It was a busy weekend of both news and more criminal mischief by our editor, whose one-man crime wave began after the arrest of lawyer Adam White for un-defacing a would-be scofflaw’s covered license plate.
White’s case has been dismissed, but our editor continues to fan out across the city finding more egregious attempts by cops and private citizens to evade speed, red-light and toll cameras with all manner of nefarious tricks that the mayor doesn’t seem to care about.
Like this one:
Today in CRIMINAL MISCHIEF in @NYPD78Pct I saw something I'd never seen before — making this MUST-SEE criminal mischief! Seriously, you gotta see what this asshole BMW driver is doing on Prospect Park West! pic.twitter.com/YdvDR2HPh1
— Gersh Kuntzman (@GershKuntzman) December 9, 2022
And he also busted one of his neighbors who is trying to fool authorities by registering a car to one plate, but screwing on a different one:
If @NYPD78Pct wants to arrest me for CRIMINAL MISCHIEF, here's me not damaging anyone's car or plate — and I'll countersue my neighbor with plates that contradict the car's registration, which to me is the real CRIMINAL MISCHIEF. pic.twitter.com/iikFuEFCnn
— Gersh Kuntzman (@GershKuntzman) December 10, 2022
And, of course, the cops may arrest people for criminal mischief — but they do it, too:
WORLD EXCLU: This is the CRIMINAL MISCHIEF video that will bring an onslaught of middle-of-the-night harassing phone calls and threats from cops (I've already had 1) because it's absolute CRIMINAL MISCHIEF against an @NYPD84Pct cop who should be punished by @NYPDPC and @NYCMayor pic.twitter.com/saVgNWQOKN
— Gersh Kuntzman (@GershKuntzman) December 9, 2022
Kuntzman’s criminal mischief spree will continue for a while longer, until he either busts everyone, or is arrested, whichever comes first.
In other news:
- Let’s first thank all the people who made donations to our December fundraising drive since our last honor roll: Thanks, Majorie! Thanks, Nils Andreas! Thanks, Katherine! Thanks, Elizabeth! Thanks, Jeffrey! Thanks, Chris! Thanks, Mendy!
- As always, the Times printed some serious copaganda in the form of the supposed brain drain that’s roiling the NYPD. The paper’s story claims that police veterans are leaving in droves because they’re frustrated and underpaid. But read the fine print: The NYPD has hired hundreds more officers than it has lost. And the key statistic in the story — that 1,225 officers have resigned this year — is undercut by the paper’s own reporting: Those cops resigned even before making it to their fifth year on the job. So it’s hardly a brain drain. (The Post followed with its own pro-suburbs version.)
- Speaking of the Times, Winnie Hu was a day late, but definitely not a dollar short in her analysis of the fight by deliveristas for a living wage.
- And speaking of living wages, Uber is suing to block a city rule that would pay cabbies more. (NYDN)
- The Lincoln Tunnel goes cashless today, meaning that more New Jersey drivers will think they can get around paying their tolls by obscuring, covering or defacing their plates — which will give more fodder for our editor’s criminal mischief series.
- The only agency that really seems to take driver safety seriously — the Taxi and Limousine Commission — is now being sued for being too zealous. (NY Post)
- On the topic of driver safety, the Post heralded as an “exclusive” its story about the failure of the city’s Dangerous Vehicle Abatement Program, but we had that failure last week (plus our graphic was better). The paper’s David Meyer did get a letter from the program’s creator, Brad Lander, so we suppose that was exclusive.
- This seems like a really long time for a playground to be closed. (Gothamist)
- Subway ridership continues to rise, but it’s still far below pre-pandemic highs (NYDN). Meanwhile, the Times looked at the coming fare hike, and Janno Lieber had an amNY op-ed pleading for more funding.
- Fordham University has banned e-bikes, the latest large institution to choose complete elimination rather than addressing safety issues so that a revolutionary commuting tool can get its footing in New York City. (NYDN)
- Several members of the City Council recently traveled to Israel on a fact-finding mission. We wish they’d returned with this camera enforcement system. (Globes)
- Car-loving journalist Steve Witt is in trouble again. (NYDN)
- Now that the massive 5G towers have been deployed on the East Side, the Post has noticed … and is angry.
- Nice to see the L.A. Times getting on board with the effort to reduce mandatory parking. And the paper also looked at the growing free transit movement.
- When we saw this tweet, we were fooled into the Adams administration cared about public space. But, alas, it’s only Jersey City eating our lunch again:
The parking lot for the City Council behind City Hall will be turned into park space!https://t.co/lF1qCcuazB
— ? (@3_under_scores_) December 8, 2022
- We realize this development story is way out of town, but New Canaan’s appalling effort to keep out low- and moderate-income residents is a story with reverberations across all of the suburbs. (Connecticut Post)
- And finally, last year at this time, we ran Friend of Streetsblog Charles Komanoff’s seven-part series, History of a Movement, which centered on the group Right of Way, which was active in the late-1990s and again between 2013 and 2015. Today happens to be the 25th anniversary of what Komanoff believes is the group’s most searing essay, Some Deaths Are More Equal Than Others. If you’ve never read it, we urge you to give it a look.