amazing how much energy our local pols have to expend cajoling and begging businesses to stop causing dangerous conditions on our sidewalks and streets — and then accommodating them when they refuse. Case in point:
- A statewide official with less name recognition than Dave Colon is challenging Gov. Hochul in the Democratic primary. (NY Post, NY Times)
- And, finally, two more candidates for mayor have signed the pledge to finish the McGuinness Boulevard safety program that Mayor Adams half-assed. As of Monday, Democrat Whitney Tilson and independent Jim Walden have joined Brad Lander, Zohran Mamdani, Michael Blake, Scott Stringer and Jessica Ramos in making the pledge. Here are the latest pictures to prove it:
