Wednesday’s Headlines: Happy Bikesgiving Edition

Happy holiday!
Happy holiday!

Look, we want to get back to our tiny apartments and start cooking, too, so let’s get right to the news. We’ll return on Friday with a new round of headlines, but if we don’t see you with your cargo bike loaded with food, have a great Thanksgiving!

  • Many outlets covered the Council’s package of bills to crack down on placard abuse, but, man, the Daily News really punted on it (Streetsblog’s coverage was far more cynical of this latest promise to end this form of NYPD corruption). The Post was lukewarm on the bills actually solving the problem. So was Vin Barone at amNY.
  • See it: morons drag racing in the Lincoln Tunnel? (NYDN)
  • Speaking of morons, watch a cyclist get badly injured when a driver doored him — then watch cops arrive and give the cyclist a ticket! Gothamist had the story (though we wish Chris Robbins had pointed out that Streetsblog literally asked Mayor de Blasio about his horribly trained NYPD last week! We emailed City Hall for a comment on Tuesday, but got ghosted.)
  • The Post allowed Gov. Cuomo to again defend his plan for 500 more cops on the subway as “common sense” even though it would add to the MTA deficit, there’s very little need for more police underground, and existing overpolicing has led to the embarrassing “Churro Crackdown.”
  • Nice scoop by Guse at the Newsuh: Formerly electric Citi Bikes that were pulled off the road because of a brake issue earlier this year have been stripped down and shipped to Chicago as standard bikes for the Windy City’s Divvy system.
  • Gothamist did a nice long, touching dive on professional wrestler Matt Travis, the cyclist who was killed by a hit-and-run trucker earlier this month. Streetsblog has also been covering the tributes to Travis — and the fact that the NYPD has done nothing to relieve his mom’s pain.
  • And, finally, Clarence Eckerson did a video asking experts just what a bike and pedestrian mayor should do. (Watch ’til the end for our old man editor providing the kicker as he throws his helmet into the ring for the job.)

So what should NYC Bike & Pedestrian Mayors do? from STREETFILMS on Vimeo.

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