Today’s Headlines

ALBANY — Streetsblog's David Meyer and Gersh Kuntzman remain in the state capital, where Gov. Cuomo will deliver his State of the State address later today. To recap, we spent all day Monday interviewing lawmakers about their bizarre reluctance to get behind congestion pricing, which could create a new stream of funding for mass transit while discouraging automobile use in Manhattan (the term "win-win" comes to mind).

Streetsblog's New York-based team of Gersh Kuntzman and David Meyer is in Albany on Monday and Tuesday — and, man, it looked like that duo picked the wrong week to stop sniffing glue! (It's going to be a busy week upstate, that is!)

Guess what? One day after a group of self-styled pro-parking, anti-bike lane activists in Greenwich Village demanded the removal of new bike lanes on 12th and 13th streets, the lanes were vandalized with glass and signs demanding the return of "our" parking, as Streetsblog reported. It's the second time that someone from the pro-car crowd attacked cyclists. In November, someone spread thumb tacks in the 43rd Street protected lane in Sunnyside, Queens.

Mayor de Blasio will give his "State of the City" address today at City Hall, which is basically a bar mitzvah for the political establishment, minus your Bubbe slipping a $25 savings bond into your hand and whispering, "Don't tell your mother I gave you so much." Check back later to read our fact-check if Hizzoner talks about bikes, transit, Clear Streets, Select Bus Service or anything else related to livable streets. Maybe he'll talk about placard abuse (don't hold your breath).

It's the Democrats' day in Albany, as the legislative session finally begins — and lots of newcomers take their seats. Streetsblog wishes lots of luck — and congestion pricing! — to new senators Zellnor Myrie, Julia Salazar, Alessandra Biaggi, Robert Jackson, Jessica Ramos and Andrew Gounardes (plus new Assembly Members Catalina Cruz and Mathylde Frontus). We invite all lawmakers to a drink on Monday and Tuesday next week when the Streetsblog team travels to the State Capital for our annual, "Streetsblog Goes Up the River" trip.

New details are starting to slowly emerge about the the Andrew Cuomo-endorsed plan to repair the L train without shutting down its East River tunnel for 15 months. The Daily News reported that MTA engineers had considered — and rejected — a version of the Cuomo plan once before. Meanwhile, the Post played up NYC Transit President Andy Byford admitting that he's on the hook for the success or failure of the Cuomo plan.

Well, that was fast!

It was all L train all the time on Thursday, what with Gov. Cuomo announcing — sort of out of the blue — that he was abandoning the L-train shutdown, which has been needed since Hurricane Sandy in 2012, and has been the subject of three years of intense planning.

We encountered an illegally parked Reliant school bus in Downtown Brooklyn on Wednesday and decided to run the plate through Streetsie Award winner Brian Howald's indispensable @howsmydrivingny account: It turns out, the public school bus had run red lights or been caught speeding nine times! Hello, anyone awake at the switch at the Department of Education?