Monday’s Headlines: Vive La France Edition
Paris is still showing the way.
We were happy to see that Mayor Mamdani set aside some time on Friday afternoon to meet with Paris’s new mayor, Emmanuel Grégoire, who has quickly emerged from his predecessor Anne Hidalgo’s long shadow (that Election Night bike ride didn’t hurt).
We weren’t invited to the private confab (quelle que soit la qualité de notre français!), but ace reporter Katie Honan tweeted all the best details:
We learned, per a City Hall spokesperson, that the pair had “a warm and productive discussion” that touched on “pedestrianization, the expansion of bus lanes, and Paris’s bold approach to growing its bike network.”
“Mayor Mamdani also expressed admiration for Paris’s successful school streets program, which has transformed streets around schools into safer, greener spaces for children and families,” continued the statement (which neglected to point out that we have only 70 or so school streets in a city with 1,000 schools).
The spokesperson concluded that the two mayors “look forward to … continuing to share ideas and best practices as both cities work to build safer, greener, and more livable cities.”
Given that Paris is the envy of the world, let’s hope Grégoire does most of the sharing.
In other news:
- The big story over the weekend was the death of Daria Serkov, who was on the back of a Citi Bike on Friday night when a truck driver hit her and the 16-year-old friend who was piloting the e-bike. Streetsblog had initial coverage, but the Daily News did the full hearts-and-flowers and the Post tried to keep up.
- Waymo is greenwashing its lobbying effort. (Streetsblog Empire State, NY Post)
- Our friend Charles Komanoff concluded his three-part series on his transformation from nuclear skeptic to nuke advocate. (Carbon Tax Center)
- The Times did a whole story about traffic on the East Side during the United Nations General Assembly, but didn’t even consider the full pedestrianization solution we presented last week. (Gothamist also blew us off.)
- The City Reporter did a deep dive on the Mayor’s Management Report, covering the 12 months from July 1, 2025 through June 30, 2026 — and it reveals really how bad a job Mayor Eric Adams did …
- … though Mayor Mamdani is on notice that advocates want more bus lanes. (amNY)
- Speaking of the management report, ambulance response times are up again, but not because of bike lanes, as the old canard goes, but because “emergency medical technicians have left the job in high numbers, frustrated by what union officials describe as low pay for grueling work,” the Times reported.
- Call this Staten Island logic: We hate that the city took car space to make the bus lane — and we hate how narrow the bus lane is. (Advance)
- Speeding tickets are coming to reckless drivers on MTA bridges and tunnels. (Gothamist)
- In the Hamptons, paving paradise to put up a parking lot. (NY Times)
- Tactical urbanists in Boston are showing the way. (CBS2)
- Subway token booths continue to defy the demise of the token. (NY Times)
- New Jersey commuters will suffer again, but at least it’s for a good cause. (NY Times)
- This isn’t livable streets news, but some stories transcend the streetscape: The president will be at Gracie Mansion on Monday. (City and State, Crain’s, NYDN)
- Once again, the Times’s Metropolitan Diary reveals its love of meet-cute parking stories.
- Colin Jost and Pete Davidson finally put their Staten Island Ferry to good news … for one night. (NY Times)
- And, finally, members of the New York City chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America rallied for free buses on Saturday and the group sent over this cross-generation picture:
