Aaron Naparstek

Over on Flickr, Gothamist is gathering some incredible shots of the aftermath of last night's storm and the chaos of this morning's commute. We'd love it if you would share your morning commute story here on Streetsblog. And check out these photos, thanks to Gothamist's remarkable network of contributors...

How did you get to work, or try to get to work, this morning -- subway, bus, bike, walking, telecommute? Let's hear some commuting stories.

Mary-Powel Thomas is President of the Community Education Council for School District 15 in Brooklyn. Back in June Thomas organized a pedestrian safety forum for schools, community groups and others who live and work along Brooklyn's dangerous Third and Fourth Avenue corridors where numerous pedestrians, kids and elderly people in particular, have been injured and killed by motor vehicles in recent months.

Tropical NYC: Storm Knocks Down Trees, Knocks Out Transit (Gothamist) Transit System Crippled by Flooding (CityRoom) US DOT Delays Decision on Congestion Pricing Grants — Not Today (CityRoom) Comptroller’s Report: Avoid MTA Fare Hike With More Subsidies (CityRoom) MTA Could Avoid Fare Hike if State Stopped Short-Changing It (News) 44 Years After Original Sin, NY’ers … Continued

A knowledgeable tipster submitted this gem to UncivilServants, the web-based watchdog for government parking abuse in New York City. The yellow Porsche Carrera, above, was spotted parked in front of a fire hydrant on the east side of Seventh Avenue, in Park Slope, Brooklyn, between Sterling Place and St. John's Place at about 7:30 pm on Sunday, July 29. On the dashboard, a Dept. of City Planning placard ensures that the windshield of this little beauty is unlikely ever to have a parking ticket placed upon it. A Patrolmen's Benevolent Association card sits atop the parking placard for good measure.

The city bureaucracy got it a little bit backwards, cracking down on bike commuting employees before actually offering them a new place to park their wheels. But this e-mail sent this morning to Dept. of Health employees working at 280 Broadway seems like a step in the right direction.

New York State Assembly Member Deborah Glick represents Chelsea, Greenwich Village, Tribeca and a good piece of Chinatown and Lower Manhattan. Encompassing the Holland Tunnel, Canal Street and a section of the Westside Highway, her district suffers from some of the worst traffic congestion in all of New York City. Transit-rich and offering some of the city's most walkable and bike-friendly streets (Jane Jacobs lived and worked in this Assembly district) Glick's constituents would likely be among the greatest beneficiaries of any traffic reduction plan.

Mayor’s Office Doled Out 130 New Parking Permits This Year (Post) RPA Says New Rail Station Could Accelerate South Bronx Revival (News) RELATED: Download RPA’s Hunts Point Study (RPA.org) Toll Roads and Free Transit: A New Pricing Paradigm? (Planetizen) In Support of the Congestion Charge (WashPost) VZ Bridge One-Way Toll Helping to Deteriorate Gowanus Expwy … Continued

Sheridan Swap is a new blog covering the Mother of All Livable Streets projects -- the long-running campaign to convert one mile of little-used highway running along the Bronx River into affordable housing, parkland, greenway and economic opportunity for one of the city's most beleaguered neighborhoods. The blog is run by the Southern Bronx River Watershed Alliance. The state, it seems, is getting ready to weigh in on the merits of the project:

If all goes according to plan, the decision to approve Mayor Bloomberg's congestion pricing proposal will be made by New York City's 51 Council members some time before March 28, 2008. Gotham Gazette called every single New York City Council member to ask where they stood on congestion pricing and here is what reporter Courtney Gross found: