Tuesday’s Headlines: Riding with the Bike Mayor of Twitter Edition

You know John Bauters, right? After all, everyone knows John Bauters, the mayor of Emeryville, Calif. — and the de facto Mayor of Bike Twitter?

Well, some of our closest friends at Streetfilms and Transportation Alternatives got a chance to hang out with America’s biking executive (who’s not Joe Biden) over the weekend on a nifty ride from Downtown Brooklyn, across the Village and down to Soho (all the while, wearing his “Sharrows are Bullshit” shirt).

Check it out (and follow Bauters on Twitter @johnbauters. He always has the right take):

Now, in other news from a long weekend of fun and carnage:

• First the fun: The mayor took a jet-ski lesson on Monday:

• Now, to the carnage:
  • First, the mass shooting in Highland Park inspired a dead-on thread by Georgetown Law professor Heidi Feldman linking gun violence to the erosion of democracy itself. It’s worth a read.
  • The driver of a box truck lost control of the vehicle and slammed into some cars in Brooklyn, injuring himself badly. Photos from the scene suggest he was going very fast. (NYDN)
  • A man riding on a moped was killed when his own passenger exchanged gunfire with a man in an SUV, cops said. (NYDN, NY Post)
  • A man driving a moped lost control of the vehicle near Herbert Von King Park in Brooklyn and died. But for some reason, the police continue to call such devices “electric scooters,” which they are not. They are mopeds (and illegal if they do not have a plate). The Daily News also misidentified the vehicle — a practice that continues to link legal electric bikes with illegal vehicles in the public mind.
  • The Post did a better job identifying the illegal motorcycle in a different crash.
  • A cyclist was killed by a hit-and-run driver in the Bronx. (NY Post)
  • Another pedestrian was killed in the Bronx. (NY Post)
• Yesterday was our nation’s Independence Day, but today is our city’s Independence Day — from filthy streets and coddling car drivers. Twice-weekly street cleaning returns today. (NYDN, Gothamist)
• Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine is ramping up his call for a pedestrianized Broadway. (Via Twitter)
• The Post editorial board came out against Gov. Hochul’s Penn Station boondoggle. Larry Penner said the same thing a few days ago. (Long Island Weekly)
• How much does the Post hate Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez? So much that they got a guy who has literally zero power to say that AOC has zero power. Do better, Rupert.
• The Adams administration is not doing a good job of keeping the public records database up to date. (NY Post)
• As usual, the Times turned an extended “Inquiring Photographer” story into a musing on crime.
• Viewers of the sanitized ESPN broadcast or readers of the Times might not have realized it, but legendary hot dog eater Joey “Jaws” Chestnut not only beat 19 other gustatory gladiators at Coney Island, but also an anti-pork protesters who made it to the stage only to receive a headlock from the champ, who barely stopped chewing. The porcine protest was ironic, of course, because Nathan’s franks are all beef, no bull. (NY Post, amNY Barstool Sports with video)
• And, finally, Avril Lavigne wanted to revisit her past, but Cap’n Transit only saw how much better our public space is getting: