Monday’s Headlines: Snowy Weekend Edition
The Saturday snowfall was dominated by Supermayor Eric Adams, who seemed to be everywhere doing (arguably) mayoral things. If you couldn’t keep up with Hizzoner, you can be forgiven. Here was his day, based on his Twitter timeline:
- He first posted a video of himself on the ground in The Bronx.
- Despite the timeline, it appears he first went to Harlem to remind people to take public transportation before the above Bronx clip.
- Then to a sanitation garage, also in Manhattan, to talk about the narrow snowplows we all love.
- Then he was at City Hall.
- Then it was unclear where he was, but at least he was telling people not to drive.
- Then he hopped on the Staten Island Ferry, showing off his agency swag and again telling people not to drive.
- Then he shook hands of city workers on the Rock, and visited a Sanitation garage (and complimented the agency’s warm jackets).
- Then he rode shotgun on a plow in Brooklyn.
- Then he took a break to shovel out his own stoop and sidewalk in Bedford-Stuyvesant, and a neighbor saluted his efforts.
- Then he posted a list of the city’s best sledding spots.
The Post covered the peripatetic mayor, and City Hall compiled the day into a single propaganda video:
Thank you to @NYCSanitation, @nycemergencymgt, our City workers, and New Yorkers across all five boroughs who dug in to keep our streets clear today! pic.twitter.com/6f1iqUHALI
— Mayor Eric Adams (@NYCMayor) January 30, 2022
And even Sanitation Commissioner Ed Grayson got into the social media act, posting on TikTok (yes, the app where 12-year-olds drive Donald Trump crazy) about his agency’s “tandem operation.” Earlier, the agency posted a weird effort to get people to stop panicking about the storm:
@nycsanitation Really no need to panic #NYC, we got this! Follow us for updates on #snow and check the link in bio! #fyp #dsny #newyorksstrongest #breadandmilk ? original sound – nycsanitation
Note to self: What is happening to the world?
Meanwhile, Gothamist covered the mediocre job that the Sanitation Department did clearing bike lanes. Agency spokesman Joshua Goodman (@jshgdmn) got a mouthful on Twitter, but he had asked for feedback (and got it!). We contributed:
This is the 7th Ave bike lane 36 hours after the last flakes. Note ?@workersjusticep? deliverista forced into the roadway ?@NYCSanitation? ?@jshgdmn? pic.twitter.com/SoPd6jsLLH
— Streetsblog New York (@StreetsblogNYC) January 31, 2022
In other news:
- Here’s a Daily News story about all the projects that the MTA will complete by 2030 that’s not going to age well at all.
- Speaking of the MTA, the Post reported that 47 people died on subway tracks last year, which is an argument for spending billions to add subway gates (but is it a winning argument? The jury is out).
- Oh, and speaking of those platform gates, WNYC’s Stephen Nessen read the 3,000-page analysis so you didn’t have to.
- The city Department of Transportation says it will take a year to install weight gauges on the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway (funny, but wasn’t that a crucial element of former Mayor de Blasio’s plan to shore up the roadway so he didn’t have to fix it?). (amNY)
- In case you missed it, Curbed’s Justin Davidson does not like Gov. Hochul’s Cuomo-esque Penn Station plan. It’s a great piece, but readers in Dresden might take a little exception with Davidson’s lede, “In the years after World War II, American planners did as much damage to American cities as Allied bombers had done to German cities.”
- This 90-year-old non-driver’s speeding tickets are a case of identity theft! (NY Post)
- The Post has been on extra alert to make sure anyone who has vague misgivings about the NYPD pays the full price for their free speech. (Thing 1 and Thing 2)
- Speaking of the NYPD, we enjoyed reading Ginia Bellafante’s column about Mayor Adams’s anti-gun agenda. Putting aside the gist of it, Bellafante included the oft-cited statistic that there were 1,877 shootings last year in New York City, a figure that is often evoked when the NYPD defends its $6-billion budget. Bellafante did not include a less-cited statistic: There were 110,315 reported car crashes in New York City last year, injuring 49,547 — yet the Department of Transportation budget will actually be cut 3 percent this year.
- And Friend of Streetsblog Charles Komanoff upbraided the Times magazine for missing the road violence increase during the pandemic:
Oh well. Otherwise admirable @NYTmag "Studies Show" feature passes up chance to mention surge in U.S. traffic fatalities as another "non-Covid" calamity over past two years. @PeterLJacobsen @jessiesingernyc @buttermilk1 @GershKuntzman. https://t.co/mVh0GK732J
— Charles Komanoff (@Komanoff) January 29, 2022