Monday’s Headlines: Judge is Jury and Executioner Edition

The big news over the weekend was the story that a Queens judge had put a temporary hold on a Department of Transportation safety project through industrial Maspeth. Why? Because a handful of businesses complained that the DOT abused its authority to build protected bike lane in an area with lots of cycling, but not a lot of safety. (The Post and Gothamist covered it.)

We’ve seen these two-bit lawsuits before — and judges often agree to a brief pause to consider the law, which is that the DOT is completely in its power to make roadways safer. That’s why these suits almost always fail in the end: The “community” that opposed the 14th Street busway (fail!). The “community” that opposed the Central Park West bike lane (fail!). The “business owners” who objected to a road diet on Morris Park Avenue (fail!).

Judge Lucindo Suarez said it best in his decision in the Morris Park case: “Section 2903 of the New York City Charter statutorily empowers the DOT Commissioner with broad discretion to promulgate rules and regulations for the conduct of vehicular and pedestrian traffic in the streets as may be necessary,”

There’ll be a hearing on the merits in November. And that’s when this case should be thrown out of court so the legal system can focus on real miscarriages of justice.

In other news:

• There was a curious footnote to a recent Trump rally where the would-be president described journalists as “the enemy of the people. Rushing to the defense of journalists everywhere was none other than DOT Deputy Commissioner and chief communications officer Nick Benson, who tweeted, “Journalists are indispensable guardians of our democracy.” We, of course, found that a bit rich, given that we’ve been barred and booted from a DOT press briefing just weeks earlier, and have had to sue the DOT to get basic information on its work taming reckless drivers (we won!) and to stop taking so long to answer journalists’ freedom of information requests (that one is pending because believe it or not the DOT asked for more time to respond). Also, as journalists, we don’t like hearing DOT press officers telling us that we “ask too many questions.” As far as we’re concerned, we don’t ask enough. So we’ve pinned Benson’s tweet to the top of our inter-office Slack channel — and will be referring to it frequently if our efforts to inform the public about key DOT initiatives are ever stymied.

• There was a lithium ion battery fire in the Bronx. (NY Post)
• The subway system turned 120 on Sunday, which the Post and Mass Transit covered. But we ran an important op-ed demanding better financing so we can someday mark another 120 years.
• I spotted an MTA employee breaking the law by covering his plate (and leaving his business card on the dashboard) and did my usual “Criminal Mischief” song and dance only to learn after the fact that another social media warrior spotted the same car with the same illegal plate cover back in July. And our public officials wonder why our roads are so unsafe? I reached out to the MTA, and spokesperson Aaron Donovan would say only, “The matter is under internal review.”
• Staten Island Rep. Nicole Malliatakis got caught using Photoshop to pretend she hangs out with Black voters. (NYDN)
• The G train is going to stink for a few more years. (Crain’s)
• And, finally, Twitter still seems to be the place for great urbanist Halloween costume ideas: