Wednesday’s Headlines: Profiting Off Placard Abuse Edition

That Andrew Gounardes — he’s always thinking.

The state senator who watched, powerless, as various pro-scofflaw legislators gutted his speed camera bill of some nifty provisions earlier this year is back with a new road safety effort: As reported exclusively in the Daily News, Gounardes has introduced a bill that would allow members of the public to report motorists with bogus, defaced or obscured license plates — and get 25 percent of the ticket money.

It’s the latest spin on the city’s longstanding citizen reporting program for idling vehicles, but it faces a challenging legislative future. Last year, the city opposed an effort by then-Council Member Steve Levin to allow for citizen reporting of illegally parked cars, also with some of the money being kicked back to the eagle-eyed reporter.

Perhaps Gounardes will be luckier in Albany.

In other news:

• Speaking of reining in reckless drivers, lots of outlets covered Mayor Adams’s “announcement” that this time the city is serious about cracking down on fake license plates. And most of the outlets offered a bit of a shrug. (Streetsblog, NYDN, NY Post, amNY)
• You may have noticed that we don’t have too much sympathy for drivers who now complain that they have to move their cars twice a week so the street can be properly swept so all their neighbors can enjoy being outside. The complaints have an air of irony, given that drivers have long argued that they “need” their cars — so if they need them so badly, why is it such an imposition to ask the cars to be moved twice a week? The Post (times two) and the car-loving NY Times led the symphony of violins for aggrieved car drivers, who have been swiping our public space for decades, polluting our air, stealing our kids’ independence and causing the deaths of an average of 250 people a year — yet never seem to be called out for any of that by the mainstream press. Don’t like having to move your car? Get rid of the car instead of whining that the city hasn’t provided you a free place to store your private property. (Gothamist played it more or less straight.)
• Meanwhile, the Department of Sanitation continued to be 100 on Twitter and TikTok:

https://twitter.com/bananalise/status/1544390291939098625?s=20&t=Q5uBzLZzxiSUAGUgLoK47g

• Speaking of filth and the cleaning thereof, the first six narrow street sweepers have been deployed! (amNY)
• New York and New Jersey have finally inked the deal on paying for a bridge in New Jersey that’s crucial to the larger Gateway project (NYDN, NY Times), but Larry Penner raised some red flags in NJ.com.
• The City looked at the MTA’s greatest nightmare: people biking or walking to work!