Thursday’s Headlines: Chickens, Meet Roost Edition

How NBC News covered the coup attempt.
How NBC News covered the coup attempt.

We interrupt your hungry consumption of yesterday’s coup coverage from Washington because you didn’t click on nyc.streetsblog.org to read about the blood that is on Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley’s hands, right?

So let’s move with all deliberate speed to why you’re here: all the crucial, non-presidential, livable streets news:

  • We don’t speak Catalan (it’s on our 2021 resolutions list, we assure you!), but it appears that Barcelona has embarrassed Mayor de Blasio by committing to protecting kids by limiting cars around hundreds of schools. See, this stuff ain’t hard, but our mayor has steadfastly refused to even consider the idea when we’ve raised it with him (Barcelona official website). If you want to see pictures of the easy, life-saving treatments, click on this Dropbox link (that goes for you, Mr. Mayor).
  • The Times continued its Jekyll and Hyde act on cycling. Even as it is unable to fully accept that New York needs to become a cycling town, the Paper of Record summoned up Pamela Druckerman to explain how great Paris is now that the City of Lights is the City of Bike Lights. (NY Times)
  • New York State is failing jobless Uber and Lyft drivers, a new lawsuit argues. (NY Post)
  • The city needs more housing, especially dense housing in already dense, subway-rich areas. The city does not need more parking. But anti-development activists on the Lower East Side would rather have a city parking lot instead of an apartment complex. (Gothamist)
  • The Biden Administration (with help from, could it be?, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer) could make cities safer with the stroke of a pen — just by requiring car makers to make cars that are safer, says David Zipper of Bloomberg.

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NYC Gets its First Pedestrian Countdown Timer

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Yesterday, the Department of Transportation installed New York City’s very first pedestrian countdown timer at the intersection of Coney Island Avenue and Kings Highway in Brooklyn. Gothamist, as usual, does a nice treatment of the story and roundup of the coverage. The thing I found most interesting about yesterday’s news was the fact that Mayor […]

Trick or Treat in the Street

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We interrupt our post-Sandy coverage to bring you these pictures from Halloween last night at the 78th Street Play Street in Jackson Heights. The Jackson Heights Green Alliance put on the event, “Trick or Treat in the Street,” and Streetfilms’ Clarence Eckerson sent over these photos. This is the kind of thing residents can do in the […]
Photo: NYC Mayor's Office

Yesterday’s Times Square Toll Was Terrible — But So Is a Typical Day of NYC Traffic Violence

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Given the high-profile location, the number of victims, and recent instances of people using vehicles to kill for ideology, it's understandable that yesterday's crash drew so much attention. But it's important to recognize that as terrible as the Times Square carnage was for a single incident, the same human toll occurs on a daily basis on NYC streets -- it's just dispersed across the city.