Monday’s Headlines: Turn-SPIKED! Edition

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Down goes Murphy!

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy’s plans to widen the New Jersey Turnpike died a quiet death on Friday when the outgoing chief executive put the kibosh on plans to add new travel lanes east of Exit 14A.

Garden State officials still plan to replace and widen the Newark Bay Bridge, but the additional “travel lane in each direction between Interchanges 14A and 14C … will no longer be built,” Murphy’s office said in a statement.

Instead, the state will build new ramps connecting Exit 14A to the ports of Bayonne and Jersey City, the release said.

Local politicians praised the “compromise” move, but highway widening opponents aren’t celebrating: The Turnpike Trap Coalition condemned the continued plans to widen the bridge.

“The increased traffic … will cause even more cars to cut through local Jersey City streets to reach the Holland Tunnel worsening Jersey City’s already bad traffic and air,” the group said in a statement.

NJ Advance Media had the story, which no one else appeared to cover.

In other news:

• Big ups to our latest round of end-of-year donors: Thanks, Bill! Thanks, Adam! Thanks, Nicolle! Thanks, Isaac! Thanks, Daniel! Thanks Peter! And, without naming names, one of these benefactors (you know who you are) qualified for our special gift this year. Want one? You know what to do.
• Among Vital City‘s ideas for Mayor Mamdani: “rein in placard abuse” and “curb curbside chaos.”
• Meanwhile, our editor took it a step further, telling Hell Gate that Mamdani should “eliminate placards altogether.”
• The city did a terrible job clearing ice from bus stops, parks and schools after last week’s tiny little snowstorm. (NY Post)
• Joe Biden’s former (acting) Labor Secretary Julie Su will oversee labor and consumer regulation as the city’s first ever “Deputy Mayor for Economic Justice.” (NY Times)
• An 88-year-old Upper East Sider died two weeks after a driver struck him in Yorkville. (Upper East Site)
• Bad idea alert: Staten Island pols want to widen a segment of Arthur Kill Road … (S.I. Advance)
• … while their local paper whined on behalf of reckless drivers.
• The city will bar cars on several blocks of Broadway outside City Hall for Zohran Mamdani’s inauguration/block party. (NY Post, amNY, Gothamist)
• Council Member Vickie Paladino is under investigation by the Council Ethic Committee after calling for the “expulsion of Muslims from western nations.” (City & State)
• So long, Elise Stefanik. We hardly knew ye! (NY Times)
• The City Council passed a bill requiring the NYPD to figure out a way for journalists to access its radio feeds, while Gov. Hochul vetoed legislation to require feeds be made public statewide. (amNY, Jason Beeferman via X)
• Mayor Adams’s EDC chief Andrew Kimball isn’t sticking around for the Mamdani administration. (Crain’s)
• Say goodbye to the Port Authority Bus Terminal’s rooftop parking lot. (W42ST)
• The MTA’s latest anti-fare evasion turnstile redesign is off to a “bumpy” start, the Times and amNY reported — while The Post panned the new turnstile “fins.”
• Also on the fare evasion beat: LIRR and Metro-North riders will soon be charged $2 for buying tickets they don’t immediately activate. (PIX11)
• Federal Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy’s pregnant daughter called for the TSA to be abolished. To make a long story short: she declined to go through the body scanners … and then complained that “passive-aggressive” TSA agents took too long to pat her down. (NY Times)
• Perfect headline, no notes: “Another day, another empty threat from the Trump administration over transit funding.” (Gothamist)
• Mamdani endorsed Diana Moreno to succeed him in the State Assembly. (Queens Eagle)
• The Brown University shooter used a fake license plate to hide his tracks. (NY Times)
• Miles Taylor and Jeremy Zorek rode from Putnam County to Suffolk County using only a Metrocard. (NY1)
• Related: The Transit Museum has a new exhibit honoring the MetroCard in the run-up to the outgoing fare payment system’s official demise. (NY Post)
• And, finally, we don’t usually do this — especially during our own December Donation Drive — but if you’re looking for one last Christmas present, we recommend “Flaco” (Blurring Books) the coffee table book about the liberated owl whose year-long quest for freedom captivated the world. We’d be remiss if we didn’t mention our interest: Also mentioned in the book is that other great owl, albeit a barred owl, Barry, who was killed by a truck driver inside Central Park, as Streetsblog vigorously reported. But Barry is just a side actor here — Jonathan Hollingsworth’s “Flaco” features gorgeous photos of the main attraction: the owl whose life was indeed a metaphor for freedom itself. Buy it at your favorite bookstore (not Amazon).