Thursday’s Headlines: Our Big Party Edition

On June 16, 2006, Aaron Naparstek posted Streetsblog’s first real story, “The $46 Million Parking Perk,” about the theft of tens of millions of dollars’ worth of public space by a group of New Yorkers whom Naparstek politely called “illegally parked government employees.”

The story exposed how placard perps and other plastic-entitled criminals fill the city’s civic hubs and downtown loading zones with their personal cars, a practice that reduces city parking revenue, causes congestion and unsafe streets, and makes it harder for local businesses.

That one story set off a wildfire that Streetsblog — first under Naparstek then under Editors Ben Fried and myself — has continued to stoke. Placard corruption is just one of the many car-adjacent behaviors that undermine the quality of life of our great city, but there are so many others, as you can read pretty much every day in these pages.

Given the publication date of Naparstek’s seminal piece, it’s time to celebrate our 20th anniversary! And where else to do that but on a car-free open street? To paraphrase the great sage Hillel: if not Streetsblog, who? And if not now, when?

Indeed, who better than Streetsblog to celebrate open streets, given how long we championed them in these pages? And when would possibly be a better time than in the middle of the latest open street and bike lane backlash? The time is now for all of us to defend the few crumbs of car-free space given to us by our city’s political elite — which drives or is driven everywhere.

So whenever you see this logo in the next few days, click on it for updates on the big party. But most important: Set your calendar and join us (and Naparstek himself) on June 13.

In other news:

• The big non-party story yesterday was that Amtrak revealed that it has chosen Trump-linked ASTM to redesign Penn Station in a way that will not require Madison Square Garden to relocate for the fourth time. We’re going to take a little more time than the dailies to properly analyze what it all means for the city (and its taxpayers?), so check back tomorrow. Until then, the Daily News, the Post, the Times, Gothamist provided the first draft of history.
• And, of course, many people online noticed that Amtrak and the U.S. DOT’s press release misspelled the surname of DOT Secretary Sean Duffy — who, apparently, is getting really Duggy with it:

• Liam Quigley continued his excellent reporting on the scam of private tow trucks. (Gothamist)
• Remember how yesterday, we led the headlines with the car that exploded in front of the 28th Precinct station house? Well, that was only one of the car explosions that day. (NY Post)
• And yesterday, a bus caught fire! (NY Post)
• This week’s Long Island Rail Road walkout holds a lesson for Gov. Hochul: A bigger labor battle is on its way. (NY Post)
• Who doesn’t like a well-lit street? (Vital City)
• Sure, NJ Transit is ready for the World Cup. (NJ Transit via Twitter)
• And, finally, my guess is that you share our obsession with the “public” part of the term “privately owned public space” — you know, those nice front-of-building plazas that developers set aside for the public in exchange for being allowed to add profitable floors to the top of a building. The rules are clear: The public is allowed to use this space. But that’s not what’s happening at 780 Third Avenue. If the address sounds familiar, it’s where Sen. Chuck Schumer and some of the most powerful financial companies have their headquarters — and those kinds of people don’t want “the public” hanging around, as the new Instagram account, 780_Lord_of_Bench makes clear (also covered by Hell Gate in its morning spew):