Tuesday’s Headlines: The Trottenberg Files Edition

Here's the bulging Trottenberg file from the Streetsblog filing cabinet.
Here's the bulging Trottenberg file from the Streetsblog filing cabinet.

Our entire day was jolted from a slow morning coffee into a full caffeine blitz after Dana Rubinstein’s Times exclusive about the sudden long-expected resignation of Department of Transportation Commissioner Polly Trottenberg.

We quickly slowly banged out our 3,300-word magnum opus about Trottenberg’s legacy at DOT, while scribes all over town weighed in on the Vision Zero commish:

  • Gothamist’s Chris Robbins offered a critical look that definitely emphasized the increase in road fatalities these last two years.
  • The Daily News played it straight.
  • The Post played castrato.
  • Like Streetsblog, the Wall Street Journal emphasized the “mixed results” of the Vision Zero program.
  • Mark Hallum at amNY alluded to Trottenberg’s likely role in a Biden administration.
  • And, of course, the Staten Island Advance had to put in a gratuitous criticism of speed cameras, one of Trottenberg’s great achievements.

In other news:

  • Very early on Tuesday morning, news broke that David Dinkins, the city’s first (and still only) Black mayor, had died. Rest in power, mayor (NYDN, NY Times). His successor, Rudy Giuliani — who during his campaign against Dinkins led a racist police rally at City Hall where Dinkins was taunted as a “washroom attendant” — had the audacity to share his condolences on Twitter.
  • N.J. Gov. Phil Murphy slapped back at Master Builder Andrew Cuomo over the Big Dog’s suggestion that commuters and Amtrak don’t really need new tunnels under the Hudson River because a simple slapdash repair job is all that’s required. For once, we’re siding with Joisey. (NY Post)
  • The Post had more about the drunk and unlicensed driver who killed a Brooklyn pedestrian.
  • Great news for Mayor de Blasio (and our cheap, unstylish editor): Astor Hair has been saved! (NYDN, NY Post)
  • And finally, the day ended with some good news for Corey Johnson, who spent most of Monday in a complete panic that was unrelated to Trottenberg’s resignation:

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A group of street safety advocates braved the cold yesterday outside Mayor Bill de Blasio’s inauguration and received an impromptu visit from Polly Trottenberg, de Blasio’s pick for transportation commissioner. A total of about 15 people, organized by Make Queens Safer and Make Brooklyn Safer, gathered on Broadway outside City Hall yesterday, holding signs and handing […]