Thursday’s Headlines: Streetsblog Won An Award Edition

No red carpets for us, but Streetsblog is getting in on the awards season action this year — our investigative reporter Jesse Coburn took home the inaugural Casey Feldman Award for Transportation Reporting from the University of Colorado, Boulder’s College of Media Communication and Information.

Coburn’s “Always Scared: Dangerous Streets Outside City Schools Threaten Children” mapped crashes near city schools while giving voice to student crash victims and others impacted by unsafe streets outside our loci of learning.

Feldman Award Judge Esteban Hernandez, a reporter at Axios Denver, said the project was “most impressive” because Coburn “compiled the data and did the additional on the ground reporting, which is a remarkable achievement.”

We at Streetsblog are grateful to get to go in-depth on the issues and give them a human, real-world face along the way. Reached for comment on Coburn’s award-winning turn, Streetsblog Editor-in-Chief Gersh Kuntzman had kind words … for himself.

“I’m never prouder of myself than when one of my young proteges wins a nationwide award for excellence, so once again, I am proud … of myself,” said the ever-modest Kuntzman.

He later confirmed he was kidding and praised Coburn’s singular effort on the investigative piece. “That was a heck of a job,” Kuntzman said. “Every member of the City Council should read that story.”

In other news:

• A beautiful, historic boulevard transformed into a pedestrian-friendly park during COVID and local news could only spin it as a “danger” controversy. (NY1)
• The driver who killed 43-year-old cyclist Jarrod Little in East New York in September was finally charged — with failure to yield and failure to exercise due care. (NY Daily News)
• Henry Grabar says: “Keep the sheds!” (Slate)
• A top FDNY official said the department understands the importance of lithium ion batteries for delivery workers, telling amNY that “there’s a lot of good that comes from these devices.”
• … and Council Member Joann Ariola (R-Queens) called lithium ion battery fires a “state of emergency.” (QNS)
• A new bill from Assembly Member Robert Carroll (D-Brooklyn) would slap a noise tax and a carbon emissions tax on “non-essential” helicopter trips. (Brooklyn Paper)
• McSweeney’s attempted to weigh in on “15-minute cities.”
• Rockland County school buses will be equipped with stop signal enforcement cameras. The fine is $250. (WABC-TV)
• MTA leaders give speeches about the horror of fare evasion and politicians in Albany go to bat for toll evaders who owe a lot more than the $2.75 subway fare. (The City)
• Meanwhile, the NYPD suspended an officer who falsely reported his license plate as stolen to skip out on $3,000 worth of tolls. (Staten Island Advance)
• Transit advocates would like Kathy Hochul’s MTA budget a lot better if it were bigger. (NY Daily News)
• Streetsblog readers don’t really need an overview of congestion pricing, but Friend of Streetsblog Charles Komanoff gives this Yahoo! piece some class.