Thursday’s Headlines: Long, Hot Summer Edition

Our brain was so fried yesterday on account of the heat that we thought we’d take a powder and just get to the news:

  • The 71-year-old cyclist killed by a USPS driver on Monday was set to retire in August. He was the seventh cyclist run killed so far this year, and it is only the beginning of what promises to be a long, hot summer. (Streetsblog, NYDN)
  • The lack of tree cover on city streets is an equity issue related to past discriminatory housing practices — and a matter of life and death when it is as hot as it was yesterday. (NYTimes)
  • Starting the patriotic July Fourth weekend early, the New York Times pieced together a definitive video account of the January 6 assault on the Capitol by Trumpist insurrectionists. The video served notice that the people riled up by the lies of the former president haven’t stood down — nor has their putative commander — yet another reason we may be in for a long, hot summer.
  • ICYMI: The city plans to spend $776 million to complete the greenway around Manhattan by 2029, including building out bike paths on the Harlem River waterfront between 145th Street and Highbridge Park and improving waterfront access in Inwood. Bike New York’s Jon Orcutt considers the timetable ambitious, especially given the work planned around the United Nations. (Gothamist)
  • Jalopnik did a nice explainer about the side guards on city government trucks.
  • The city’s budget came in at close to $99 billion, buoyed by federal relief funds. It contains another $200 million in spending on the police, mostly for overtime, and looks likely to leave the next mayor with deficits. (NYTimes, Gothamist, TheCity)
  • Comptroller Stringer’s audit found that New York property owners get away with carving illegal curb cuts for driveways about half the time. (NYDN)
  • In more audit news, a city study confirmed our anecdotal experience that express buses take seemingly forever to get to their destinations. (NYDN) Streetsblog zeroed in on the report’s assessment that the MTA hasn’t put in place the proper indicators to assess the buses’ performance.
  • Here’s a real subway hatchet job. (NYPost)
  • The NYPD is taking more flak over its rough tactics in Washington Square Park, this time toward LGBTQ organizers. (NY1)
  • Fourth of July warning: “Vision Zero partners” the Department of Transportation, the NYPD and the Taxi and Limousine Commission are taking to the space outside 1 Police Plaza this morning in order to admonish against drunk and drugged driving.
  • Hat tip to John Massengale for his dark sense of humor. We’re going to need a sense of humor if we are to survive this long, hot summer. (Via Twitter)

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Witness: Bus Driver Backed Over Cyclist in Fatal Crash

By Ben Fried |
According to an eyewitness account on NY1, the bus driver who killed a cyclist on Delancey Street yesterday afternoon was driving in reverse and did not respond to verbal warnings prior to the fatal crash: A witness says the woman was riding her bicycle on Delancey when she hit a pothole and fell behind the […]