Special Reports
Streetsblog Basics
Why Is Queens BP Melinda Katz Refusing to Divulge 2015 CB Appointments?
Streetsblog has filed a freedom of information request after Queens Borough President Melinda Katz refused to provide us a list of 2015 community board appointments.
May 12, 2015
Can New York City Reform Its Dysfunctional Community Board System?
New York City's 59 community boards often serve as the sole venues where the public can assess and vet street design projects. But they are also structured in a way that inhibits any sort of change, giving de facto veto power over street improvements to a small clique who can serve for life.
May 1, 2015
GCA Backed Congestion Pricing — Why Not Bridge Toll Reform?
The General Contractors Association of New York, which represents heavy construction contractors, says it wants a funding solution to the $14 billion gap in the MTA's capital plan -- just not the Move NY toll reform plan that's being shopped around Albany. It's a shift in tone from the group's interest when the plan was being developed a few years ago, and a stark contrast from eight years ago, when the group was one of the biggest backers of congestion pricing.
April 30, 2015
Does Cuomo Plan to Leave Straphangers Holding the Bag?
There's been a lot of noise so far this week about toll reform and the MTA funding gap, but the people who can actually do something about it remain conspicuously silent. Chief among them: Governor Andrew Cuomo.
April 29, 2015
Helen Rosenthal Won’t Say Why She Reappointed Street Safety Foe to CB 7
Members of Families For Safe Streets asked Council Member Helen Rosenthal at a town hall meeting last night why she reappointed street safety foe and longtime Community Board 7 transportation committee co-chair Dan Zweig. But Rosenthal refused to answer questions from Upper West Siders who have lost loved ones to traffic violence.
April 28, 2015
De Blasio Deputy Anthony Shorris Ducks Questions on MTA Funding
Mayor Bill de Blasio's One New York plan, focused on the intersection of income inequality and the environment, doesn't hesitate to make big recommendations to the MTA, like a new subway line. To pay for those plans, de Blasio will need Governor Cuomo and the state legislature to take action, but the mayor isn't putting forward his own ideas about how to fund the MTA.
April 24, 2015
13 State and City Elected Officials Sign On to Move NY Toll Reform
The trickle of elected officials endorsing toll reform is starting to become more of a steady stream, and a look at who belongs to the coalition suggests that the politics of the Move NY plan are indeed different than the politics of congestion pricing.
April 22, 2015
Harlem Bus Lane Foes: Good Streets for Bus Riders “Trampling Our Liberties”
Community board meetings in central Harlem have officially gone off the deep end.
April 15, 2015
The Times Fails to Comprehend the Nature of the MTA Funding Gap
New York politicos couldn't have asked for a better deflection of their own responsibility to keep our transit system running than this piece served up yesterday by Times opinion writer Eleanor Randolph:
April 10, 2015