{"id":230598,"date":"2025-09-16T05:39:25","date_gmt":"2025-09-16T05:39:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/230598\/"},"modified":"2025-09-16T05:39:25","modified_gmt":"2025-09-16T05:39:25","slug":"tuesdays-headlines-gridlock-gov-alert-edition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/230598\/","title":{"rendered":"Tuesday&#8217;s Headlines: Gridlock Gov&#8217; Alert Edition"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The city kicks off its &#8220;Gridlock Alert Days&#8221; next Monday \u2014 the annual ritual of announcing, but not doing anything about, grid-crushing traffic for anyone dumb or unlucky enough to drive in the city.<\/p>\n<p>Officials have designated 20 gridlock days for 2025. Alas, the congestion could&#8217;ve been a lot lighter if Gov. Hochul hadn&#8217;t pledge to never use the MTA&#8217;s power to raise congestion tolls up to 25 percent on the gridlock alert days after the New York Post threw a fit about the provision.<\/p>\n<p>The Post ginned up the outrage last Christmas \u2014 when anyone in their right mind was watching sports or enjoying time with family \u2014 just days ahead of the toll&#8217;s much-anticipated launch on Jan. 5. Rather than hold the line on congestion pricing, as she has done since President Trump re-entered the White House, Hochul <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/nyc.streetsblog.org\/2024\/12\/27\/fridays-headlines-gov-hochul-is-a-fraud-edition\" target=\"_blank\">immediately caved<\/a> and promised not to implement the dynamic pricing scheme.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Under no circumstances will I allow this discretionary 25-percent surcharge on gridlock days to be used,&#8221; Hochul said at the time. <\/p>\n<p>Maybe when the governor&#8217;s stuck in bumper-to-bumper Manhattan traffic next week, she&#8217;ll reconsider. She knows congestion pricing works, after all.<\/p>\n<p>In other news:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Killer driver Edwin Cruz Gomez was indicted for murder in the horrific vehicular killing of Jhoanny Alvarez. (<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/gothamist.com\/news\/long-island-man-charged-with-murder-for-driving-into-killing-teen-in-queens\" target=\"_blank\">Gothamist<\/a>. <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnewyork.com\/queens\/video-suv-driver-kill-girl-jhoanny-alvarez-roosevelt-avenue\/6391631\/\" target=\"_blank\">NBC New York<\/a>, <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/qns.com\/2025\/09\/life-in-prison-killing-teen-suv-elmhurst\/\" target=\"_blank\">amNY<\/a>)<\/li>\n<li>LIRR workers kicked their option to strike to next year. (<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.crainsnewyork.com\/transportation\/lirr-strike-delayed-unions-ask-trump-admin-intervene\" target=\"_blank\">Crain&#8217;s<\/a>, <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/gothamist.com\/news\/lirr-avoids-strike-until-at-least-may-as-crews-ask-president-trump-to-intervene\" target=\"_blank\">Gothamist<\/a>)<\/li>\n<li>The number of &#8220;licensed&#8221; dollar vans has dropped. (<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.amny.com\/nyc-transit\/nyc-commuter-vans-decline-city-council\/\" target=\"_blank\">amNY<\/a>) <\/li>\n<li>A major car crash on 9th Street at Second Avenue left one person dead and four others injured; the driver was arrested and charged. (<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\" href=\"http:\/\/brooklynpaper.com\/man-arrested-gowanus-crash-one-dead-four-injured\/\" target=\"_blank\">Brooklyn Paper<\/a>)<\/li>\n<li>The City <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thecity.nyc\/2025\/09\/15\/bathroom-relief-bill-council-uber-lyft-drivers\/\" target=\"_blank\">covered<\/a> cabbies&#8217; righteous push for access to commercial delivery zones so they can use the bathroom, but didn&#8217;t mention DOT&#8217;s warnings about the potential impact on traffic. (Read about that <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/nyc.streetsblog.org\/2025\/09\/16\/dot-warns-city-council-against-letting-taxis-park-in-loading-zones\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a>.)<\/li>\n<li>DOT is installing a new mid-block crosswalk on W. 72nd Street. (<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.westsiderag.com\/2025\/09\/15\/mid-block-crosswalk-and-traffic-light-to-be-installed-at-72nd-street\" target=\"_blank\">West Side Rag<\/a>)<\/li>\n<li>Council Member Joann Ariola defended her vote to override the mayor&#8217;s veto of illegal street vending decriminalization. (<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/qns.com\/2025\/09\/ariola-defends-veto-vote\/\" target=\"_blank\">QNS<\/a>)<\/li>\n<li>A Bronx driver was sentenced to four to 12 years in prison for a 2021 fatal crash in Brooklyn. (<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/brooklyneagle.com\/articles\/2025\/09\/15\/driver-sentenced-for-crash-in-sunset-park\/\" target=\"_blank\">Brooklyn Eagle<\/a>)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The city kicks off its &#8220;Gridlock Alert Days&#8221; next Monday \u2014 the annual ritual of announcing, but not&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":230599,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,405,403,5226,5225,5228,5227,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-230598","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-new-york","10":"tag-new-york-city","11":"tag-newyork","12":"tag-newyorkcity","13":"tag-ny","14":"tag-nyc","15":"tag-united-states","16":"tag-united-states-of-america","17":"tag-unitedstates","18":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","19":"tag-us","20":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115212370880148077","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230598","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=230598"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230598\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/230599"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=230598"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=230598"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=230598"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}