Monday’s Headlines: City Hall Handshake Edition

Mayor Adams and City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams announced a $116-billion budget deal in a late Friday press release that included a tidbit that raised livable streets eyes: The deal includes $6.1 million towards the mayor’s proposed “Department of Sustainable Delivery” — but its unclear what the department will do besides write tickets to cyclists.

The press release said the money would fund a department within the city Department of Transportation “to regulate commercial e-bikes, including 60 positions for regulation and enforcement.”

It’s unclear what the “department” will do other than enact the mayor’s war on e-bikes and delivery workers. The funding comes after disagreements over the mayor’s initial “Department of Sustainable Development idea, which he sort-of announced it in January 2024, but which the Council ignored.

But in late April, Hizzoner and NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch launched a full-scale anti-bike crackdown, which the mayor said was necessary because the Council had blown off his much-broader idea, and subsequently the two exchanged barbs over the issue.

The Post, for one, sees the new agency as part of a “crackdown on e-bikes,” which seems like a logical conclusion given that the mayor’s press release mentioned nothing about regulating the app-based delivery companies.

On Sunday, City Hall finally got back to use with a statement that suggested that the broad provisions of the mayor’s 2024 effort against a rogue industry would, again, focus solely on the delivery workers, not their employers. And once again, the mayor called on the Council to act:

“At town hall after town hall, New Yorkers have repeatedly called on the city to increase regulations for e-bikes. Now, after nine months of ignoring New Yorkers and inaction by the City Council, the Adams administration included money in the budget that will allow the Department of Transportation to finally create a new division to assist in regulating apps that use e-bikes under the existing traffic code. While there is a license requirement for some delivery app companies, there is still a need for the Council to pass legislation that would further expand licenses to all delivery app companies and we will continue our push for this crucial legislation in the coming days.”

The Council press office declined to comment, telling Streetsblog to talk to City Hall about the mayor’s plan. Oy vey. We’ll have more later today.

— with Gersh Kuntzman

In other news:

• An SUV driver struck and killed 8-year-old Mordechai Keller on Eastern Parkway at Albany Avnue. The driver has not been charged. (Daily News, ABC 7 NY, CrownHeights.info)
• The TLC will crack down on Uber and Lyft driver blackouts. (NY Times)
• Street safety villain Ingrid Lewis-Martin is back in the fold on Mayor Adams’s re-election campaign. (Daily News)
• Yet another NYPD chase resulted in carnage. (Daily News)
• Eric Adams tries to take credit for Zohran Mamdani’s free buses pilot. (NY Post)

• The mayors of Paris and London won’t back down in the face of climate NIMBYs. (The Guardian)
• Street design changes are coming to DeKalb Avenue in Bushwick. (Jen Gutierrez via X)