Monday’s Headlines: Juneteenth Edition

The staff of Streetsblog is off today to mark the Juneteenth national holiday. But if you’re enjoying the holiday and want something to read, here’s what happened over the weekend:

• Our friend Christopher Robbins had a drop-dead gorgeous story in Curbed about how Hoboken reduced its traffic fatalities to zero with a series of treatments that New York City always talks about, but never actually achieves.
• No surprise here: The Staten Island Advance’s car-loving columnist Tom Wrobleski doesn’t like the DOT’s plan for Hylan Boulevard, which we reported on first. OK, Wrobleski’s opinion is the obvious Staten Island take, but would it have killed him to link to our coverage? Meanwhile, once (and future?) Staten Island Rep. Max Rose decided to pick a fight with the DOT over its completely reasonable plan to rein in reckless drivers (and, in a win-win, stop tricking them into speeding) on Hylan Boulevard, tweeting that the plan is — his word — “insane.” At least, unlike Wrobelski, he linked to us!

• Hat tip to Dana Rubinstein and Nick Fandos for their coverage of New York’s freewheelin’ 10th Congressional District race, pitting Bill de Blasio against Mondaire Jones against Carlina Rivera against Yuh-Line Niou against (yes) Liz Holtzman… (NY Times). Meanwhile, Rivera picked up some key endorsements on Friday (PoliticsNY) as de Blasio picked a needless fight with MSNBC (NY Post).
• There was all manner of carnage this weekend, starting with intern Noah Martz’s coverage of a crash on the Upper East Side by the recidivist driver of a big SUV. Then…
  • A cab driver speeding on the Upper East Side’s own Indianapolis Motor Speedway (Third Avenue) slammed into a scaffolding, injuring two people. (Upper East Site, NY Post)
  • A reckless teen driver killed himself and injured several others in a crash on the Belt International Moto-Cross and Parkway. Unsurprisingly, the Post showed the kid’s license plate number but didn’t bother to run the plates — the car he was driving has been nabbed by speed cameras 16 times since April 6, 2020! (amNY’s coverage of that crash included another crash later that day.)
  • There was a crash in Staten Island that snarled traffic on Sunday. (Advance)
  • The NYPD and the sheriff allow too many reckless drivers to stay on the road, where they kill and maim us. (Streetsblog)
• Scores of NJ Transit trains were canceled on Friday in what officials claim was an illegal work action over the lack of holiday pay for Juneteenth (a holiday!) (NY Post). Service was restored, according to Gothamist.
• President Biden caught his foot on his toe clip as he coasted over to some reporters in Rehobeth Beach on Saturday morning…

… and by that night, ex-President Trump weaponized it (in the most bizarre way): “I make this pledge to you today, I will never, ever ride a bicycle.”

Have a great holiday, New York. See you Tuesday.