City Council

Politicker is reporting that Upper Manhattan Council Member Ydanis Rodriguez has the inside track on securing the transportation committee chairmanship, which multiple sources have corroborated with Streetsblog. While the final decision won't be announced until next week, sources say that council leadership will finalize the choice sooner than that, perhaps as early as today. The immediate question, then, is whether Rodriguez is the right person for the job at a time when the mayor is committed to comprehensively addressing traffic violence and reallocating street space to transit.

Almost immediately after Melissa Mark-Viverito was elected city council speaker yesterday, she formed the council's rules committee, installing her progressive caucus co-leader Brad Lander as its chair. Lander, like Mark-Viverito a livable streets stalwart who has also championed overhauling many of the council's procedures, is now in a prime position to help pick who will chair the council's committees.

Melissa Mark-Viverito will serve as the next New York City Council speaker following a vote today by her peers in the council. She now holds the second most powerful position in New York City politics, after the mayor himself, and will set the agenda for the City Council for the next four years. The vote was un-contested after her chief rival for the speakership, Dan Garodnick, officially conceded.

As one of his last acts in office, Mayor Michael Bloomberg vetoed a bill that would have required NYPD to report to the City Council and the public on hit-and-run crashes. With lead sponsor Leroy Comrie also gone from City Hall, Council Member Peter Koo plans to marshal an effort to override the veto.

The City Council yesterday passed legislation requiring NYPD to post regular reports on the most serious hit-and-run crashes, while a bill to lower speed limits on certain streets has been set aside until next year.

The City Council transportation committee passed a bill today that would require NYPD to issue quarterly reports on hit-and-run crashes and investigations.

A couple of months ago, NYPD brass told the City Council that it would be useless for the department to map where people are being killed and injured by motorists. On the other hand, Commissioner Ray Kelly believes the public will benefit from knowing where cars are being stolen.

Sanitation truck drivers are among the most dangerous to NYC pedestrians and cyclists, and two City Council bills that could lead to recycling -- rather than banning -- plastic-foam containers may end up putting 1,000 more trash haulers on city streets.

The City Council transportation committee met today to gather testimony on NYPD hit-and-run crash investigations, but NYPD didn't send anyone to the hearing. The committee also took up a bill that would codify updates to DOT's innovative Street Design Manual.