A Round and a Roundy: How Mayor de Blasio Sees Open Streets

It was all going so well: New York City’s open-streets program began on Saturday with a few miles of car-free streets, and people (especially kids) seemed to love it.

Our editorial cartoonist, Bill Roundy, loved it, too (he lives south of Prospect Park, where Parkside Avenue was blissfully without the noisome presence of automobiles, or police to enforce it, between Park Circle and Ocean Avenue). But he also heard a chill wind — in the form of Mayor de Blasio — blowing across his springtime idyll:

“I am still a fundamentally a believer in enforcement in all things,” the mayor told Streetsblog when asked about how easy it would be to expand the open streets program if he didn’t overpolice it. “We had a good first day with a limited sample size. I don’t think anyone yet can say that we know exactly what it’s going to take to enforce these things going forward.”

Roundy sees where this is headed: This mayor sees a roadway without motorcars on it and he panics that some Queens Council Member will write him a nasty letter. Roundy’s onto you, Mr. Mayor. Your bias is showing.

Bill Roundy is a national treasure. His cartoons are archived here.