A weekly roundup of good deeds, missteps, heroic feats and epic failures in the tri-state region and beyond.
Winners
New Haven Department of Transportation — The City of New Haven is installing the Nutmeg State’s first parking-protected cycle track this week, something that would have been impossible just two years ago.
Senators Kirsten Gillibrand and Chuck Schumer — “New Yorkers are now experiencing first-hand the consequences of underinvestment in our nation’s rail infrastructure,” which is why Senators Gillibrand and Schumer are appealing to USDOT Secretary Elaine Chao for $50 billion to modernize railways across the nation.
NYC Council Member Karen Koslowitz and Queens Community Board 6 — Despite the loss of nearly 200 parking spaces, Koslowitz and CB 6 both endorsed the City’s plan to install curb extensions and protected bike lanes on Queens Boulevard in Forest Hills and Rego Park.
Jim Leary of Dom’s N.Y. Style Pizza — Leary “navigated his way behind a row of houses, past a fence, over a berm and across a small stream” to deliver pizza to passengers on a stalled Amtrak train in Wilmington, Delaware.
Losers
NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio — The de Blasio administration will issue tens of thousands of parking placards to teachers and other Department of Education employees, essentially hitting Ctrl+Z on the reforms achieved by the previous administration and stoking fears that the additional placards will lead to rampant misuse.
New Jersey truckers — Why does the Garden State’s trucking industry lose $3 billion each year? Because freight trains can’t get to New York.
Governor Cuomo’s Press Secretary Dani Lever — If last Thursday’s protest related to deteriorating subway service was merely “performance art” as Lever put it, then why did the MTA come out with a six-point plan to fix chronic delays just four days later?
NY State Senator Marty Golden — There’s momentum behind the push to bring speed camera enforcement to more New York City school zones, but Senator Golden, who is tight with the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association, called the proposed expansion a non-starter.
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