Tuesday’s Headlines: ‘A Man, A Lander, A Plan Transit’ Edition

We’re not allowed to endorse candidates at Streetsblog — take it up with the IRS — but we can endorse ideas. And one idea we’ve long championed is that the federal government needs to allocate a higher percentage of its surface transportation money to transit, which moves a lot of people, rather than building highways, which ends up being a drain on taxpayers.

Well, would-be Rep. Brad Lander agrees with us, and he’s hawking a new transit proposal calling for a complete overhaul of how the feds spend money, which is currently split 80-20 (guess what mode gets the 20?). (Read the Lander plan here.)

Lander wants the highway-transit cash split 50-50. Even Steven. Halfsies. And Lander says he’ll also fight to lift the federal restriction that bars transit dollars from being spent on operations.

“Our outdated and arbitrary funding formula artificially preserves sprawl and hangs public transit and its riders out to dry,” reads the proposal from Lander, who is trying to take down incumbent centrist Rep. Dan Goldman in the progressive Lower Manhattan-Brownstone Brooklyn district. “Nearly four million people use our subway on an average weekday. A fair funding formula would ensure that our transit systems are fast, accessible, and affordable.”

But that’s only the half of it. It’s nice to increase transit funding, but selfishly speaking, what’s the point if New York City doesn’t benefit the most? After all, our transit system moves roughly half of the Americans who take transit every day, yet we get just 15 percent of federal transit funding.

“Brad will fight like hell for the funding that the city’s transit system deserves,” his campaign said.

With the June 23 primary looming, it’s not the first time our inbox has been filled with a progressive pol’s dreams of more equitable funding from the feds. Earlier this month, Assembly Member Claire Valdez, who is running in the neighboring district to succeed retiring Rep. Nydia Velazquez, sent us a proposal that also championed transit, though was a bit less specific than Lander’s.

In any event, it’s nice to see candidates put transit at the center of their federal campaigns. Gov. Hochul has been a reliable supporter of transit, but she can’t do it alone.

In other news:

• Speaking of candidates, we haven’t heard any livable streets or pro-bike policies coming from GOP gubernatorial nominee Bruce Blakeman, but he got a clean hit on the governor over her embrace of Uber’s insurance fever dream. (NY Post)
• A Queens woman was killed by a garbage truck driver. (NY Post, WPIX11)
• Is Dean Fuleihan “Dr. No” of the Mamdani administration? (NY Times)
• Perhaps Fuleihan is the reason protesters are demanding more funding for the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection? (amNY)
• Yeah, this is why we all go into journalism — to help scofflaws get their tickets erased. (WABC)
• The city is looking to shut down Empower, the new and unregulated taxi service. (NY Post)
• Public space needs to be safe not just from cars, but from jerks. The city has launched a new anti-harassment campaign. (Gothamist)
• Please stay out of the bike lanes, bus drivers! (Choresh Wald)
• Greenpoint to MTA: Just communicate with us. (Greenpointers)
• And, finally, our friend Liam Quigley offered this little example of criminal mischief: