Monday’s Headlines: The End of the Line Edition

Set your calendar for the ultimate subway nostalgia ride. On Dec. 2, Jan. 2 and Jan. 9, the MTA will roll out its oldest subway cars, the R-32s, for one last ride before the cars are finally retired.

Maybe you don’t go for old train car nostalgia, but we always had a soft spot for the R-32, perhaps because of the corrugated metal exteriors, the smooth bench seats (hey, some of us have wide butts), and the fact that the R-32 cars are the last subway car class to have a front window you can look out of.

They went into service on Sept. 14, 1964 and eventually numbered about 600 cars. That’s a good run.

Check out the schedule for the last few days here.

In other news from the weekend:

• Drunk driving mayhem in the Bronx. (NYDN, NY Post)
• And regular driving mayhem in Queens. (NY Post)
• And none of the major outlets seemed to care about the death of Bronx pedestrian Milagros Collazo Rios, 67, but The Bronx Daily covered the Sunday collision that killed her.
• Advocates are questioning the way MTA is dealing with its elevator shortfall. (amNY)
• Remember how we were complaining about last year’s snowfalls on behalf of long-suffering pedestrians and snowed-in cyclists? Well, now we have a new complaint: overtime abuse. (NY Post)
• The Post is obviously worried about Rep. Nicole Malliotakis retaining her Staten Island seat that the paper is going after a third-tier candidate for basically doing nothing wrong except, to the tabloid’s editors, performing in an anti-war show.
• In an amNY op-ed, MTA CEO Janno Lieber said 2022 is going to be a great year for his agency.
• In the car-loving New York Times, even an anecdote about Stephen Sondheim becomes a cute automobile anecdote. Please, Jim Dao, can the Metropolitan Diary be edited by someone less car-centric?
• Subway service is improving, the Post reported, but the paper also claims that crime is an issue.
• If you want to hear our old man editor discuss the future of public space with Nicole Gelinas and Errol Louis, here is your chance (in fairness to the boss, it was a spirited 50-minute discussion that’s well worth your time):

• The NYPD needs you help to catch this reckless Brooklyn driver who badly injured a woman last week in Crown Heights. We checked over the weekend, and the hit-and-run driver has not yet been apprehended:

• Activists journeyed to Fifth Avenue on Saturday to mock the “Grinch” who stole life-saving street safety improvements from all of us.

• And, finally, as our December donation drive continues, we’d like to thank the people who made contributions over the weekend. Thanks (again!), Jeffrey! Thanks, Mark! Thanks, Lawrence! Thanks, Adam! Thanks, Shaurav! Want to join this esteemed honor roll? Click here or on the yellow icon above.