Today’s Headlines

We checked out the gala preview of the Museum of the City of New York's "Cycling in the City" exhibit last night, "partying" with Friends of Streetsblog Jon Orcutt, Charles Komanoff, Helen Ho, Do Lee, Ken Podziba and many other safe streets legends. During the wine-and-cheese hour, someone called Streetfilms auteur Clarence Eckerson Jr. "the Orson Welles of the street." (We consider ourselves the "Orson Beane of the street," but that's us.) In any event, check out the show — or read Julianne Cuba's review on Streetsblog. Gothamist also did a photo-filled story.

Have you been loving how we have been bashing Mayor de Blasio for four straight days? It all started when the mayor came up with this crazy plan to curb placard abuse by building more free parking for cops, which we thought was dumb because we all know that free parking dramatically increases the chance that someone will drive to work — which is bad.

Yes, you read that right: The greatest athlete in the history of the world, Usain Bolt, will come to City Hall today to show off a new line of scooters from a company that bears his name (and had better be paying him royally). Streetsblog will be there, if only to test-ride some new micro-mobility with the biggest name in scooters since Paul Steely White joined Bird.

Mayor de Blasio needs to end his opposition to car-free zones in the city.

It was an incredibly slow news day yesterday ... for the mainstream media, that is. We at Streetsblog were burning the (carbon-free) candle all day with stories about a woman run over by a reckless, uncharged driver, trouble for the 14th Street "busway," a great new speed camera bill from newly elected State Senator Andrew Gounardes and a story every other media outlet should pick up: How Mayor de Blasio's plan to build or buy parking for cops will fail on multiple levels.

Nothing gets tabloid blood racing more than hypocrisy by beloved politicians. So reporters at New York's tabloid of record, the New York Post, were right to go after Green New Dealer Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for her gas-guzzling transportation choices. Or were they? On Wednesday, Laura Bliss at City Lab took the longer, broader, more-intellectual view, concluding that it's a missed opportunity to focus on mocking our elected officials when they make the same missteps that we all make. Instead, we should all be working to make it easier for everyone to avoid the missteps in the first place.

We called it: Tuesday was Council Speaker's Corey Johnson's day. His "State of the City" address wasn't a broad overview of where we are as a metropolis: It was a stinging indictment of how Mayor de Blasio (and to a lesser extent Governor Cuomo) have handled transportation, the life blood of the city.

Council Speaker Corey Johnson will give a State of the City address (not to be confused with the State of the City address) this afternoon in Queens, but our own David Meyer spoiled some of the fun — so when Johnson mentions city control of the subway, click here for the primer. (NY1 also offered its own preview.)

So Mayor de Blasio gave all the public school kids a day off because of the snow, meaning that parents all over the city are scrambling to make alternate arrangements so they don't lose their jobs. We have to point out that this might not be happening if the mayor hadn't given free parking to 50,000 teachers, meaning they're far more likely to drive to work. No free parking means far less driving and far more safety for everyone, snow or no snow.