Monday’s Headlines: Simon Says Edition

We were pleased that the story of “The Wire” creator David Simons’s epic Twitter battle against New York City’s lifesaving 24-7 speed camera system had not died down.

On Friday, the Daily News and the Times published stories about the writer’s whining about the “school zone” ticket he got in the early hours of a July day, and City & State led its weekly “Winners and Losers” column with the Simon saga (with Simon in the loser column, obvs). But all those outlets sort of let the writer off the hook. So…

Around midday on Friday, we upped the ante with our story about how Simon had no right to complain about New York’s program given that he has a lengthy record of reckless driving in Baltimore including plenty of camera-issued speeding tickets in the summer.

For all our fine reporting, we got the just dessert: Simon blocked our main account, and our reporters’ personal accounts, from viewing his Twitter feed. But here’s hoping the mainstream media doesn’t let this story die.

In other news:

• The Daily News had an odd take on the eight moped and motorcycle riders who were killed over the previous seven days. The tone of the story suggested that city streets are wildly unsafe because of micro-mobility — but a close reading of the story shows that car drivers are the clear reason why our streets feel so unsafe right now.
• By contrast, the Times’s Metropolitan Diary had a nice story about the joy of micro-mobility.
• The Daily News provided more details on Moses Parnes, 71, who died last week after being run down by a driver in a crosswalk last month. Like Streetsblog’s post a day earlier, the story focused on how the driver — who had been traveling in reverse — has not yet been charged.
• No wonder so many delivery workers are shifting to gas-powered mopeds, as we reported last month — there was another fire sparked by a lithium-ion battery on Friday. (Gothamist, NYDN)
• Carnage on a Bronx highway. (NYDN)
• Council Member Julie Menin (D-Upper East Side) has a bill to create warning lights at intersections so drivers will stop hitting pedestrians. (NY Post)
• The NYPD has a head of the counter-intelligence bureau. Perhaps she’ll remove the squad car that blocks pedestrians and cyclists at the start of the Brooklyn Bridge foot and bike path at Tillary Street? (NY Times)
• And, finally, Summer Streets was awesome: