Tuesday’s Headlines: Mike Flynn Edition
Former Mayor Eric Adams repeatedly talked up “community engagement” as his priority for the Department of Transportation under his leadership over, in his words, “how many bike miles I do… how many bus lanes I do.”
His successor Mayor Mamdani has a different philosophy — which new DOT Commissioner Mike Flynn articulated in an interview with the City Reporter’s FAQ NYC podcast released on Monday.
As Flynn put it to host Katie Honan, DOT under Mamdani values community engagement — but not at the expense of the policy goals that he campaigned on last year.
“It needs to be done sort of with some direction. We still have our overall policy goals: We know we want to move buses faster. We know we want to ultimately eliminate traffic fatalities. We know that we want to support the most disadvantaged New Yorkers. We know we want to make it easier to do business in New York City. So these are all kind of our North Star,” he said. “When we do community engagement, when we talk to communities, we need to keep the focus on the outcomes [and] where we need to get to, and let’s work together to figure out the best way to get there. But it can’t be used as something that just derails good ideas, or if it’s a venue only for the loudest voices to be heard.”
Also discussed by Flynn and Honan: e-bikes, traffic enfrocement, bus lanes, the BQE and the administration’s efforts to get projects stalled or canceled by Adams back in the DOT implementation pipeline.
Listen to the whole thing here or wherever you get your podcasts — the interview starts after the 20 minute mark.
In other news:
- A man was found dead in his apartment in June just days after being hospitalized for injuries sustained as a pedestrian in a Bronx hit-and-run. (News 12)
- NY1 covered the new push for $3 Citi Bike e-bike rides.
- MTA Chair Janno Lieber trashed Amtrak at its press conference celebrating the completion of the 15-month rehab of one of its East River tunnels. (Gothamist, ABC7)
- Donovan Richards will host a Queens community bike ride on Sept. 20 with Transportation Atlernatives and the Parks Department. (QNS)
- A 10-acre Jersey City parking lot could become housing. (NJ.com)
- See it: shame stickers appear to have led to an increase in Alternate Side compliance in Williamsburg. (WMSBG via X)
- Staten Island was left out of the mayor’s bus rapid transit plans, according to this news story that fails to mention the borough pols’ opposition to bus lanes. (S.I. Advance)
Read More:
Streetsblog has migrated to a new comment system. New commenters can register directly in the comments section of any article. Returning commenters: your previous comments and display name have been preserved, but you'll need to reclaim your account by clicking "Forgot your password?" on the sign-in form, entering your email, and following the verification link to set a new password — this is required because passwords could not be carried over during the migration. For questions, contact tips@streetsblog.org.
