Even a Republican from car-dominated Staten Island can see the basic logic behind the Council's effort to require daylighting at every intersection in the city.
At a rally yesterday, Council Member Frank Morano made one of the most eloquent speeches in support of his Democratic colleague Julie Won's universal daylighting bill, Intro 1138, which has been the subject of a withering (and intellectually flawed) attacks from the Department of Transportation.
A majority of Council members supports the bill, but Morano is the only GOP member. He mentioned that in his speech:
"From my perspective this is not something that should be a partisan issue," he said. "Where I live in the South Shore of Staten Island, I hear from constituents on almost a daily basis – drivers – the difficulty they have in seeing pedestrians or other cars because they have to inch into an intersection."
He continued:
This is not an anti-driver bill. This is not an anti-car bill. This is a bill that supports public safety for both drivers and pedestrians. This is a bill that brings New York City where just about the rest of the country is, where the rest of the state is, and where the rest of the world is.
This is not some new or radical idea. It’s done in 44 states and the rest of this state. This is not a ploy to get people to stop driving. I drive, my wife drives, we want people to drive, we want people to drive safely, and we want people to not get into accidents [sic] because they can’t see what’s coming in the intersection. ...
There’s also an incredible opportunity to enhance the abilities of community boards and local Council members like me to have more influence what’s done, because if you look at what’s in the bill, it’s 1,000 intersections that have to be daylighted every year. That’s about 20 per district. And it gives the community boards and the local council members an incredible opportunity to negotiate with DOT about which specific most-dangerous intersections need to be prioritized.
If you support local control, if you support pedestrian safety, if you support driver safety ... to me, this is a no brainer.
Beyond Morano's eloquence, there was some news made at the rally, which Kevin Duggan promptly broke wide open: The DOT's intransigence has force Won to water-down the bill, perhaps only to apply to streets with schools on them. However necessary, the compromise is absurd on the face of it: If a safety measure is good enough for students, why isn't it good enough for the rest of us.
Meanwhile, amNY covered the rally part of the rally, rather than the news we broke.
In other news:
- There's always speculation about who the new Department of Transportation commissioner will be whenever they change the drapes at Gracie Mansion. But we'll believe the rumors when they become fact (no disrespect to Ryan Russo or Nivardo Lopez, of course). (NYDN)
- We weren't going to get too deep into the early coverage of the race to succeed Rep. Jerry Nadler on the Upper West Side, but when candidate Jack Schlossberg started rolling up his right pant leg, we started rolling up our sleeves. (NY Post, NYDN, NY Times)
- Brighter lights, big city: A Council measure requires more illumination. (NYDN)
- Streetsblog made a big pitch to the mainstream media to cover state Sen. Andrew Gounardes's demonstration of speed-limiter technology in Brooklyn — and some outlets followed our advice! (NY Post)
- WABC TV is a lot more upset about a traffic backup than the pedestrian killing that caused it.
- Here we go again: Mainstream media is out to get the MTA for its bus network redesigns. (WCBS2)
- The blue highway is starting to come into shape. (W42St)
- NY1 is a bit late on the debate, so it's worth reminding everyone: The Court Street bike lane is awesome.
- Remember how Mayor Adams prided himself on how much housing he built? Well, at the Elizabeth Street Garden, he's much better at grinding axes than at pouring cement. (Hell Gate, Gothamist, NY Times)
- Meanwhile, Mayor-elect Mamdani said he'd raise the Parks Department budget. (QNS)
- Power jokers: The video of me and Miser at the live comedy show, "The Power Joker" from last month is up on YouTube. It's worth a watch. The next show is Dec. 19 and co-stars Ben Furnas of Transportation Alternatives. Tickets here.
- More subway lines will get cellphone service, WPIX reported, which reminds me of a hilarious video I did years ago for the Daily News when this was first discussed and I was young:
