Friday’s Headlines: A Congestion Alert Day

It was wall-to-wall congestion pricing coverage on Thursday, and Streetsblog joined the rest of the press corps in getting a few bites at that apple.

Here were the sweetest fruits in that barrel:

• Like Streetsblog, the Daily News and Post did a takeout on the mayor’s concerns and calls for more community outreach (decades into the process).
• We also tossed in a sidebar of how Gov. Hochul strongly defended congestion pricing.
• And we had Charles Komanoff, the foremost expert, analyze what the Traffic Mobility Review Board got right (most of it) and wrong (a few quibbles).
• The Daily News and Post covered how MTA officials are blaming New Jersey’s lawsuit against congestion pricing on delays in upgrades (though it’s not really clear that the court battle has delayed this phase of congestion pricing).
• Meanwhile, the driver-friendly Times Metro section decided the time was ripe for yet another sympathetic portrayal of New Jersey elected officials and said lawsuit, even though nothing was new.
• The City focused on Traffic Mobility Review Board member John Samuelsen’s hasty resignation.
• Other outlets also played catch-up with the Times’s original story and offered the basic details. (NYDN, NY Post, amNY, Hell Gate, Gothamist)

In other news:

• The outrage over the hit-and-run killing of 3-year-old Quintas Chen in Flushing has only started (NYDN, Streetsblog, NY Post, QNS). But late on Thursday, cops announced they had arrested a 20-year-old suspect and charged him with leaving the scene and driving without a license (CBS2).
• Streetsblog covered the mayor’s announcement that he would “daylight” 1,000 intersections per year. Like us, amNY mentioned how far behind Hizzoner is on his bus and bike lane mileage requirements. Gothamist’s headline pissed off DOT spokesman Vin Barone on his personal Bluesky account:

• Carjacking mayhem, NY Post-style.
• A judge set aside the temporary stay on the city’s minimum wage for delivery workers. But the case will likely continue as the app giants are still fighting. (Gothamist)
• We covered the bus lane camera enforcement story on Wednesday, but amNY had it on Thursday.
• And I know we criticize the Times a lot because of its car-centric view of the city that provides the paper with its name, but when its reporters do stories like this one on dry cleaning (of all things!), we are reminded of how much talent is over there.
• Did you catch our own Jesse Coburn on NY1 yesterday? We did and it was spectacular:

• And, finally, our annual donation drive continues, so here’s today’s honor roll of benefactors who responded to our polite reminder of what a great job we’re doing. Thanks, Stephen! Thanks, Christine! Thanks, Geraldine! Thanks, Marjorie! Thanks, Daniel! Thanks, Sebastian! Thanks, Lindsay! Thanks, Juan! And for the rest of you, here’s another reminder: