Friday’s Headlines: Busiest Day of the Year Edition

It seemed like yesterday was a day of constant motion in the Streetsblog newsroom, with bulletins flying everywhere and people screaming from under their desks, “Please don’t make me write three stories again!”

What was happening? Well, first the mayor’s office put out a new executive order to make trucks safer. We covered it fairly straight. (The Advance also had it.)

But then when we came up for air, we noticed that the otherwise unrelated press release had a quote from City Hall hanger-on Assembly Member Jenifer Rajkumar in which she shoehorned in her support for registering e-bikes — a quote that we spotted, ironically, as Julianne Cuba was watching a New Jersey Senate committee pass just such a misguided bill (which we also covered).

Here’s the Rajkumar recklessness:

And then Transportation Alternatives blindsided us with a slate of recommendations for the city’s proposed “Department of Sustainable Delivery,” which we covered more or less straight (with caveats).

And then the Manhattan District Attorney’s office told us that a judge had let Jonathan Valentin, a driver who injured 20 people in Inwood in early 2023, walk with just six months, even though the People had demanded 1 1/3 to four years. We think there’ll be more to say about this when the sentence is rubber stamped next month.

And then the NYPD told us that cops had arrested the hit-and-run truck driver who killed cyclist Eugene Schroeder on Morgan Avenue in March 2023. The police declined to give any information about the arrest, but said only that they’d collared Akilo Cadogan, 34, of Queens and charged him with leaving the scene of a fatal crash. The Daily News later reported that Cadogan worked for the DOT.

We could barely keep up with what Kevin Duggan was doing, but he was at a hearing about traffic and pollution in Red Hook, where he learned that the city has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars and not solved a damn thing. We covered that, too! (Gothamist did as well.)

What a day.

In other news:

• It seems like the only time the Post likes public transit is when something silly happens, like a rhyming conductor.
• Speaking of the Post, the tabloid missed the real story in Prospect Heights residents’ objection to a Tony Hawk-financed skatepark proposed for a neighborhood greenspace. No one went “door-to-door” to listen to these residents trying to protect a park, yet the mayor said he had to stop construction of a popular bike boulevard with more “outreach” because it was foisted by “outsiders.” (Unlike the Californian Hawk.)
• Say it again — and loud so the Post can hear you: There is no “migrant crime wave.” (NY Times)
• Other outlets picked up on our lead headlines item yesterday about the MTA canceling contracts because of doubt about the congestion pricing lawsuits, but our graphic was better. (NYDN, Crain’s)
• Drivers gone wild. (NY Post)
• Let’s just build a park in Queens without a casino! (Hell Gate)
• At some point, it’s worth asking how much money the city loses by suspending alternate-side-of-the-street parking so often, not that The City asked that question.