Friday’s Headlines: Criminal Mischief in the News Edition

My one-man paint-and-screwdriver campaign to reduce the number of defaced or obscured license plates has fans — and detractors — across the country.

And for good reason: Car enthusiasts hate me (and the idea that they should ever be held accountable for their reckless driving), police enthusiasts hate me (because most of the plates I’ve repainted belong to law enforcement types), and anti-government people hate me (because I’m seen as a stooge of law enforcement who can’t mind his own f-ing business).

Everyone else loves me (because I try to hold accountable law-breakers who endanger our kids by driving 11 or more miles per hour above the speed limit).

In any event, that dichotomy really presents itself in this hilarious new Donut video featuring two motorists testing out the various methods of avoiding tickets. About midway into the amped up video (think “Car Talk” on benzedrine), one of the hosts notices me painting in a plate and issues a fusillade of curses that the electronic “beep” could barely cover its entirety.

But then when he notices that I caught a cop defacing his plate, he admits, “Now I’ve switched sides.”

In any event, it’s a fun look at how many “extremely illegal” ways there are to avoid automated cameras (and how few of them work):

Beyond that, Thursday was super busy on the livable streets front, so let’s get right to the action:

• The 10-year retrospectives on Vision Zero continue, this time with Gothamist looking at the successes and shortcomings of the de Blasio-era policy. Reporter Stephen Nessen took the novel approach of looking at two bellwethers: Queens Boulevard (the former “Boulevard of Death”) and Atlantic Avenue (the reining “Boulevard of Death”).
• Like Streetsblog, other outlets covered the terrible driving and idling done by LIRR and NYC Transit workers in agency vehicles. (NYDN)
• Also like Streetsblog, The Brooklyn Paper covered the Adams administration’s failure to release the findings of its door-to-door survey of Prospect Heights residents about the unfinished bike boulevard.
• One of our readers happened upon a crash in Harlem early on Thursday morning and sent us this picture. Lo and behold, the Pennsylvania-plated car had 19 camera-issued tickets for speeding or running red lights last year (and would have been subject to the Dangerous Vehicle Abatement Program … if that still existed). The NYPD had no info on the crash, which suggests that there were no injuries, but still…:

• A wrong-way driver hit a cop on the Upper East Side (NYDN), but then again, another cop was charged for being drunk and driving on a sidewalk (NY Post).
• The latest suit by drivers against congestion pricing can be boiled down to this TL;DR: “Rita Sue Siegel says she will face a ‘severe financial burden’ driving from her second home upstate in Cold Spring to Manhattan for medical appointments,” amNY reported (Crain’s also covered the suit.)
• The city issued lots of tickets for unshoveled sidewalks, Gothamist reported, but the Adams administration should look in the mirror (Streetsblog).
• And, finally, there must be a little storm coming (Gothamist) because Amtrak is already canceling trains (NYDN) and the DOT is appeasing drivers: