Friday Headlines: E-Moto Mitigation Edition
State Sen. Kristen Gonzalez and Assemblymember Diana Moreno introduced legislation that would finally outlaw selling e-motos in New York — devices illegal to ride on streets but, thanks to a persistent legal gray area, still perfectly legal to sell for “private use.”
The bill would also ban falsely marketing them as legal e-bikes. From 2017 to 2025, 54 percent of e-bike deaths involved e-motos exceeding 25 mph, including teenager Gabriel Nacato, killed in July on a device advertised with instructions for disabling its speed limiter. Gonzalez represents the Queensboro Bridge bike path where two cyclists died in a head-on crash involving a similar machine earlier this year.
Streetsblog’s Sophia Lebowitz went on morning television to discuss the issue even further.
Elsewhere in the Empire State:
- The final stretch of the $2.3 billion Portal North Bridge project — swapping the last of two Northeast Corridor tracks from the century-old swing bridge onto the new fixed span — is set to bring another round of Amtrak and NJ Transit disruptions this fall, following the roughly month-long reduction in February and March. (The New York Times)
- With polling showing the governor’s race tightening, the Times profiles Bruce Blakeman’s bid to become the state’s first Republican governor since George Pataki, and whether the Nassau County executive’s Trump-aligned, anti-Mamdani campaign can actually flip a state where Democrats still outnumber Republicans two-to-one. (The New York Times)
- Blakeman’s campaign is mailing voters outside NYC images tying Gov. Hochul to Mayor Mamdani on taxes, crime and utility costs — the same “Comrade Kathy”/”lockstep with Mamdani” line he’s been running since the spring — and Hochul dismissed the mailer during a swing through Nassau and Suffolk counties this week. (The New York Post)
- NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch says to expect “multiple protests every day” during next week’s UN General Assembly, with rolling street closures around the UN complex starting Sunday, a flight restriction over Midtown, and Benjamin Netanyahu’s Thursday address drawing particular attention after Mayor Mamdani urged New Yorkers to protest him. (Gothamist)
- A visually impaired mom and Week Without Driving founder makes the case that e-bikes are a lifeline for nondrivers with vision loss and other disabilities — and warns that license-required e-bike laws like the one that just kicked in across the Hudson in New Jersey threaten to take that mobility away right as NYC’s Council prepares to debate its own e-bike crackdown. (amNewYork)
- Gov. Hochul talks up her Bills fandom around the new $2.1 billion Highmark Stadium in a Western New York sit-down, continuing the governor’s habit of linking herself to the team whose 30-year stay in Buffalo she helped lock in with state funding. (The Journal News)
- Dutchess County election officials are urging absentee voters to skip the Postal Service this cycle — using drop boxes, early-voting sites or over-the-counter ballots at the Board of Elections instead — citing ongoing mail-delivery delays. (Mid Hudson News)
- Putnam County’s sheriff is defending the county’s street-camera surveillance setup as pushback mounts across the Hudson Valley and Capital Region over Flock-style license-plate readers. (The Highlands Current)
- East Greenbush’s Town Board sat through a two-hour hearing where more than 20 residents blasted the town’s five Flock cameras as an invasion of privacy, and Supervisor Jack Conway — who voted against the cameras back in 2022 — says he’ll now push to kill the contract, quoting Jeremy Bentham’s panopticon for good measure. (WAMC)
- State Sen. Lea Webb (D-Binghamton) put a sister on the campaign payroll, the latest entry in Albany’s long tradition of keeping it in the family. (The Times Union)
- Rep. John Mannion (D-Central New York) has ducked the one local debate that would’ve let Central New York constituents ask him questions directly — accepting three other, audience-free forums instead — and his GOP challenger Kailee Buller says he’s just dodging an unpredictable room. (Central Current)
- Downtown Syracuse is about to lose 800 parking spaces as the Atrium Garage prepares to shut its doors for good. (Syracuse.com)
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