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Bill Thompson Was for Bike Lanes Before He Was Against Them
The current iteration of Grand Street, by most any objective measure, has to be considered a success. In the year since it was reconfigured to host the city's first parking-protected bike lane, with the blessing of Community Board 2, injuries are down 30 percent, with about 1,000 cyclists using the lane daily.
September 22, 2009
Bill Thompson: I’ll Rip Out Bike Lanes and “Review” Safer Streets
Bill Thompson is making it pretty hard for New Yorkers who care about safe streets to get behind his campaign for mayor. With Tony Avella out of the way, Thompson has no bike lane-bashing rival nipping at his heels. There's no anti-livable streets flank to shore up. But that didn't stop the Democratic nominee from telling a NY1 crew that he'll rip out the Grand Street bike lane at the first opportunity:
September 18, 2009
Voters Reject Incumbents in Low Turnout Primary
The biggest news from last night's primaries has to be the ouster of no fewer than four sitting City Council members in a vote marked by low turnout. A fifth incumbent, Maria Baez, looks extremely likely to lose her seat, trailing by 100 votes. In these local primaries, where several winning candidates failed to clear the 2,000 vote threshold, that pretty much qualifies as a solid mandate for challenger Fernando Cabrera. A sixth, Queens rep Thomas White, leads by six votes -- with 1,849 to his credit in the un-certified tally.
September 16, 2009
Today’s Headlines — NYC Primaries Edition
Meet a few of your (highly probable) new City Council members:
September 16, 2009
Election Predictions and Returns: Discuss!
Despite the number of important races to be decided today, signs point to an abysmally low voter turnout. Like many who have reported in, when I voted at around 2:00 this afternoon there was no wait time at my polling place, Good Shepherd Church on Cooper Street in Inwood.
September 15, 2009
Election Open Thread: How Was Your Trip to the Polls?
It's finally here: primary day, with a slew of key races to be decided before the polls close at 9:00 tonight.
September 15, 2009
Can Livable Streets Activism Revive the Public Advocate’s Office?
From a livable streets perspective, the race for public advocate is that rare contest with no clear-cut villains.
September 14, 2009
New Yorkers: Tomorrow Your Vote Really Counts!
If you live in New York City you've probably been conditioned to believe your vote doesn't count all that much. Fundraising and media appearances aside, presidential campaigns mostly ignore New York while the Electoral College ensures that the votes of people who live in places like North Dakota and Wyoming are nearly three times more valuable than our own. Every once in a while we see a contested Congressional race but even the most shockingly useless incumbents are impossible to get rid of. U.S. Senators, these days, are machine-picked like non-organic industrial produce. And in the New York state legislature, incumbents are re-elected more than 90 percent of the time. Assembly Members and State Senators leave office in handcuffs and pine boxes.
September 14, 2009
Manhattan’s Next Top Prosecutor: This Is It
Two pedestrians were killed in Brooklyn over the weekend. Saturday evening, 66-year-old Fred Wilson took the family dog and went out for ice cream. He had only walked a short distance from his Gerritsen Avenue home when he was hit by an unidentified driver. He died soon after at Kings County Hospital.
September 14, 2009
The Comptroller Race: Who Will Stand Up for Transit?
We've got two more citywide elections to review on the eve of tomorrow's primary vote -- the contests for comptroller and public advocate.
September 14, 2009