Monday’s Headlines: Race for City Hall Edition

Who will be doing the people's business at City Hall in 2021? Photo:  Momos/Wikimedia Commons
Who will be doing the people's business at City Hall in 2021? Photo: Momos/Wikimedia Commons

We’ve been covering it piecemeal since late last year (click here for all our mayoral campaign coverage), but over the weekend, the Daily News did a big takeout on all the candidates’ transportation positions.

The takeaways:

  • Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams wants to remove or deck over highways and he prefers bus rapid transit to Gov. Cuomo’s AirTrain to LaGuardia. (Rep. Ritchie Torres told the Daily News the same thing about the Cross-Bronx Expressway.)
  • Former Sanitation Commissioner Kathryn Garcia emphasized her ability to get things done.
  • Andrew Yang spoke of more busways and pedestrianized areas (he offered a preview of that to Streetsblog on Sunday).
  • Former de Blasio counsel Maya Wiley repitched her Office of Public Space Management (which Streetsblog’s sister organization, City Rise, has been hawking).
  • Former city Housing Commissioner Shaun Donovan said he could create a 15-minute city with more bike and bus lanes.
  • Comptroller Scott Stringer wants more bike lanes and bus lanes, plus wants to use his bean-counting skills to rein in MTA and city costs.
  • Dianne Morales wants to rein in the NYPD.
  • Ray McGuire did not respond to The News’ questionnaire. (Wow, how about that? This is becoming a thing!)

Meanwhile, former NYPD Commissioner Ray “Stop and Frisk” Kelly branded all the mayoral candidates soft on crime, for whatever that’s worth (NY Post).

In other news:

  • Hypocrisy, thy names are Lee Zeldin and Andrew Garbarino (NY Post)
  • Parking costs are going up in the Hamptons — which will likely reduce the amount of driving by out-of-towners. There’s always the train and the Jitney. (WSJ)
  • The Brooklyn Paper highlighted some bike activists’ favorite routes in the borough. Former Streetsblog intern Ben Verde didn’t think to ask us, however.
  • Steve “Broken Clock” Cuozzo is right about Gov. Cuomo’s Empire Station Complex plan. (NY Post)
  • Gothamist did a good primer on the Soho/Noho rezoning plan, which pointed out how little affordable housing will actually be created. Nonetheless, the Times found plenty of rich Soho people to complain about it.
  • In case you missed it, a delivery worker was killed in a stickup last week. (Gothamist)
  • “Dirty Jobs” host Mike Rowe’s new show isn’t just sponsored by Big Oil — it’s Big Oil propaganda. (Gizmodo)
  • Set your calendars: This Monday, Wednesday and Friday between 11 a.m. and 4 p.m., the DOT will be on Berry Street at Grand and North Third streets talking to people about the open streets program in North Brooklyn. Next week, officials will be on Driggs Street at Russell and Monitor streets. Please tell the DOT what you think — the agency will definitely pretend to be interested in a permanent, car-free roadway, if the “visioning” workshops in Queens are any indication. (DOT via Twitter)
  • And, finally, lots of people enjoyed the city’s open streets this weekend — but many many people couldn’t help noticing the flaws in the program:

https://twitter.com/glenn_mcan/status/1378917128233963520?s=12

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