So many people are so disappointed by Mayor Adams that there's a new movement to get Speaker Adrienne Adams's City Council to finish all the jobs that Hizzoner has abandoned.
Just yesterday, for example, Ben Furnas of Transportation Alternatives sent a letter to the Council demanding an "investigation into all street safety projects stalled by the Adams administration."
Furnas said he was motivated by the indictment of former top City Hall official Ingrid Lewis-Martin on bribery charges related to the Adams administration's watering down of a safety redesign of McGuinness Boulevard, which we've covered extensively in these pixels.
"As law enforcement looks into the possible bribery and corruption that’s stonewalling the street safety project on McGuinness Boulevard, it is time for the Council’s oversight authority to be called upon to investigate every paused street safety project," Furnas wrote to the only Adams who matters right now (read it here). "New York City’s elected leaders must affirm that bribery has no place in our City’s safety decisions. ... We can’t let all of this progress go to waste just because the current administration hasn’t finished the job.
"Since 2022, City Hall has intervened in multiple street-redesign projects, including safety improvements on Ashland Place, Bedford Avenue, McGuinness Boulevard, and Third Avenue in Brooklyn," Furnas continued, extensively citing Streetsblog's seminal coverage. "Busways on Fifth Avenue in Midtown, Fordham Road and Tremont Avenue in the Bronx have also been put on hold without clear justification. These political blockages have already cost New Yorkers far too much and it’s time to respond."
Indeed, as Streetsblog previously reported, if seven major stalled projects had been implemented, more than 150 traffic injuries could have been prevented, and nearly a quarter-million bus riders would already be enjoying faster commutes.
The good news? We know that the Council is reading Streetsblog for our daily drumbeat of incisive coverage of the Adams administration. Just yesterday, the Council press shop put out a skeetstorm about a recent Sophia Lebowitz story that highlighted the mayor's hypocrisy on delivery workers:
Grocery delivery workers deserve fair pay and workplace protections. The Council passed bills to extend minimum pay standards and protections for nearly 20,000 grocery delivery workers, and we’ll override the Mayor’s senseless vetoes to ensure working-class New Yorkers aren’t left behind.
— New York City Council (@council.nyc.gov) 2025-09-08T17:11:32.792Z
The Council is planning to override the mayor's veto on Wednesday. Streetsblog gets action. Will TA? Stay tuned.
In other news:
- Speaking of Lebowitz, the Post reheated her nachos on bike batteries, completely ripping off her story from Monday.
- And the Paper of Wreckage also followed our coverage of Brad Lander's bus report.
- Welcome to the war on cars, Financial Times.
- A stabbing over a parking space? Really? (amNY)
- Amid talk of a Long Island Rail Road strike over work rules, the MTA is also talking work rules ... like automated subways. (Gothamist)
- NIMBYs — they say the darndest things! (Gothamist)
- And they say Streetsblog is critical of the mayor! The City shows how it's done.
- The MTA's City Ticket is popular ... and working. (NYDN)
- Man steals an Uber ... then uses it to kill himself. (NYDN)
- More carnage in the Bronx. (amNY)
- And, finally, I got so sick and tired of watching all the near-misses at the Brooklyn end of the Brooklyn Bridge bike/ped path that I made a quick video. At the end, you'll notice that I reached out to the NYPD. The agency's response is below the skeet:
We're live from "the Meat Grinder" intersection of Tillary and Adams streets, where the NYPD insists on constricting the entrance to the Brooklyn Bridge with useless bollards. Check it out! (Features a deep Jimmy and the Jaywalkers track!)
— Gersh Kuntzman (@realgershkuntzman.bsky.social) 2025-09-08T14:31:09.044Z
Here's what an unidentified NYPD spokesperson told me: "The NYPD has strategically deployed concrete barriers at entrances to the pedestrian and bicycle path of the Brooklyn Bridge, and other pedestrian/bicycle paths around the city, to prevent unauthorized motor vehicles from entering. These barriers are present at high cycling areas throughout the city. These measures are in place both to guard against accidental intrusions and to protect against the possibility of a vehicle ramming attack. As a reminder, on Oct. 31, 2017, someone drove a truck onto the bike path in Hudson River Park and killed eight people and injured 11 more. At the time, there wasn't any kind of physical barrier preventing such an attack." [By that token, perhaps the NYPD would support turning all roads into car-free streets then...?]
