Tuesday’s Headlines: Just the News Edition (With a Parking Party)
We have a big day ahead of us in the livable streets world. New Jersey drivers are having a presser in Jersey City to complain about our pollution- and congestion-reducing transit plan in the morning. Then our editor will buy another illegal temp tag — “It’s temp tag Tuesday!” as the song goes — and we’ll end it all with a book party to celebrate Henry Grabar’s “Paved Paradise: How Parking Explains the World” (Penguin Press) hosted by Open Plans.
So let’s get to the news you can use so your views aren’t a snooze:
- The NYPD says it will improve its response time to 311 calls, the Daily News reported, citing its own coverage (and ignoring our voluminous and award-winning coverage that not only revealed horrendous response times to traffic safety issues, but also outright fraud and a pattern of harassment).
- Meanwhile, one NYPD hand doesn’t know what the other hand isn’t doing; the Daily News also had a great story about a Harlem man who has made 232 complaints about illegal parking in front of or around the 28th Precinct station house — all of which were ignored. Hmm, sounds like what we found at that same Harlem post during last year’s March (Parking) Madness contest.
- Jordan Neely’s family says his murder should be in jail, yet our law-and-order pols can’t figure out how to do it (Gothamist). Indeed, the mayor hasn’t even called the victim’s family, The City reported.
- Did you notice that there were two mass killings in Texas the other day: One was the shooting at the mall that everyone heard about. The other was the killing of immigrants waiting at a bus stop by a driver which received little press coverage — and the coverage it did receive was terrible, as legendary academic Greg Shill pointed out:
News organizations just seem constitutionally unable to assign agency when the agent in question uses a car. Imagine a headline reporting "Man Whose Gun Fired Bullets" where the police and witnesses had identified him as the one squeezing the trigger. pic.twitter.com/5WcdLuDDgS
— Greg Shill (@greg_shill) May 8, 2023
- So who really owns the subway? Former federal transit man Larry Penner gives the long view. (Mass Transit)
- In case you missed it, Bike NY’s Five Boro Bike Tour was a huge success. (amNY, Hell Gate)
- Also in case you missed it, Clarence Eckerson Jr. did a Streetfilm about the need for more city resources being invested in the open streets program so that volunteers don’t get burnt out from all the work they are doing … for the city’s open streets program. Watch it below: