Christine Quinn

If you're like most New York commuters, you took a train or bus to get to work today. And like most New Yorkers, you are invisible to the City Council and speaker Christine Quinn.

On Monday we published the revised schedule for this week's City Council hearing in James Vacca's transportation committee. Out with oversight of the MTA budget and its consequences for straphangers, in with bills to make parking more convenient. Maybe we were being a little unfair with that post, because the person who ultimately sets the agenda for the City Council isn't Vacca, but Speaker Christine Quinn.

Yesterday the City Council passed Lew Fidler's Intro 412 -- the bill mandating community board notification about the installation of bike lanes -- setting the stage for some showboating from Fidler, Speaker Christine Quinn and Transportation Committee Chair James Vacca.

In her State of the City address this afternoon, City Council Speaker Christine Quinn laid out her priorities for the year ahead. Her speech focused on four issue areas: balancing the city budget, creating jobs, preserving affordable housing and parking.

At a public hearing held by the Fire Department this morning, every person who testified spoke against charging a fee for FDNY response to traffic crashes, calling it inappropriate to make drivers pay for what they said ought to be a basic government function.

Bloomberg administration officials have now twice appeared in front of the City Council to oppose legislation requiring that the city post up-to-date information about traffic crashes and summonses online. In April, the NYPD testified that such a reporting requirement would be a burden on the department and that the public couldn't interpret that kind of information. And last week the DOT argued that it wasn't the right agency to release such information.

Officials held a ribbon cutting ceremony for the suburban-style East River Plaza shopping complex today. The fleet of cars that the city's leading politicians and developers arrived in barely registered in the mall's giant parking lot.

While receiving an honor from AARP last night, Mayor Michael Bloomberg and City Council Speaker Christine Quinn reiterated their support for the Age-Friendly New York City plan to make the city work better for senior citizens. Because New York's elderly pedestrians are at the greatest risk from motor vehicles, the Age-Friendly New York program includes a number of pedestrian safety components. Though Bloomberg and Quinn reiterated their support for these programs last night, perhaps the most enthusiasm for redesigning streets to better serve older New Yorkers came from Linda Gibbs, deputy mayor for health and human services.

Electeds and other officials gathered with representatives from AARP today to pledge support for street improvements and to call on Albany to pass complete streets legislation.