Comments on: Today’s Headlines

By: Doc Barnett

Doc Barnett — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 18:11:05 +0000

“Hopefully the Manhattan Bridge will be clear as well for the ride home.”

The bridge path itself is almost bone dry, but both end loops had solid ice. The Manhattan end has been salted like mad; the Brooklyn end was icy but doable uphill, would not have been for me going down. I hope that with the sun today and above-freezing temps it will be melted and gone by tonight. The main thing is that the bridge is passable. Thanks for that!

By: Josh

Josh — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 16:30:48 +0000

Re. “Why Not Double Transit Portion of Stimulus?”

Does anyone else watch Flight of the Conchords? Nadler and all the other transit funding advocates should just use Dave’s negotiation technique. “Double it. Double it again.” It’s foolproof!

By: Larry Littlefield

Larry Littlefield — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 15:40:01 +0000

The good news: DOT got the slush off the pedestrian/bike path on Brooklyn Bridge before it froze, and it was more or less clear across the span. And it was worth it, as there were lots of people on that bridge this morning. Thanks!

Hopefully the Manhattan Bridge will be clear as well for the ride home.

By: anonymous

anonymous — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 15:31:41 +0000

forgot to identify the co-sponsors of Int 881, to whom I sent the above message. They are:
Brewer, Gale A.
Fidler, Lewis A.
Garodnick, Daniel
Gentile, Vincent J.
Gerson, Alan J.
James, Letitia
Koppell, G. Oliver
Liu, John C.
Mark-Viverito, Melissa
Martinez, Miguel
Nelson, Michael C.
Palma, Annabel
White, Jr., Thomas
de Blasio, Bill

By: anonymous

anonymous — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 15:30:12 +0000

Don’t forget Garodnick’s bill which would enable traffic enforcement agents (instead of a tiny handful of DEP inspectors) to ticket drivers for idling.

Here’s an e-mail I just sent to the co-sponsors of Garodnick’s bill Int 881:

Dear Council Members:

Thank you for supporting Council Member Garodnick’s bill, Int 0881-2008, which would enable the City to enforce, at long last, our already existing, very important anti-idling laws.

The other recently passed anti-idling measures are very good news indeed, but they need teeth! This bill would make those ones do their intended good, and it has its own broad benefits.

Please continue to support this bill and try to see it passed quickly. I am sure the Mayor would sign it happily.

Finally, the stupid and illegal practice of idling is implicated in the outrageous deaths of two toddlers in Chinatown on January 22nd. That is yet another piece of powerful evidence that there is never any excuse to violate our idling laws. This bill would help.

Thank you again for supporting this bill. Please urge your other colleagues to support it as well.

Sincerely,

By: J. Mork

J. Mork — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 15:25:28 +0000

Rep. Corrine Brown is a hero!

“How can we argue that this is good for the economy?” Mr. Flake asked, in arguing against any further federal support for Amtrak. He said the government essentially pays $210 for every person that rides an Amtrak train.

Rep. Corrine Brown, a Florida Democrat who chairs the rail subcommittee, criticized Mr. Flake’s amendment after emerging from a hearing on freight- and passenger-rail conditions.

“I got some breaking news for you. There is no form of transportation that pays for itself. We subsidize all of it,” she said. “Kill this bad idea before it multiplies.”

(That’s from the WSJ article.)