Friday’s Headlines: After the Flood Edition

Those hundred-year floods seem to be happening every five years now, and flooding that would happen once in a while now happens a few times a year.

That was the story yesterday when what looked like a normal rainstorm turned into a massive downpour that inundated the city. As a result, at least two people died in basement apartments, according to The City. At the time of the downpour, the mayor was making a televised speech, promoted as urgent, about an isolated act of alleged anti-semitism by a weird artist on Governor’s Island.

Katie Honan of The City pointed out the soon-to-be-exiled mayor’s disconnect:

Videos from the Internet tell the story far faster than lots of other links. First, here’s some footage from Williamsburg, where at least the Bedford Avenue bike lane wasn’t being blamed:

Here’s more from the same hood:

Here’s Woodside in Queens:

Here’s flooding near Ground Zero:

Here’s the inevitable subway flooding:

It happened on the G train, too:

And here’s some highway flooding in Brooklyn:

And some regular street flooding, also in Brooklyn:

Today should be much nicer, albeit a little windy.

In other news:

• A beloved Borough Park senior was killed, and another man injured, by a car driver with a suspended license — an ongoing problem that no one except Streetsblog seems to care about. (Gothamist, NYDN)
• Sunday is the annual New York City Marathon. The Daily News previewed it from the driver’s perspective.
• Amtrak officials gave a briefing about Penn Station, but offered few new details (Gothamist, Our Town, NY Times) but did say that they’re really optimistic that the president cares about the Gateway tunnel project that he “terminated” (Streetsblog).
• Here’s a pretty damning profile of Andrew Cuomo from a paper that, until recently, was doing everything it could for the former governor. (NY Times)
• Meanwhile, mayoral front-runner Zohran Mamdani rebutted MTA CEO Janno Lieber’s skepticism about his free bus plan. (amNY)
• Let’s be clear about something: Bus “lean-bars” are not the same as true benches. But yesterday’s coverage of the city’s announcement of the coming installation of 875 benches or lean bars per year made it clear that local journos don’t care much about the difference. The mayor’s own comment revealed the gap: “Every eligible bus stop across the five boroughs that lacks seating will be fitted … with either a bench or a leaning bar.” (NYDN, amNY, Gothamist)
• Rep. AOC and Ritchie Torres hope to put pressure on Amtrak to speed up the Penn Access project. (Norwood News)
• Which side is your favorite bodega on? Who knows?! (Newsmax)
• Speaking of bodegas, those driverless Waymo cabs are coming for your beloved cats. (NY Post)
• World’s smallest violin: Drivers in Sheepshead Bay are complaining about other drivers’ double-parking. (News12)
• World’s second-smallest violin: Some scofflaws were ripped off by a booting company. (The City)
• Our United Nations-award-winning colleague Clarence Eckerson Jr. finally got the tribute he deserves: A profile in Hell Gate.
• Happy Halloween! Now, stay safe out there. (Streetsblog USA)
• The Post claimed an exclusive on its story about cops parking along a Central Park bridle and walking path … a story we did in 2006, 2018 and 2022, as Deputy Editor David Meyer pointed out to his old workplace: