Monday’s Headlines: A Federal Case over Parking Edition

Sorry to flick our own bicycle bell, but we certainly didn’t get enough attention for David Meyer’s big scoop on Friday that the Department of Justice — the federal one! — may sue the city if cops don’t stop parking on the sidewalk.

All weekend long, we were thinking tout le monde would be following that story, especially given that it followed a report by the Department of Investigation — our local little one — that similarly concluded that the NYPD’s practice of allowing and indeed encouraging illegal parking must stop.

And that report was followed by an NYPD handout story in the Post that claimed the police would finally do something about it (a story the NYPD has not officially confirmed).

That’s a lot of news parked on that there sidewalk. But for now, the only coverage we saw was on NBC News 4. It’s a pretty big story, and we’ll be asking the mayor about it at his weekly Off-Topic Tuesday. Until then, our colleagues in the media should follow our story — though here’s one reason why they may be pissed at me:

In other news from the weekend:

• Everyone covered the passage of Sammy’s Law in the state budget this year, avoiding yet another foolish Albany fight (NYDN, NY Times, NY1, Patch, Gothamist). But we added interesting details from the governor’s team.
• Other budget news:
  • The free (bus) ride is over, however. (amNY)
  • There will be a better crackdown on toll evaders. (Gothamist)
  • We rounded up some tolling issues, too.
• My criminal mischief campaign was featured in the Daily Mail.

• Some guy is covering up subway security cameras. (NYDN)
• Street vendors just want to operate legally. (Hell Gate)
• Welcome to Kiss Korner — and, no, don’t pucker up. But you might want to rock and roll all night and part of every day. (NY Post)
• Car carnage in the Bronx. (NYDN)
• Former federal transit man Larry Penner to government: Earth Day should be every day. (Mass Transit)
• And, finally, we have a bone to pick with the car-centric New York Times’ new word game, Strands. On Sunday, the clue was “That’s Life!” and the words were supposed to reflect key benchmarks in a human’s life. But one bum choice stood out (which we’ve outlined in red):