Monday’s Headlines: We’re Having a Party Edition

It’s the time of the year when the Streetsblog family of advocates take stock and re-energize for another year of fighting for livable streets. The way we do that at Streetsblog is to invite our readers and friends to a great party and discuss the battles yet to come.

So for the next few weeks, we’ll be posting the logo below as a little teaser to remind you to get yourself a ticket to the party of the year.

Until the big bash, here’s some headlines from over the weekend:

• Wow, it looks like Times Metro Editor Cliff “Car-Culture” Levy took our advice last week to atone for his section’s pro-car sins by publishing better coverage of the 14th Street busway. Writer James Barron (who gets it!) called it “a magical journey,” while Sunday columnist Ginia Bellafante was so impressed that she pointed out, “The question of whether New York, or at least Manhattan, could ever largely rid itself of cars is one that has not yet gotten the traction it deserves.”
• Clayton Guse had a nice scoop, getting a letter from MTA Chairman Pat Foye that admits the agency is in a world of financial trouble. (NYDN)
• Bogdan Darmetko, the 25th cyclist of the year, was killed on Sunday in Queens. (Streetsblog, NYDN, NY Post)
• About that $1 billion New York taxpayers spent to make it easier for cars to travel between Brooklyn and Queens … (WSJ)
• The Verge offered a buyer’s guide to e-bikes.
• Well, that didn’t take long: amNY, a daily paper that was bought by an inferior local chain, is already not being updated.
• Staying on the subject of electric mobility. City Journal ran a deep dive that shows that e-buses are no panacea because the batteries themselves are so bad for the environment. The good news is that e-bikes have a much smaller carbon footprint, and offset any damage they do within 621 miles of use, according to Cycling Industry News.
• The increasingly low-quality Brooklyn Paper ran a crash story that was concerned more about the driver who hit a cyclist near Flatbush Avenue the other day than it was about the victim. Oh and fortunately, traffic wasn’t slowed down too much. Jeez.
• We certainly don’t often sympathize with drivers, but the placement of this DUMBO fire hydrant is a bit unfair. But perhaps it’s asking too much of the Cuozzoan New York Post story to wish that it also pointed out that garbage-covered sidewalks and Midtown-like congestion are the neighborhood’s real public policy crisis.
• Our editorial cartoonist Bill Roundy offered another instant classic today, following up on last week’s verbal clash between Charles Komanoff and DOT Commissioner Polly Trottenberg (footnote to the joust: We saw Trottenberg atop a Citi Bike on the not-controversial-at-all Ninth Street bike lane in Park Slope on Sunday, moving faster than we could snap a photo. Nice to see her engaging with her city).
• And, finally, Streetflims auteur Clarence Eckerson Jr. went to the Sunnyside family ride and showed — again! — that bike lanes are good for communities (a message that keeps getting ignored by too many community boards). The film is a bittersweet reminder of what a good job the DOT did with the design of the paired protected bike lanes on Skillman and 43rd avenues — and how many more neighborhoods need such infrastructure.