Friday’s Headlines: NYDN BQE BS Edition

We generally appreciate the Daily News editorial board because it’s one of the few mainstream papers that is open to the idea that New York City should encourage and properly fund forms of transportation that are not the private automobile.

But on Thursday, the vaunted panel offered a boneheaded editorial that slammed Mayor Mamdani for his plan to spend $4 billion to shore up the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway for another 50 years.

The News is right that the plan is a loser, but the writers were right for the wrong reason.

First, New York’s supposed hometown paper taunted the Streetsblog crowd — “Sorry folks, it will have to remain a busy highway” — before calling on the mayor to upgrade the highway to interstate standards so it can qualify for federal funds. We can take the jibe, but we can’t take the News’s take: Spending even more money to make permanent one of the greatest assaults on urban life is setting more money aflame.

And, no, the BQE does not have to remain a busy highway. That’s a common refrain from the pillars of the status quo, but it’s also ignorant of history: time and time again, when urban highways are removed, car volumes drop and cities find other ways to move freight.

In fact, to reduce car volumes further, congestion pricing could be extended to the BQE, as Gothamist reported. At the very least, car owners should pay a greater share of the cost of any infrastructure used only by them at the detriment of the majority of New Yorkers who don’t use cars.

In other news:

• Oh, and speaking of the BQE, the mayor says he has $4 billion to shore it up for 40 years, but the Parks Department is claiming it ran out of money and therefore can’t fix the East River Esplanade, which requires couch-cushion money compared to the Robert Moses highway. So let’s be clear: Mayor Mamdani can fix a highway, but he can’t fix a greenway. (CBS2)
• It’s time to revisit the whole “privately owned public spaces” thing. (amNY)
• The right-on-red is not just dangerous, but frays the very fabric of our society. (Defector)
• Many outlets covered Wednesday night’s “die-in” at City Hall, including Streetsblog (twice!), Momentum, NY1 and amNY (with excellent Dean Moses pics).
• NJ Transit took a bath providing transit to the World Cup while FIFA grifters walked off with millions. (Trains)
• Speaking of Jersey, its eponymous city is making safety improvements. But that’s what you expect from JC. (Gothamist)
• Insurance fraud is far more rare than Gov. Hochul says, but two perpetrators are headed to prison. (NY Post)
• Yesterday, we mentioned new LIRR service to Montauk, and today we’re mentioning a Montauk-to-Manhattan pedestrian and cycling path. (Newsday)
• There was another mass attack by a motorist in France. (BBC)
• The Daily News and Gothamist got a second day of coverage of the triply fatal crash on the noxious Belt Parkway.
• And the Post followed earlier coverage of a fatal crash in Queens that killed a pedestrian.
• The Times just loves cars …
• … as does Vito Fossella, of course. (Searchlight)
• What’s more dangerous: a gun or an e-bike? Don’t ask if you live in conservative Orange County, California. (LA Times)
• In the U.S., distracted drivers blame pedestrians. In Japan, distracted drivers are retrained to stop driving so badly. (Japan Times)
• Finally, a great friend of the cycling community, and of Streetsblog, Steve Scofield, is suffering serious medical issues, and friends have put up a GoFundMe page for people to lend some support.