Thursday’s Headlines: Swan Song Edition

Hey, kids, lift a glass for me: In two days, you won’t have Kessler to kick around anymore!

After three-and-a-half years, I’m leaving Streetsblog for more stable employment (let’s hope…) that comes with a pension.

But, believe me, it doesn’t get more fun this; it’s been a pleasure and an honor to report and edit with (and to provide the final hard consonant of) the alliterative Streetsblog crew of Kuntzman, Cuba, Colon and Coburn. They are among the most dedicated, big-hearted newspeople in the business and spend their every working moment making the city’s streets safer for all New Yorkers.

And please embrace our fresh face, “Double Duty” Duggan, who will be turning out scoop after scoop for your enjoyment and erudition.

As for me, I will miss many aspects of editing this crusading publication, such as making garbage jokes (“pail imitation”), writing the (sometimes goofy) headlines, and helping activists give voice to their opinions. I will not miss covering (often vituperative) community board meetings, or deleting the ad hominem invective that often surfaces in Streetsblog’s comments. (As always, please avoid gratuitous profanity and personal insults and stick to substantive policy disagreements. Did you think I’d leave you without a schoolmarmish admonition?)

I hope readers feel that I have filed some diverting dispatches, turned a piquant phrase here and there, and contributed my share to the welfare of our common enterprise, this great city.

And with that, the news:

• After a two-year manhunt, cops caught a hit-and-run driver who killed a woman in Harlem. (NYDN)
• A cyclist struck and critically injured a female jogger in Central Park yesterday — a sad reminder that the greensward, which supposedly is car free, is still a “Wild West” for pedestrians and bikers because of its crowded, antiquated infrastructure and lack of safe crosstown bike routes. (NYDN,West Side Rag, Upper East Site)
• Several outlets covered the news that has Robert Moses rolling in his grave: The MTA’s surrender to reality (and state law), in the form of providing bike facilities on several of its bridges and bike racks at 37 stations. (NYDN, Streetsblog, amNY)
• In other Robert Moses news, the Times gave a decent review to “Straight Line Crazy,” the Ralph Fiennes-led, Moses-based play now off Broadway.
• In other MTA news, riders with disabilities sued the agency over the gap between the subway trains and platforms (The City) while unarmed guards will nab turnstile jumpers in an effort to cut crime. (NY Post)
• Plus, the MTA will order hundreds more Kawasaki subway cars. (The City Life)
• Holiday? What holiday? Gov. Hochul’s gas-tax holiday didn’t do much to help the bottom 95 percent of families, a New York Focus analysis showed.
• Pied Piper alert: The City Council today is set to pass a pack of bills aimed at our chum rattus norvegicus. (NYDN)
• Lincoln Restler’s stalled bill to allow civilians to report bike-lane abusers got props — in Santiago. (Via Twitter)

• Meanwhile, check out the money quote in this latest Streetfilms short: “I don’t think you should be living in fear all the time when you ride your bike.” We agree. (Via Twitter)