Wednesday’s Headlines: Stand Your Ground Edition

Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy is at it again — this time threatening to withhold MTA funding in the name of public safety.

As the New York Post first reported, Duffy sent a letter to MTA CEO Janno Lieber on Tuesday demanding “documentation” by March 31 “of actions and funding that ensure effective security for passengers and workers” on New York City’s subways and buses.

The concern-trolling missive matches up with letters Duffy sent earlier this month to local leaders in Washington, D.C. Like in those earlier letters, Duffy failed to include any hard information to back up his claims in his letter to Lieber — while demanding data that even the Trump-friendly Post conceded “is already publicly available.”

Had he bothered to do the research, Duffy would have learned that overall subway crime is down 27 percent this year compared to 2024. Felony assaults are up since Covid hit, but were basically flat last year compared to 2023. Fare evasion is also down from recent highs. And all of those issues have been central focuses of the MTA and city’s public safety agenda for years at this point.

It all adds up to a political stunt rather than a good-faith effort to keep straphangers safe. Relatedly, mayoral candidate Andrew Cuomo reheated his nachos on Tuesday with a proposal to increase the number of NYPD transit cops — an old sticking point from his public safety spats with the city when he was governor. (Except now he also wants the state-run MTA to fork over more money for new turnstiles and fare enforcement.)

Of course, Cuomo is just pandering for votes. Duffy, on the other hand, is threatening crucial funding at the same time he tries to create a massive dent in the MTA’s budget by killing congestion pricing.

But New York isn’t going to give up congestion pricing without a fight, as Lieber and Gov. Hochul reiterated on Tuesday when asked about this Friday’s “deadline” that Duffy set for the MTA to shut the program down.

“The deadline will come and go and the congestion pricing program will continue to deliver much better traffic environment for New York and economic benefits as well,” Lieber said at an unrelated press conference, which was covered by CBS New York, PIX11 and Newsday.

“This is not a test of wills, it’s just the reality of when you have a dispute, things don’t change until a court orders it, and that has not yet taken place. We don’t expect it will, because we’re on pretty strong legal footing.”

Hochul, meanwhile, reiterated “the cameras are staying on,” The Post reported.

The pair has plenty to be proud of when it comes to congestion pricing, as Streetsblog’s Dave Colon reports this morning in two separate pieces — one on the lack of spillover truck traffic in the Bronx and Staten Island since the toll launched, and another on strong Manhattan foot traffic data from last month.

In other news:

• CityLand asked the mayoral candidates about their positions on outdoor dining, open streets and trash containerization. Andrew Cuomo and Adrienne Adams declined to answer, but you can read about the latter’s record on outdoor dining and other transportation issues here and here.
• NYPD cleared out that de facto lot of illegally parking trucks near JFK Airport. (Gothamist)
• Comptroller Brad Lander has a new report on accessibility issues on MTA express buses. (NY1)
• NY1 also covered the upcoming redesign of Central Park’s roadways.
• Tuesday was Transit Worker Appreciation Day. (NY1)
• Staten Island’s Paper of Record ran two opposing views on congestion pricing this week — one from a columnist opposed to the toll and another from high school student who supports it.
• Mayor Adams isn’t happy about a City Council bill to refund homeowners for the cost of the city’s new trash bins. (Gothamist)
• And finally, Clarence Eckerson is digging some fun clips out of his vast video archive ahead of the release of his 1,111th Streetfilm next week — like this one on bee-friendly gardens in Ghent: