Monday’s Headlines: Home Rule Week Edition

The big news this week will be Mayor Adams's trip to Albany on Tuesday to lobby to get state legislators to reauthorize or expand city control of public schools, the subsidy for affordable housing (aka 421-a) and, as we like to say, most important, speed enforcement cameras.

Gothamist had a good primer on the issue of "home rule," which is state constitution-speak for letting the city run the stuff that only cities really worry about: local schools, local development and local roads. Home rule is pretty much dead on speed cameras (as we reported first last week), so Adams will be pushing lawmakers to pass a bill by Sen. Andrew Gounardes to at least reauthorize them for three more years (the bill includes other provisions that probably won't make the final draft, judging from our conversations last week with Assembly Members and Senators but still).

In other news:

• Ladies and gentlemen, the GOAT on a bike (um, but why does Tom Brady need an electric Citi Bike? Stars — they're not like us):

• Meanwhile, while Tom Brady was enjoying an e-bike ride, his ugly cousin Steve Cuozzo, pulled out the "angry man yells at cloud" bit for yet another NY Post rampage against bikes, in this case, electric bikes, which Cuozzo said should be banned outright. A man is entitled to his opinion, but there are many factual errors in the piece, plus errors of omission, including not providing this video to show the corresponding destructive power of an electric car:

• The Daily News also covered the killing of a Bronx pedestrian by a reckless van driver on Saturday, though all day, our old man editor was trying to get someone at the paper to realize how terrible their website is:

• Assembly candidate Tony Simone is the latest Hells Kitchen resident to complain that the governor's plan for the Penn Station redevelopment is flawed. (Gotham Gazette)
• Regional Plan Association has done another survey of metro area New Yorkers, and found that crime and the cost of living are top concerns (though it's unclear how those concerns broke down for city residents vs. out-of-towners). But still, one thing really caught our eye: Residents remain concerned about climate change. "More than three in four [area] residents (76 percent) supports requiring buildings to lower their greenhouse gas emissions, including 79 percent of New York City residents," the survey said. Sounds like that's a pretty strong mandate for car-reduction strategies, too.
• We bet these new Sanitation Department electric street sweepers are quiet:

• Federal officials are finally talking up the only thing that will stop the chop: Federal legislation to prevent helicopters from disturbing the peace. (amNY)
• Mayor Adams says the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway will be just fine, so that's why he redirected money away from its maintenance for now. (amNY)
• Another reason to ditch the car? Auto theft is up. (NY Post)
• The Post had a tiny bit more about the man who was run over and killed by an MTA bus driver on Staten Island.
• And, finally, Riders Alliance spokesman Danny Pearlstein spotted one of the DOT's new "drive safe" ads on a bus shelter the other day, and noted that the ad was pointed in a way that it could not be seen by drivers. Doug Gordon provided the chaser: