Second Ave. Sagas
@2avesag.as
Subways, transit, NYC. All posts by @benjaminkabak.com
Actually enforcing existing laws (Mamdani) vs. reactionary lawmaking that would make many things worse (Menin). bsky.app/profile/c-so...
Chris Sommerfeldt@c-sommerfeldt.bsky.social · 2h agoMayor Zohran Mamdani announces that New York City is issuing cease and desist letters to more than 40 retailers selling illegal e-bikes (generally, vehicles that can go faster than local speed limits allow). The targeted retailers include Amazon and Best Buy.
Without getting into sourcing, this article is off-base. Some of New York's biggest power players are talking to Mamdani *all the time*. I met with one just the other day who said he's had 10 meetings with Mamdani since he won the primary.
The Wall Street Journal@wsj.com · 16h agoNew York City’s business elites are long accustomed to direct access to City Hall, where even Democratic mayors felt the need to court the city’s wealthiest and most influential corporate leaders. That access is getting shredded by Mayor Zohran Mamdani.
The MTA is bending the knee to the same people who fight literacy requirements in Yeshivas because a bunch of people who live in New York City can't stand seeing the word "sex" on a bus ad. Ridiculous. 5townscentral.com/2026/08/04/a...
Agudath Testifies at MTA Board Meeting; Offensive Bus Ads to Rotate Off Within 60 Days - 5 Towns Central
Before the Board of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority of New York, Agudath Israel of America called on MTA’s leadership to curtail the ubiquitous advertisements for an adults-only “museum” it ...
5townscentral.com
Sinister! A lot of NYPD resent Summer Streets for sulky culture war reasons (hatred of cyclists, car hog mentality, see healthy use of public space as “liberal”) and are trying to ruin it with costly security overkill. @mayor.nyc.gov needs to stop this shit cold even if it costs him
Streetsblog NYC@nyc.streetsblog.org · 2d agoSummer Streets attendees were stunned by the sheer number of police and their vehicles clogging many intersections — in what one cop called "overkill."
If you've read the frenzied media coverage surrounding the implementation of the state's new pied-à-terre tax, you know that some property owners are livid about paperwork they now must do. But what do renters think? hellgatenyc.com/nyc-tenants-...
NYC Tenants React to Pied-à-Terrorism: 'I Think It Speaks to How Detached Rich People Are'
A few of the millions of New Yorkers who don't own a home weigh in on the controversy.
hellgatenyc.com
I've been pondering this on and off since last night, and I still don't really understand why it took 6 minutes to clear a short-turned train from Bowling Green, particularly with another train right behind it.
Second Ave. Sagas@2avesag.as · 2d agoThis post game special I was on got here 5 minutes ago. There’s another 4 right behind it. Move on out already. Why is this empty train still sitting here?
With a 5 mph speed-limiter installed. Otherwise, let's just do away with oversized motorized vehicles in the park. bsky.app/profile/jess...
Jessy Edwards@jessyedwards.bsky.social · 23h agoHear this guy out: horseless horse carriages. And why did Kirk Skodis think of this idea? Is he an animal rights activist or advocating for the drivers? Neither. He's an ideas man!! hellgatenyc.com/hear-this-gu...
Can't wait to watch the episode where he pisses in his pants because he has to get on the NYC subway at 9:30 a.m. with millions of other people.
Adam Keiper@adamkeiper.com · 24h agoUPDATE to this story... the Department of Transportation writes to tell us that Sec. Sean Duffy's reality-TV show has not been canned, and "the final product" will be out "soon." Whatever that means. www.thebulwark.com/p/what-the-h...
This video includes a non-e-bike and was almost entirely by the shared path behind City Hall that cyclists are legally allowed to ride.
Speaker Julie Menin@speakermenin.bsky.social · yesterdayEvery New Yorker deserves to move around our city freely and safely, regardless of how they get around. That’s why the NYC Council is launching a comprehensive review of where existing laws can be stronger enforced, and what additional solutions are needed to keep New Yorkers safe.
don't care about bikes zooming around while i have to be on vigil walking my kids across the street to make sure some bozo who can't see my kids out their windshield in their too big and stupid to have in new york city idiot truck/suv doesn't plow into us
Last week, while walking my daughter home from camp in her stroller, a car with Virginia plates and $8000 in NY traffic fines blew threw a red light and honked at us to get out of the way while we crossed the street. Maybe start there instead of some dramatized Citi Bike nonsense.
Speaker Julie Menin@speakermenin.bsky.social · yesterdayEvery New Yorker deserves to move around our city freely and safely, regardless of how they get around. That’s why the NYC Council is launching a comprehensive review of where existing laws can be stronger enforced, and what additional solutions are needed to keep New Yorkers safe.
It's so funny to me that we're basically just re-writing articles from 14 years ago. bsky.app/profile/shab...
Shabazz Stuart@shabazzstuart.bsky.social · yesterdayThe fact that people can see the immensely successful Phase 1 second avenue subway just a few blocks away makes this pain so much easier for all involved.
'Flock Off': Mass Surveillance Surge Jeopardizes Lifesaving Crash Reduction Strategy — Streetsblog USA
A surveillance company's controversial business model has made traffic enforcement look bad by association. The effects could cost hundreds of lives.
usa.streetsblog.org
Second Ave. Sagas@2avesag.as · yesterdayThe cops are really going to poison the well on automated traffic enforcement - which perhaps is the point considering how many of them get dinged for speeding in school zones and running red lights. bsky.app/profile/jaso...
The cops are really going to poison the well on automated traffic enforcement - which perhaps is the point considering how many of them get dinged for speeding in school zones and running red lights. bsky.app/profile/jaso...
Jason Koebler@jasonkoebler.bsky.social · yesterdayNew: Police are being told to hide the fact that they're using Flock to pull people over and arrest them in both encounters with citizens but ALSO in their official police reports: www.404media.co/do-not-menti...
It takes far too long to get post-Yankee game specials that are out of service out of the way at Bowling Green.
A video taken Saturday shows former NYC Mayor Eric Adams in sales pitch mode in Wisconsin Rapids, as he's heckled by residents opposed to the data center he's trying to sell them on. "My name is Eric Adams," he begins, as the boos begin to rain down. "You belong in prison!" one attendee shouts.
Eric Adams Is Selling Data Centers in Wisconsin Now
The former mayor had a wild weekend, and other links to start your day.
hellgatenyc.com
The public really has no idea how traffic bottlenecks work, and governments everywhere have a lot to answer for that.
David Zipper@davidzipper.bsky.social · 2d agoI wrote about this NYC congestion pricing study earlier this year, noting that most driving time savings accrues to people who never venture into the zone at all (i.e., driving within Queens or Long Island). IOW some of the most vociferous critics of CP are among its biggest beneficiaries.
you: google letting people change satellite images with ai is bad robert moses:
The MTA made up the "day laborer who can't afford a weekly/monthly." People get paid biweekly, rent and utilities are due monthly, and the unbanked know how to budget. They raised fares on the most loyal riders and made fare evasion a lot worse, and they're trying to deflect with Woke 1.0 bullshit.
@elayamakan.bsky.social · 5d agowww.amny.com/news/mta-omn... Lieber also pushed back on reports that some riders are lamenting the MTA’s elimination of the 30day unlmtd MetroCard. Lieber insisted that while some riders may be “nostalgic” for the old system, it was not fair to those who could not afford to pay large sums upfront.“
I actually heard exactly this from an MTA employee, that the free pass they get is not the best idea because it detaches them from experiencing the agency’s main product bsky.app/profile/thel...
The LIRR Today@thelirrtoday.com · 5d agoA major reason OMNY went off the rails is that nobody at the MTA actually pays fares! So they are almost completely disconnected from the reality of how those of us who do pay our fares go about it (and how it influences travel habits) and their too aloof to put themselves in riders' shoes
If I were still blogging - which theoretically one day I may do again - I would turn Stephen's thread into an entire post. The MTA's current fare policy is trash. bsky.app/profile/step...
Stephen Jacob Smith@stephenjacobsmith.com · 5d agoI cannot get over how bad it is that NYC no longer has really any pass product at all. The farecap window is random and untrackable. The fare multiple to hit it is very high. Now they're going to try to do citywide bus proof-of-payment without anybody having prepaid their fare with a pass? Disaster!
The crowding on Kent Avenue is real. It's not comfortable to ride anymore. But how much of it is due to the fact that it's the only protected connection between North and South Brooklyn that doesn't involve going through Manhattan? What if we had protected lanes on Tompkins, Throop and Union Aves?
Streetsblog NYC@nyc.streetsblog.org · 5d agoThe Kent Avenue bike lane was "cutting edge" in 2010. But 16 years (and a bike boom) later, it's time for the city to do more.
I hope the TWU leadership, which has been playing footsie with anti-union Republicans for years, takes the bait. Make it abundantly clear where they stand and give Democrats more coverage to push through actual work rule reforms to improve transit ops.
Spectrum News NY1@spectrumnewsny1.bsky.social · 6d agoNassau County Executive and Republican candidate for governor Bruce Blakeman took aim at MTA leadership while riding the Long Island Rail Road Wednesday, and MTA Chair and CEO Janno Lieber responded with his own criticism of Blakeman's record on transit.
This is basically Republican politics 101 Grandstand about problem x nonstop while actively supporting whatever is causing problem x
Nassau politicians: LIRR IS TOO EXPENSIVE FIX IT PLEASE Also Nassau politicians: BUT YOU CAN'T CHANGE THE UNION RULES THAT MAKE IT SO EXPENSIVE
Spectrum News NY1@spectrumnewsny1.bsky.social · 6d agoNassau County Executive and Republican candidate for governor Bruce Blakeman took aim at MTA leadership while riding the Long Island Rail Road Wednesday, and MTA Chair and CEO Janno Lieber responded with his own criticism of Blakeman's record on transit.
“Don’t blame it on labor and labor costs” says Blakeman, about the MTA’s cost problems, which are decidedly caused by labor contracts and work rules that he says he supports.
Spectrum News NY1@spectrumnewsny1.bsky.social · 6d agoNassau County Executive and Republican candidate for governor Bruce Blakeman took aim at MTA leadership while riding the Long Island Rail Road Wednesday, and MTA Chair and CEO Janno Lieber responded with his own criticism of Blakeman's record on transit.
this guy (doomloop dispatch) literally killed a biker with his car… and he’s posting on twitter how it just made him even more anti-bike lane. The NIMBYs are not OK.
Theo Gordon@theogordon.bsky.social · last wk.Move over zucchini lady, this guy calling 'bike lanes white lanes' and calling the Terner Center the 'Gentrification Center' is my new favorite Berkeley Council moment. #berkmtg
"The Council is pushing..." Great. The Council, against the loud advice of advocates, created this problem in the first place and can fix it by simply passing a law rather than doing whatever pushing is going on here. Pass the law. Fix it.
New York City Council@council.nyc.gov · last wk.What if you and your besties could sip Aperol Spritzes outside ALL YEAR-ROUND?🍹 The Council is pushing to bring back year-round outdoor dining, allowing everyone to get more seating at their favorite restaurant –– and small businesses to have more customers in every season.
There’s a whole generation of airports built for a supersonic age that never came. A few became mega-airports we transfer at today, many never got off the drawing board, and the most interesting exist as weird fragments. open.substack.com/pub/infrasto...
Airports for the Supersonic Age
Infrastructure of an era that never happened
open.substack.com
