Friday’s Headlines: Putting the ‘Con’ in ConEd Edition

Summer Streets returns to Vernon Boulevard along the Queens waterfront on Saturday, with a twist: Con Edison trucks parked in the bike lane.

The electric utility company has had a stretch of Vernon Boulevard’s two-way protected lane blocked for going on nine days since a fire at the Ravenswood Generating Station last Wednesday.

A ConEd spokesman told Streetsblog the company has “flaggers on site to stop traffic and redirect bicyclists and pedestrians across the street, when needed, to protect everyone’s safety.”

That hasn’t quite borne out as Streetsblog has made several trips through the detour recently, when cyclists coming up on the blocked portion were forced to merge into oncoming traffic without the help of a flagger or even some signage.

DOT told Streetsblog it is “active communication with ConEd so that there will be no impact on Summer Streets operations this Saturday.” Sure, obviously once cars are barred from Vernon, there’ll be plenty of room for everyone, even with the ConDead zone.

But whether cyclists will still be forced into traffic on Monday remains to be seen.

For more information about this Saturday’s Summer Streets festivities in Queens, click here. Staten Island’s truncated car-free day will also be on Saturday on Forest Avenue between Elizabeth Street and Bard Avenue. For that info, click here. All Summer Streets car bans run from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Here’s rest of the schedule (Gothamist also covered the fest):

• Manhattan on Aug. 2
• Manhattan on Aug. 9
• Manhattan on Aug. 16
• Brooklyn and The Bronx on Aug. 23.

In other news:

• This just in from Germany: E-bikes really do reduce car use! (Bluesky)
• Our friend Jeff Coltin posted a picture of mayoral wannabe Jim Walden’s campaign car on X, so we ran the plate: Clean as a whistle! Congrats to him (and to his neighbors). But that’s OK, Streetsblogers — we’ll always have Cuomo (six speeding tickets and counting).
• Congestion pricing is working, part 412. (amNY)
• Just in time for a summer weekend — a bus crash at Port Authority. (Patch)
• Fare evasion is down. (News12)
• Why is PATH service so bad? (Gothamist)
• Gothamist did a pretty good job breaking down the latest numbers on NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch’s criminal crackdown on bicyclists, though it’s not fully clear whether the crackdown also includes cars (unlikely).
• Hell Gate’s headline on the Brooklyn Marine Terminal meltdown says it all.
• A hit-and-run driver killed a firefighter on the FDR Drive. (Gothamist, NYDN, Patch)
• We see it’s the same old bullshit at the NYPD’s 33rd Precinct uptown:

• And, finally, the New York Groove had its second anniversary party, featuring Streetsblog Senior Reporter Dave Colon (and Groove co-founder) in a dunk tank at the Mallard Drake. And now pitching … Miss Subways winner Bimini Cricket. Here’s what that looked like: