Thursday’s Headlines: Is This Election Season Or Not Edition
Hey, candidates, why the silence? Aren’t you trying to, um, win an election?!
The people to whom that exhortation is directed know who they are, but Streetsblog readers should be aware that we are doing our best to inform you of the relevant issues in the upcoming June 23 Democratic primaries for various Congressional seats around town.
Case in point: Today we are presenting the answers to our annual livable streets questionnaire from four top competitors to succeed Rep. Nydia Velazquez in New York’s Seventh congressional district. We are publishing it because we can: Council Member Julie Won, Assembly Member Claire Valdez, Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso and public defender Vichal Kumar all answered our questions. (Read the online debate here.)
In the meantime, what’s wrong with the rest of you candidates? We’ve reached out to all office-seekers in four vitally important Congressional races, yet are still waiting for answers from:
- Paperboy Prince, also seeking to replace Velazquez in NY-7 (though he appears to also be running for the state Assembly).
- Rep. Dan Goldman, the incumbent in NY-10, which covers Lower Manhattan and part of Brooklyn.
- Christopher Diep, Assembly Member Alex Bores, George Conway, Nina Schwalbe, Patrick Timmins and Kennedy scion Jack Schlossberg, all of whom are hoping to succeed Rep. Jerry Nadler in NY-12, which covers the Upper East and Upper West sides.
- Rep. Adriano Espaillat, the incumbent in the 13th congressional district of Upper Manhattan, along with challengers Oscar Romero and Theo Chino-Tavarez.
Let the above list function as a public shaming. The sooner those candidates get us their answers, the sooner we can publish them. And if they don’t respond, their opponents are going to get a lot of free press.
In other news:
- Other outlets got around to posting stories about the raucous Upper West Side community board meeting that we wrote about yesterday. The West Side Rag was more or less a transcript.
- The Independent Budget Office put out a doorstop of a report to assess the cost of both free buses and expanding Fair Fares. The agency seemed to be saying that Fair Fares would do more for less. (amNY)
- New York’s electrical grid just got a lot cleaner thanks to Canadian water. (The City Reporter)
- Gothamist tried to make sense of the DOT’s announcement about deploying lots of sensors to provide more data on road safety, but the dispatch raised more questions than it answered: for instance, we’d love to know more about how these sensors will determine “when a car’s door almost hits a cyclist.”
- It must be nice to live in a neighborhood where cops are all locals and don’t all live in the suburbs. (Williamsburg News)
- Elmhurst wants its old LIRR station back. (WCBS)
- As amNY scooped, DOT says it’s expanding its micro hub program, which is exciting to all of us … except Lincoln Restler.
- NY1 betrayed its usual solid reporting on cycling with an Instagram reel that opens with a cyclist nearly getting killed by an “influencer” who doored him … for a segment about how dangerous bicyclists are!
- And, finally, Knicks! Party in the street!
Read More:
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