Tuesday’s Headlines: Does Zohran Mamdani Know Billy Idol Edition

Last week, we ran a blockbuster story about how lawmakers at all levels of government are trying to undermine New York City’s citizen enforcement program against idling trucks — a decade-old program that awards idling complainants a portion of the resulting ticket.

The city has banned idling since the Lindsay administration — but finally allowed residents to get a “bounty” on tickets in 2018, a program that was relaunched in a high-profile 2020 event at City Hall where singer Billy Idol snarlingly endorsed the slogan, “Billy never idles” (the late February press conference with then-Mayor Bill de Blasio was also a notorious super-spreader event, but that’s not important right now).

Given the attacks on the program, we sent Sophia Lebowitz to the mayor’s presser at City Hall to ask if he would let the program die or bolster it (Lebowitz reminded the mayor, after all, that City Hall recently celebrated collecting nearly $10 million in unpaid idling fines from Amazon). In short, she asked, “Do you support the city’s longstanding practice of giving idling complainants a share of the fine if their complaint is successful?”

The mayor started out oddly. “You said this is a longstanding practice?” he asked. (Yes, longstanding, she said.)

The mayor was still on shaky ground: “I think that, you know, we have, we are looking to make it easier for New Yorkers to breathe in this city. 
And part of that means that we are taking every measure that we can to prevent not only the flouting of our laws, but also the rampant idling that we see across our city, and this longstanding city policy is something that we do support.”

So there you have it, pro-pollution pols: The mayor has issued his rebel yell.

In other news:

• How did we miss Andy Newman’s amazing timeline of how New York City basically allowed itself to be overwhelmed by cars? (NY Times)
• Speaking of timelines, here’s a great history piece on the city’s farmer’s markets. (Curbed)
• We’re not sure this take — “New York City defeated Waymo!” — is going to age well. (Futurism)
• So let’s see if you can follow Rupert’s logic: When another city does something well, it. obviously can’t be replicated in New York City. And when another city does something poorly, it’s obviously Mamdani’s fault. (NY Post)
• Carnage in Queens — in a crosswalk! (NYDN)
• Andy Byford wants the MTA to un-opt out of the Penn Station renovation — the one it opted out of because President Trump took the ball and went home. (Gothamist)
• Even though she rarely skips a chance to derogate Streetsblog or the livable streets movement that we cover, Council Member Joann Ariola quoted our seminal coverage of Mayor Mamdani’s backtrack on QueensLink in her Rockaway Wave op-ed.
• As we’ve always said, car ownership is a debt trap. Meet the people who add to the misery. (New Yorker)
• Cops tracked a killer hit-and-run driver to Illinois before arresting him for killing a kid. (NYDN, NY Post)
• The coffee shop down the block from my apartment banned Rep. Dan Goldman because of his stance on Israel. (Will the ban carry over if Goldman is defeated in today’s election by Brad Lander? Stay tuned). (NY Times, amNY)
• Speaking of Election Day, here’s amNY’s preview. Meanwhile, Hell Gate focused on the battle of the Jessicas in Queens.
• A woman doing nothing more than waving the American flag (upside down, in protest to federal immigration policy) was run down by the driver of a Dodge Charger. (NY Times)
• Didn’t get enough of the celebration that followed the Knicks’ Game 5 win? A guy on Twitter is collecting street camera footage at The Night New York Won.
• Speaking of the night of Game 5, it was like New Year’s Eve on the subway. (Gothamist)
• And, finally, our Streetfilms colleague Clarence Eckerson Jr. is still dominating the Department of Transportation’s Curb Enthusiasm podcast with a new clip: