The big story in the local press on Thursday was — would you believe it? — our story from Wednesday!
As you recall, we reported first that Mayor Adams's bid to gain home rule control over the city's speed camera system is not going to happen in this legislative session. And our story had some, but not all, of the finger-pointing that has obviously continued.
Indeed, that bombshell story was mere kindling for fiery follow-ups: The Daily News squarely blamed an "off-the-rails" Department of Transportation Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez for a botched trip to Albany, but the story itself was confused about what is and what is not on the table in pending legislation (there is indeed a bill to increase the number of red-light cameras).
The Post, which has an interest in both bashing Democrats and defending our Republican cop-turned-mayor Eric Adams, confirmed that home rule for cameras is dead, but blamed the upstate Democrats instead of confirming its own prior reporting of a ham-handed effort by the mayor.
Meanwhile, Politico (paywall) also said blame is focusing on City Hall and quoted a source saying home rule is "dead in the water" (our story only said "dead" and made no nautical reference). Danielle Muoio Dunn's story was the best of the bunch.
In other news:
- Make sure you set your calendar — and buy some tickets — for the party of the early summer: Open Plans (our super-cool parent company) is hosting a big rooftop bash on Thursday, June 16 in Soho. All the info you need is here.
- Council Member Justin Brannan thinks other companies, including dockless companies, should be allowed to compete with Citi Bike so his neighborhood and others can become part of the bike rental revolution (amNY), but Brannan lost the battle on Twitter, as many pointed out the obvious:
The dockless pilots in other parts of the city failed.
— Bike South Brooklyn! (@BikeSouthBklyn) May 12, 2022
The efforts to build a separate bike share system on Staten Island failed.
We don’t need to repeat these failures. The focus should be expanding CitiBike to every neighborhood.
Calling for more operators delays that.
- The Post has video of the joyrider who stole upstate Assembly Member Andrew Goodell's BMW.
- Mayor Adams appears to have kicked the can down the road on the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway (amNY). As we've long said, we don't want that road to remain, but it needs to be maintained for now because replacing it with something better and less toxic will take at least 10 years. The plan was to buy time so proper planning could be done.
- Not enough local politicians have this New Jersey highway widening project on their radar screens, but it will bring more cars into the city when it's done. (NJ.com)
- A cab crashed into a building on 10th Avenue — at exactly the site where local pols called for safer streets at a press conference that we covered three months ago! (W42St)
- To protect and serve ... drivers?
Tried to prevent this Papa John's truck from backing up into the Grand St bike lane (and into me) but Officers Piselli and Fox came and assisted them in blocking the bike lane. They said they couldn't inconvenience drivers for the safety of bikers. pic.twitter.com/Q9djQMhV46
— Tiffany (@tiffanykyung) May 12, 2022
- Attorney General Letitia James has sued some school bus companies over idling (NY Post, Brooklyn Paper, Gothamist). Now, if she'd only run the plates on them, she'd really be horrified!
- Car carnage on Long Island. (NY Post)
- Our friend Charles Komanoff had a Gotham Gazette op-ed about crypto currency mining that touched on important climate topics.
- And, finally, in an unrelated story, we just learned that Kentucky Derby winner Rich Strike will not compete in the Preakness next weekend in Maryland (Tailgate Sports). We mention our disappointment because the only thing that should be able to move as fast as Rich Strike did in the last quarter of the race is a horse. If you missed it, watch it below. Keep your eyes on the horse that breaks from the gate furthest to the left:
