Wednesday’s Headlines: FOIL’ed Again Edition

This is not some old joke: How many Department of Transportation officials does it take to not answer reporters’ Freedom of Information Law requests?

The completely un-funny punchline? Sixteen!

I know this because back in September, on behalf of Streetsblog as well as reporters from all the other outlets who aren’t getting their questions answered promptly, I filed a FOIL request to find out how many staffers DOT has set aside to respond to reporters’ FOIL requests.

I FOIL’d for the FOIL staff because of our lawsuit against the agency (still pending!) for consistently delaying our FOIL requests, one of two times we’ve been able to write a headline, “Streetsblog to DOT: We’ll See You in Court.”

Perhaps to avoid a third suit, the agency responded (albeit pushing six months, as always), naming all 16 staffers, whose salaries added up to $1,238,613 in 2024 (which we obtained from public records, not from DOT).

All of this raises the question: is 16 enough? Or is it an ample number to handle 7,300-plus requests per year by the vaunted New York City press corps (motto: “Where’s the bar and who’s boss is buying?”)? Maybe. Or maybe it’s too much work. Or maybe they being told to slow-walk FOIL answers, rarely answering within six months, no matter the question?

Who knows? But now you know the staffing, at least (and what you’re paying for it).

In other news:

• You’re welcome, New York. After something like five years of Streetsblog covering the NYPD’s lackadaisical response to 311 calls — most recently with Nolan Hicks’s investigation into failures helping the homeless at Coney Island’s Stillwell Avenue station — NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch vows to watch the watchers and make sure cops are doing the job. (NY Post)
• … And Tisch is also going after cops who commit misconduct. Imagine that, in Adams World. What a concept! (The City)
• A lot of people want to move Madison Square Garden to enable the construction of a truly worthy Penn Station, but Knick fans certainly won’t like it if it enriches a Dolan. (NY Times, amNY, Gothamist)
• Our colleagues at WMSBG have been relentless in calling the Bedford Avenue bike lane “dangerous.” But look what happens in the areas where there is no bike lane — car drivers race to reckless speeds and sometimes hit stuff. (Via X.com)
• What’s with the MTA capital plan? That’s a very good question. (amNY, Streetsblog)
• Mayoral hopeful Brad Lander did a Reddit AMA with our friends on the micro-mobility sub, some of whom were disappointed, but we feel Lander checked a lot of boxes that readers expect.
• So let’s get this straight: President Trump has spent years bashing electric cars, but now that the Tesla stock price has been tanking thanks to Elon Musk’s part time role as Co-President, Trump has become Car Salesman in Chief? This New York Times paragraph expressed the full crassness of this historic moment: “It was an extraordinary scene of a president using the backdrop of the White House to boost sales for a friend and top donor. It was made all the more surreal because Mr. Trump has for years bashed electric vehicles. On Christmas Day in 2023, he posted on social media that electric cars should ‘ROT IN HELL.’”
• Junk news? Perhaps Mayor Adams is just reading some good books! (NY Post)
• And, finally, our friend Jose Martinez of The City captured the moment on Tuesday when MTA CEO Janno Lieber and Johnny Thunderbird officially got down: