Wednesday’s Headlines: Our March (Parking) Madness Bracket is Taking Shape!

As we said yesterday, our daily headlines for the next few days will open with an update on our March (Parking) Madness competition, which opened with a blistering editorial on Monday.

As you can see, the bracket is starting to take shape:

• Polls have closed on our first two first-round battles:
  • The 42 vs. the 40 in the Bronx (and the winner is … the 42nd Precinct in a razor-thin four-vote, 51-49 percent squeaker!)
  • The 110 vs. the 115th in Queens. (and the winner is … the reprehensible 110th Precinct in a 91-9 landslide!)

Both of those commands move onto their respective borough finals, which we’ll start rolling out next week. Why the wait? Well, we’re still in the full swing of our other first-round battles.

• Polls are still open (until 2 p.m. today!) on two more first-round contests:
  • An Upper Manhattan fight between the 34th and the 30th precincts
  • A Brooklyn battle pitting the 67th and the 70th precincts.
• And today, we opened the voting on another first-round bout (polls close on Friday at 2 p.m.):
  • A Western Queens clash pitting the 108th Precinct in Long Island City vs. the 114th Precinct in Astoria.

Please vote early and encourage your friends. And come back tomorrow, when the featured bout will pit a Tribeca’s First Precinct vs. the Fifth Precinct (it’s Chinatown, Jack).

OK, now let’s get to the news digest:

• So much for “rightsizing” — the LIRR is going to undo service cuts that went into effect on Monday. (NYDN, NY Post)
• The de Blasio administration unveiled a $65-million grant and zero-interest loan program to help embattled yellow drivers. Driver advocates don’t think it’s enough (NY Post). And the Times doesn’t think so either, based on its question headline and Brian Rosenthal’s tone. The Wall Street Journal more or less played it straight. But amNY was openly unimpressed.
• Parks Commissioner Mitchell Silver resigned (NY Post), which is sad because just one week ago, Streetsblog reported that he promised #bikenyc and activists that he would finally solve the longstanding Central Park problem (Silver tweeted back at us, “I will be around for a few more months,” so maybe he’s on the case still).
• Supposed progressive Arthur Schwartz is suing the city claiming that the open restaurant program is unconstitutional because of the way it was rolled out. The Village Sun story didn’t point out that Schwartz’s last lawsuit against the city — wherein he argued that the 14th Street busway was illegal because the city did not perform the proper environmental analysis — failed to convince judges. This time, Schwartz will add in some class warfare, namely that open restaurants helps greedy building owners at the expense of long-suffering residents who need the roadway space for (you guessed it) their cars.
• Well, now it’s officially a bad day for Brad Lander. (NY Post)
• Andrew Yang wants a weeklong transit fare holiday to kick off the summer. The MTA said, “Great idea — you pay for it.” (NY Post, amNY)
• Nice to see our friends at the Gray Lady showing some empathy for e-bike-riding delivery workers, whose bikes are getting stolen more and more. Hat tip to reporter Edgar Sandoval, a tabloid veteran. (NY Times)