We were pleased with the news on Sunday that your humble reporting pals at Streetsblog had won a $500 “Roll It Forward!” award from the New York Cycle Club for being (their words, not ours!), “THE information pipeline about governmental, political and police activity that affect cyclists.”

We are honored and humbled to accept the award — especially given the esteemed company it places us in. Other recipients included the 34th Avenue Open Streets Coalition (the award will fund its Friday Family Bike Rides so the youngest riders learn quickly and start pushing their parents to ride further); Adapt Ability (the award will fund a program that allows families free use of adaptive bicycles); Bike Tarrytown; Black Girls Do Bike; Central Park Medical Unit; InTandem Cycling; Long Island Streets; OutCycling (the award will help fund its Fearless Flyers Youth Cycling Program to teach young adults cycling and leadership skills); and Ride Up Grades (the award will support mechanics during he group’s free two-week bike camp).

We’ll put the money to good use, we assure you (location of the bar to be announced soon — kidding!).

To read the NYCC full announcement, click here. Follow the club on Instagram or Facebook.

In other news:

• The Times once again proved when it wants to really dive into a story — in this case, a development battle on a single block in tiny Mill Valley, Calif. — it can do a great job. Though Conor Dougherty’s story focuses only on one NIMBY resident and her developer foe, it raises lots of issues about what it means to be a progressive these days. The story was very well balanced, but Dougherty did tip his hand a bit in this scathing rebuke of fauxgressives: “How does a place that prides itself on progressive politics have so many policies that exacerbate inequality? How do homeowners whose window signs say they welcome every oppressed group rationalize a housing system that has caused their own children to flee?”
• Closer to home, the Times claimed that Midtown is almost “back.” But Winnie Hu’s story left us a bit nonplussed — Midtown may, indeed, be “back,” but what are the ramifications for the rest of the city? That topic was left unexplored.
• We enjoyed Jill Lepore’s review of Jody Rosen’s “Two Wheels Good” in the New Yorker, but one thing is worth mentioning: Lepore is a veteran cycle commuter and bicycles, yet the tone of her piece is oddly muted about the dangers (and how infuriating it is to be a cyclist in New York City). Even an aside about growing up had a wistful tone instead of “Hey, Mr. Mayor, when the hell are you going to fix this?” tone: “It’s bad enough being powerless, because of being a kid and, on top of it all, a girl; it’s worse when the adults are riding around in cages made of three tons of metal. It felt then, and still feels now, like being a bird flying in a sky filled with airplanes: the deafening roar of their engines, their impossible speed, the cruelty of steel, the inescapable menace, the looming sense of catastrophe, your own little wings flapping in silence while theirs slice thunderously.”
• We mentioned it in our big Albany legislative roundup today, but amNY did a whole story on an innovative bill that would let people sue helicopter operators for noise.
• Speaking of legislative roundups, the Hell Gate wrote up a climate bill that the legislature failed to pass.
• Scroll down in this Times newsletter to read an interview with the Times London Bureau chief talking about former “Train Daddy” Andy Byford.
• Our recent investigation into the dangers of school streets was an implicit argument for more aggressive crossing guards. But this isn’t what we meant. (NY Post)
• There was all manner of motor vehicular mayhem over the weekend (some of it covered in the local press):
  • A livery cabbie was fatally struck by a speeding hit-and-run driver in the Bronx early Sunday. (NY Post, NYDN)
  • A passenger in a drunk driver’s car was badly injured in Brooklyn, cops said. (NYDN)
  • A motorcyclist was killed in Manhattan. (NYDN)
  • A car crash in Brooklyn led to a shootout. (NYDN)
  • A dirt bike rider in the Bronx killed himself in a crash. (NYDN)
• Former federal transit man Larry Penner branches out a bit in this opinion piece about Staten Island succession. (Shorefront News)