Wednesday’s Headlines: Meera Meera Edition

Meera, Meera on the wall, who's the deputy mayor-est of them all?

That's the question posed (sort of) Mayor Adams's former Deputy Mayor for Operations Meera Joshi in the Daily News on Tuesday.

Joshi, who resigned from City Hall amid concerns about the Hizzoner's independence from President Trump, urged New Yorkers to ask mayoral contenders, "Who's your bench?"

"The Democratic primary winner has no prior city government experience so he will have to fill that void through smart leadership picks," wrote Joshi, who ran the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration under President Biden and the Taxi and Limousine Commission under Mayor Bill de Blasio.

But the piece may be a veiled criticism of the incumbent mayor. After all, Joshi — and several other well-regarded civil servants — quit on Eric Adams in February "to stay faithful to the oaths we swore to New Yorkers and our families," in their words, after the president dropped the mayor's federal indictment in exchange for the city's cooperation on immigration enforcement.

Joshi has continued to post on X about city policy even as she's moved on to running Brooklyn's Green-Wood Cemetery. But the absence of her and the deputy mayors who quit with her is felt every time City Hall under current First Deputy Mayor Randy Mastro kills a busway or pedestrian path or affordable housing project that Joshi and company worked on for years.

"What does it take to run this miraculous beast of a city? A deep bench of meritorious, mission-driven managers — people who combine operational grit, strategic vision, and moral clarity," she wrote. "New Yorkers deserve to know who’s going to lead this city — not just the person at the top, but the characteristics if not the names of the team executing the vision."

In other news:

• Speaking of leadership at City Hall, four former NYPD chiefs claim the mayor "chose nepotism and retaliation over safety and merit" in how he ran the NYPD. (Gothamist)
• Sean Duffy is back from vacation, tanned and ready to trash talk the MTA on TV. (CBS News)
• A SmartCar driver struck and killed a 70-year-old man walking home from synagogue in Midwood on Monday night. (Matzav.com, Yeshiva World News, BoroPark24)
• A hit-and-run moped rider struck a 90-year-old, who is in critical condition. (News 12 Brooklyn)
• The city had its first e-bike battery-related fire death of the year. (Gothamist)
• The Daily News editorial board still loves congestion pricing.
• FYI: the brown stuff in the new public toilets is mud. (Hell Gate, S.I. Advance)
• The owner of two pit bulls accused of mauling multiple dogs "nearly plowed down a slew of pedestrians" during a high-speed chase with cops. (NY Post)
• Mayor Adams's Fourth of July fireworks show was a chaotic, Fyre Festival-style disaster. (Brooklyn Daily Eagle)
• FlixBus is launching a Queens-to-Boston route out of Jamaica. (WPIX)
• Slate went with the most hysterical headline possible for David Zipper's reasoned interrogation of Zohran Mamdani's free bus plan.
• And finally, not every bus lane project dies under Eric Adams — DOT has begun making bus priority upgrades on Hillside Avenue in Queens, the agency said: