Tuesday’s Headlines: Suburban Agonistes Edition

Long Island Newsday has replaced the Times as the target of our outrage.

In the last few days, the suburban daily (which once pretended to be a Big City paper, but was really a tabloid in a tutu) has outdone even the Gray Lady for its windshield perspective on the car-choked communities it covers.

The revanchism started last week with the screaming headline, “Profit vs. Protection,” which called bus “stop” arm cameras a “money grab” because some drivers have received automated tickets for failing to stop at the flashing red lights on the other side of four-lane roads.

The story’s lead anecdote was from a driver who claimed her safety was threatened by having to stop for kids.

“This doesn’t make any logical sense,” said the driver, Barbara Lorge. “You are asking people to stop their cars and put their lives in danger, so that a kid four lanes away can get on the bus next to his driveway.”

Yes, indeed, some kids do get off the bus and stay on their side of the roadway. But as we know from several previous stories in the very same newspaper, many more kids are endangered and even killed by drivers who violate the very state law that Newsday seems to have such a big problem with.

Then on Monday, the pro-car tabloid complained that police “license plate”-reading cameras raised “privacy concerns,” when, in fact, what the paper seems to be umbraged about is the fact that cameras allow police to see where drivers go — but the data is anonymized, so clearly this is just another case of some car-brained Chicken Littles worrying that a chunk of sky is going to fall on their vehicle.

Don’t speed. Don’t race past school buses. If you do one or the other, we have no sympathy for you.

In other news:

• The big story yesterday was the MTA Board’s approval — again! — of congestion pricing, this time with the $9 peak toll. Everyone covered:
  • The Post played it straight … then also threw in a sidebar about how congestion pricing will supposedly “economically damage Manhattan neighborhoods in the toll zone,” something we all know is simply untrue.
  • The Times focused on how opponents of congestion pricing may use Hochul’s flip-flop against her.
  • amNY and the Daily News played it straight.
  • Gothamist focused on the need for speedy approval.
  • Crain’s reminded us that the $9 toll will rise over time.
  • And Streetsblog did both a long history story and a slap in the face on MTA Board member David Mack, who was the lone “no” vote and complained about illegal parking … even as he was illegally parked.
• There’s way more to this bizarre hit-and-run in a barely public roadway in Red Hook. (NYDN)
• There’s some nice new public space near the Brooklyn Bridge in Manhattan. (amNY, NY Post)
• A careless driver wiped out a scaffolding in Chelsea, injuring three. (NYDN, NY Post)
• The Adams administration corruption watch continues. (NYDN, Hell Gate, The City)
• Let’s say “yes” to the City of Yes, supporters argued on Monday. (NY Post)
• As a former ink-stained wretch, I’m always a little nervous when the Council starts legislating newspaper boxes. But do people use newsboxes anymore? If so, there’ll now be a name and number on them so city officials can take action if the boxes are unkempt. (NY Post)
• Building supers say they are upset at the Adams admiministration’s “trash revolution,” but the problem seems to be more that they’re not paid for the extra work they’re being asked to do. (Gothamist)
• Nov. 30 is now officially Shirley Chisholm Day in New York, thanks to a long-overdue declaration by the Council. (Gothamist)
• President-elect Trump has announced his pick to run the U.S. Department of Transportation. We’ll have more on this story today on Streetsblog USA. (NY Post)
• Speaking of Trump, it might be worth asking Elon Musk how that friendship is going, given that the incoming POTUS wants to kill EV tax credits. (NY Times)