Monday’s Headlines: Fix Bedford Now Edition

With almost six months in City Hall under his belt, Mayor Mamdani has yet to restore the three blocks of the Bedford Avenue protected bike lane his predecessor ripped up — defying his campaign pledge to complete projects altered, stalled or nixed by Eric Adams.

Streetsblog reporter Sophia Lebowitz asked City Hall about it last week, and the administration responded with pablum. “The mayor is proud to have restarted many street safety projects that were paused, cancelled or curtailed by the previous administration, and we will have more projects to announce in the weeks and months to come,” a spokesman said, adding, “Stay tuned!” (Read Lebowitz’s story here.)

That’s disappointing. And given that our popular “Mamdani-O-Meter” tracks the number of days since Mayor Mamdani last disappointed the livable streets movement, we’re resetting said meter to zero.

And we’re going to keep it at zero until the mayor follows through on his campaign pledge. Indeed, we wake up every morning disappointed that Bedford Avenue hasn’t been restored to safety (there were 47-percent fewer injuries on the strip before a portion of the bike lane was removed, according to DOT).

Mayor Mamdani promised to put safety over politics when it comes to designing city streets. “What we must do now is build for a new future. One that understands safety as something that is paramount, not as something that has to be negotiated,” he said in January, referring to the political gamesmanship that his predecessor conducted over street redesigns.

We couldn’t agree more with Mayor Mamdani, but anything less than a fully safe Bedford Avenue is zero.

In other news:

• A motorcyclist struck nine pedestrians in Commodore Barry Park in Brooklyn on Sunday, critically injuring four people. (Gothamist, NBC New York)
• The City Council refuses to pass a budget amid a disagreement with the mayor over whether to expand CityFHEPS rental vouchers. (City & State, Gothamist)
• A Staten Island woman died four days after a hit-and-run BMW driver struck her in Port Richmond. (NY Post)
• A rule requiring cops to open up pools means they sometimes open behind schedule. (Gothamist)
• The Red Hook pool will remain closed for the second summer in a row — an outrage that we’ll be following. (Hell Gate)
• Uber says it will implement “stricter background checks” following a Times investigation. (NY Times)
• Amtrak claims its Penn Station renovation will include public seating. (Gothamist)
• DOT and politicians gave the Stonewall rainbow crosswalk a fresh coat of paint on Friday. (Gothamist)
• The 90-year-old “helix” into the Lincoln Tunnel will undergo repairs. (NJ.com)
• Staten Island B.P. Vito Fosella wants NYC Ferry to go electric and connect to more parts of the Rock. (1010WINS via X)
• A hit-and-run driver killed two woman walking home from a World Cup watch party in Newark. (NY Post)
• With Jerry Nadler retiring, Brad Lander told Ben Max he hopes to carry the Big Apple transportation wonk torch in Congress. (Max Politics via Soundcloud)