Thursday’s Headlines: Gloating Season Edition

Gov. Cuomo: On his way out. File photo: Office of the Governor
Gov. Cuomo: On his way out. File photo: Office of the Governor

Yesterday the city’s transportation reporters unglued themselves long enough from the diverting spectacle of Andrew Agonistes to follow Streetsblog’s fine Day One story of what the end of the governor’s reign of error might mean for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and infrastructure projects around the state.

Gothamist, oddly, hailed Cuomo as the “master builder” he fashions himself, glossing over his many problematic projects to note uncritically that he “leaves behind a legacy of transportation and infrastructure projects — from bridges, to airports, to a new train station in midtown Manhattan” and adding that “transportation watchdogs are optimistic that the incoming governor, Lieutenant Governor Kathleen Hochul, and whoever comes after her, will keep them on track.” (Not exactly, as the incipient revolt of Port Authority staffers over the boondoggle LaGuardia AirTrain is showing.)

The Post took a more nuanced, if equally tendentious, view. Even as the governor has been slow walking central business district tolling, the tabloid of record credited Cuomo’s famous bullying as the impetus for the passage of the congestion-pricing law — although it conceded that his micromanagement “helped fuel years of dysfunction at the MTA, driving away top managers, causing labor strife and prioritizing high-profile construction projects over running trains.” amNY simply followed Streetsblog’s lead, talking to advocates about their high hopes for the MTA under Hochul.

Curbed’s hot take got it right. “We Just Got a Reprieve from Cuomo’s Worst Transit Ideas,” was its headline.

Others gloated on Twitter. A former mayor praised Hochul in a tweet that subtly telegraphed his disdain for Cuomo:

In other news:

  • Here’s a new twist on pandemic profiteering: An Upper East Side garage is selling 23 spaces for as much as $350,000 each as “condos” for cars. Hiss! (Crain’s)
  • A drunk driver was sentenced for vehicular homicide for a 2019 hit-and-run crash in the Rockaways. (QNS)
  • In his first interview with City and State as presumptive Brooklyn Beep, Antonio Reynoso talked up bike lanes.
  • Gritty reality: Coney Island’s sand-sculpting contest is nixed on account of the resurgence of COVID. (Brooklyn Paper)
  • A certain obnoxious former New Yorker is in trouble — again — with the feds: Congress will see Donald Trump’s  tax records, a judge rules.
  • Hey 66th Precinct, didn’t the CDC advise that even vaccinated people should wear masks at big, indoor events? Well, Brooklyn South was a COVID hotspot earlier in the pandemic; guess it can be again. (Via Twitter)

  • Finally, Queens Crapper had a mordant comment about this story in Eater:

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