Tuesday Headlines: Big Buffalo Huncho Edition

Buffalo is the third-poorest city in the country, and GObike Buffalo‘s new executive director, Kevin Heffernan, thinks its car dependency is a big reason why. In a wide-ranging conversation with Streetsblog Empire State, Heffernan — who’s led the group since taking over as interim director in December — lays out why one in three East Side households doesn’t own a car, why Mayor Sean Ryan’s administration, fresh off its push to remake the Niagara Square roundabout, has been the most engaged City Hall the org has worked with since 2010, and why GObike is finally breaking ground this fall on its long-delayed East Side Trails project. He also gets into the messy state of e-bike politics in Albany, where he says lawmakers keep conflating dangerous e-motos with the pedal-assist bikes that are “the greatest thing that’s happened to cycling in so long,” plus how GObike is trying to stay out of the social-media crossfire between police and cyclists.

Read the full interview here.

Elsewhere in the Empire State:

• Ithaca’s 18th annual Porchfest brought 174 performers to 109 porches, lawns, and driveways across the Fall Creek and Northside neighborhoods Sunday, undeterred by overcast skies and light showers. (The Ithaca Voice)
• Syracuse’s school-zone speed and red-light cameras issued more than 20,000 tickets in July, continuing a pattern that has seen the program generate millions in fines — and millions more in unpaid ones — since its 2025 launch. (Syracuse.com)
• The state DOT has awarded a contract for a new water line along Clinton Square as part of the ongoing $2.25 billion I-81 Viaduct Project, which is rebuilding sewer and water infrastructure alongside the highway’s removal through downtown Syracuse. (Syracuse.com)
• St. Lawrence County’s 155-mile multi-use off-highway vehicle trail system is fueling tension between riders and neighbors, who say ATV and dirt bike riders are cutting through residential roads to reach bars and businesses rather than sticking to the trail. (NCPR)
• The Neversink Crossing, a new $3.4 million pedestrian bridge, has opened in South Fallsburg, reconnecting two sections of the Sullivan O&W Rail Trail between South Fallsburg and Woodridge after decades of planning. (Mid Hudson News)
• Business owners in Larchmont and Mamaroneck are pushing back on a state DOT redesign of Boston Post Road that would add bike lanes and new parking but reduce the roadway to a single travel lane in each direction. (The Journal News)
• Starting Tuesday, drivers caught going more than 10 mph over the limit in MTA bridge and tunnel work zones face fines up to $100 — during the warning period alone, cameras caught vehicles averaging 14.5 mph over the limit, including one going 111 mph in a 45 mph zone. (amNY)
• A Manhattan judge ruled the MTA can’t leave subway station booths locked and unstaffed when an agent calls out, siding with disability advocates and Transport Workers Union Local 100, who argued the policy cut off help for blind and mobility-impaired riders. (amNY)
• CNN, MS NOW, and Politico sued the Trump administration after their reporters’ White House press credentials were deactivated and they were turned away from the grounds, days after Trump announced he was banning the three outlets over their coverage. (NY1)
• The MTA has earmarked $800 million in its current construction plan to overhaul the subway’s aging, often-garbled public address and announcement systems. (Gothamist)
• Longtime Suffolk County Democratic Chair Rich Schaffer is facing his first real leadership challenge in two decades, with allegations that he’s offered money to secure committee votes and pressured Board of Elections patronage employees ahead of today’s vote against challenger Kathryn Casey Quigley. (City & State New York)