Tuesday’s Headlines: Day Two in Albany Edition

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).

It made for some interesting reading.

Meanwhile, can we just say that the State Capitol is one of the great buildings in America? It feels like the entire structure was hand-carved out of a single mountain of Italian marble. The walls of the State Senate chamber are literally gilded! There are wood desks from the 1800s! The art on the walls isn’t merely from the Hudson River School — it’s a collection so great that it should be called the Hudson River grad school! The place is a 13th-century Austro-Hungarian castle! OK, you get the idea.

Meanwhile, here’s today’s news:

  • Mayor de Blasio pushed back on Gov. Cuomo’s notion that the city should fund half of the MTA’s capital budget. (NYDN)
  • Say it ain’t so: Gothamist decided to listen to a lot of NIMBYs on Grand Street in Bushwick who want “their” parking spaces back.
  • The Riders Alliance showed just how bad the subway is, with 92 percent morning commutes delayed. (amNY, NY1) No wonder Aaron Gordon named his blog, “Signal Problems.”
  • Meanwhile, cyclist and journalist Steve Bodzin had the Twitter thread of the day. If you’ve ever struggled to articulate why you hate FedEx and UPS in your bike lanes, Bodzin explains that you’re not only upset to be endangered by a truck, but you’re upset that delivery companies are making us pay to support an untenable economic model.
  • Friend of Streetsblog Charles Komanoff reminds us anew why a taxi surcharge doesn’t make sense without congestion pricing, too. (Crain’s)
  • A new episode of War on Cars is out — this one looks at the similarity between cars and guns.
  • Lots of outlets hailed Mayor de Blasio’s ferry good news about more routes. Patch was optimistic, though did mention the $100 million in new capital costs for a system that is not yet widely used. The Daily News was pessimistic, as was the Post.

Finally, we leave you with this picture of David Meyer at the Capitol. See how happy he is?

meyer at capitol