Monday’s Headlines: What a Sunset Edition

The weekend is over, but beautifully. Photo: Jean Cawley
The weekend is over, but beautifully. Photo: Jean Cawley

What a gorgeous day it was on Sunday and sometimes you just have to tip your hat, suck out all the marrow, and hit the ground running today. And so we will, but not without thanking Friend of Streetsblog Jean Cawley for sending along that Conor Oberst album cover of a photograph from Long Island City (above).

Now let’s get to the weekend’s news roundup:

  • Following up on years’ worth of Streetsblog stories, Evan Simko-Bednarski in the Daily News had a great scoop about how even the “Cop of the Month” at the 103rd Precinct in Queens parks illegally on the sidewalk. Well, the honoree cop has no choice: the precinct painted the tribute spot on the sidewalk! Perhaps the “integrity control officer” was out that day?
  • The Mets keep winning, but the team’s owner’s bid for a casino at Citi Field is losing with state Sen. Jessica Ramos. (NY Post)
  • Former Marine and current killer Daniel Penny tells the Post he’s not a racist. But he still shouldn’t get out on bail, says Jordan Nelly’s uncle, the Post also reported.
  • A bus and a van collided near JFK Airport, raising issues about road safety near the field. (Gothamist)
  • Speaking of badly designed roads … meet the entire suburbs! (NY Times)
  • Of course, on roads closer to home, the Times focuses on drugs, not design.
  • As Kevin Duggan has been reporting, the city’s vendor crackdown continued in The Bronx over the weekend. (NYDN)
  • Crain’s looked at the Council’s open restaurant bill. Double-duty Duggan went a bit deeper in his piece today.
  • Subway summonses are up amid fare evasion crackdown. (amNY)
  • The Times Sunday Book Review praised Henry Grabar’s book on parking. Our in-depth interview with Grabar will run on Tuesday.
  • What’s it like to learn how to ride a bike in New York City? Hell Gate is on it.
  • The world’s hunger for lithium, cobalt and other hard-to-get elements to power the electric vehicle revolution sounds a lot like what the world did 100 years ago to enable the internal combustion revolution. (NY Times)
  • New York, we have a new “Subway Challenge” record holder! (NYDN, Gothamist)

ALSO ON STREETSBLOG

First Look: New CityRack Has Arrived

By Ben Fried |
Hat tip to @zacfrank for this shot of the new CityRack, the first of its kind to be mass-produced and installed on a New York City sidewalk. After the "hoop" won the CityRack design competition last fall, DOT announced that it will install 5,000 of them in the next three years. Where is this one […]
STREETSBLOG USA

A PSA About Biking to Work That Needs No Translation

By Angie Schmitt |
Give it up for the Directorate General of Traffic, a.k.a. Spain’s DOT. The agency produced this PSA about biking to work, which gets the message across pretty clearly, no subtitles required. The DGT doesn’t mess around with its messaging. Check out these two powerful spots from a safe driving campaign the agency released earlier this year. Hat tip: […]
STREETSBLOG USA

“Adam Ruins Everything” Explains the Origins of “Jaywalking”

By Angie Schmitt |
Think the origins of “jaywalking” in 1920s car industry propaganda are too esoteric for a mainstream audience? Watch this clip from truTV’s “Adam Ruins Everything” that adapts research from Peter Norton’s Fighting Traffic, a history of how motordom conquered American streets in the early 20th century. It’s a good sign when productions backed by the entertainment industry start devoting attention to topics like this. […]