Monday’s Headlines: Trump Games Continue Edition

The Trump administration’s administrative bullying of “blue” states, New York in particular, relented slightly on Friday when Trump himself announced that he had yielded to a demand from New York State and reinstated $187 million in counterterrorism funds that were initially withheld for no stated reason, apparently without the president’s knowledge.

That $187 million, allocated under the Homeland Security Grant Program, doesn’t include the $30 million the Department of Homeland Security owes the MTA for counterterrorism funding under the Transit Security Grant Program.

That funding cut, first reported by Streetsblog last week, deprives the MTA of tens of millions of dollars it was counting on to pay for police patrols, cybersecurity and other security efforts across the transit system. DHS documents indicate the agency denied the funding based on New York’s “sanctuary” immigration laws. New York sued last week, arguing that the money can only be allocated based on security risk levels. MTA officials told Streetsblog they cannot confirm whether Trump’s reversal announcement included the TSGP funding until the federal government shutdown ends.

On Thursday, federal Judge Lewis Kaplan issued a temporary restraining order that prevents the federal government from disbursing a chunk of the money to different states until he has a chance to rule on the merits of the argument.

Issuing a TRO usually indicates a judge sees a chance the plaintiffs will win their case, and as he issued his ruling on Thursday, Kaplan himself noted that the TSGP grant was specifically created in response to the Sept. 11 attacks and required allocation based on the terrorism risk of an applying locality. Kaplan also said that on the basis of the evidence available, he believed the federal government was specifically retaliating against New York for refusing to help the Trump administration deport millions of immigrants.

The case will be back in court on Thursday.

— Reporting by Dave Colon

In other news:

• Trump’s blue state bullying is targeting Chicago infrastructure projects as well. (Associated Press)
• A hit-and-run driver struck and killed a 75-year-old grandmother in Sunset Park on Saturday night. (NY Post)
• Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop is reportedly trying out to be Kathy Wylde’s sucessor at the Partnership for New York City business group. (NY Post)
• The Times went with the basic and unoriginal “battle for space” angle for a story about changing traffic patterns in Central Park. (Hint to the Times: Central Park is one of the only city parks without a single two-way protected bike lane on its perimeter; and the story doesn’t even mention the decades-long fight to get cars out of the haven.)
• Forest Parkway is Woodhaven’s “unofficial town square.” (QNS)
• Three men in their 20s died in what appeared to be a high-speed single-vehicle crash on the Staten Island Expressway. (NY Post)
• The Democrat running for Bob Holden’s City Council seat is campaigning out of the back of a U-Haul. (NY Post)
• OMNY cards couldn’t be bought or loaded all weekend … (Hell Gate, Gothamist)
• … while coin fare payment will end next year on city buses. (Gothamist)
• DoorDash’s delivery robots are coming to bike lanes in Arizona. (Momentum)
• Accessibility is coming to a 6 train stop in the Bronx thanks to an ADA lawsuit filed a decade ago. (The City)
• The same tech genius who sic’d NYPD on a random Citi Bike during the Luigi Mangione manhunt is now undermining San Francisco parking enforcement. (NY Times)
• New York City will start buying out homeowners in the flood-prone “The Hole” neighborhood. (The City)
• Check out London-based scholar Tim Gill discussing “cities for children” on The War on Cars Podcast.
• And finally, a smart idea from Switzerland’s largest city: