Media Watch

While the city is recovering from disaster and New Yorkers are trying to get back to work, members of the city's political press once again showed their true colors: For some, the top concern is being able to gas up their single-occupancy vehicles and drive around Manhattan unimpeded.

When I happened upon the trailer for "Margaret" I could scarcely believe it. Did Hollywood really make an A-lister movie about a New York City pedestrian who is struck and killed by an MTA bus driver? I thought it must surely be a secondary plot line, the shared trauma that serves to catalyze a love affair between beautiful witnesses or some such. For the most part, I was wrong.

For an organization that claims to be in favor of red light cameras, AAA New York has a funny way of showing its support.

New York City bicyclists will celebrate bike activism’s past, present and future this evening in a ride from Greenwich Village to Central Park South and back to the Village, culminating in a community forum at Cooper Union. These linked happenings come the day after the New York Times managed to twist its big story on the July 2011-June 2012 spike in NYC traffic fatalities into a jab at DOT Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan’s livable streets makeover.

If you haven't seen Norman Steisel's column in today's Daily News, take a gander. Presumably, News readers are to believe that a lead player in the effort to erase safety gains for his cycling neighbors in Brooklyn, the man who to this day is involved in a protracted legal battle that has had a chilling effect on safe streets projects across the city, is excited -- "in a good way" -- about bike-share. Here's a taste:

Strip the conclusions from Alex Nazaryan's bike lane review in yesterday's Daily News -- by my count, the 434th "Vicious Cycle" headline of the past three years -- and you actually come away with some observations about NYC streets that I think most people who bike in the city would agree with.

Today, Arthur Browne's Daily News penned another anti-bike editorial, this one blaming cyclists for the cramped conditions on the Brooklyn Bridge promenade and decrying a series of near-miss incidents. Meanwhile, the paper has yet to weigh in on the 164 traffic deaths in New York City through July this year. Here's what might appear on the Daily News opinion page if the paper ever gets serious about making streets safer for New Yorkers. 

The term "limousine liberal," first used against Mayor John Lindsay in 1969, was intended to call out hypocrisy among elites who, for example, urged support for transit but instead relied on private cars to get themselves around New York. With the latest New Yorker cover from Bruce McCall, it might be time for the phrase to make a comeback.

We noticed you've taken an interest in traffic injuries lately. This is a welcome development.