Opinion: New York’s movement crisis

Also: Oprah at the Golden Globes. View in [Browser]( | Add nytdirect@nytimes.com to your address book. [The New York Times]( [The New York Times]( Monday, January 8, 2018 [NYTimes.com/Opinion »]( [David Leonhardt] David Leonhardt Op-Ed Columnist Oprah 2020. [Oprah Winfrey’s speech]( at the Golden Globes last night has led to chatter about whether she would run for president. She’s never shown interest before, but she would be probably the most formidable of all the possibilities. A recent Quinnipiac poll question, well before her speech, found that almost one third of self-identified Democrats hoped she ran in 2020, [as Nate Cohn noted](. Oprah aside — she’s impressive in many ways — I don’t think the ideal situation for the United States is a succession of presidents whose initial qualification is celebrity. Stuck. Great cities depend on movement, on the ability of millions of people to travel every day from home to work and elsewhere. New York is now suffering from a movement crisis. The subway is in miserable shape, with delays common. Above ground, the average speed of vehicle traffic in midtown Manhattan is a mere 4.7 miles an hour, down from 6.5 miles an hour five years ago. [My column this morning]( explains that New York’s transportation crisis is a version of “the tragedy of the commons.” Fortunately, though, tragedies of the commons have solutions. If New York Mayor Bill de Blasio and Gov. Andrew Cuomo are truly committed to fixing the situation, they can do so. It will take leadership — and the willingness to forgo political pandering. For more on this issue, I recommend Jonathan Mahler’s New York Times Magazine piece, “[The Case for the Subway]( and Winnie Hu’s recent story on [the comeback of congestion pricing](. Finally, if you’re a New Yorker or a regular visitor, my column recommends [a simple game to give you a sense]( of how bad the traffic problem has become. China’s rise. I dedicated [one of last week’s newsletters]( to the rise of China in the age of Trump. If you’re interested in the topic, make sure not to miss [my colleague Edward Wong’s farewell piece]( after almost a decade as a China correspondent. He focuses on China’s preference for hard power, as opposed to the American tradition — abandoned under President Trump — of soft power. The full Opinion report from The Times follows, including [Charles Blow on the latest, book-induced chaos]( in the White House. Op-Ed Columnist [‘Like, Really Smart’]( By CHARLES M. BLOW The new book about Trump’s White House suggests a dangerous mental instability. Op-Ed Columnist [How to Get New York Moving Again]( By DAVID LEONHARDT Traffic is so bad that people can often outpace cars. Op-Ed Columnist [At the Golden Globes, Hollywood Does What Washington Won’t]( By FRANK BRUNI There’s meaningless make-believe in the capital of politics, but there’s meaningful politics in the capital of make-believe. Opinion [Amber Tamblyn: Redefining the Red Carpet]( By AMBER TAMBLYN At the Golden Globes, my fellow actresses aren’t just wearing black. They’re making a statement of resistance. HOW ARE WE DOING? We’d love your feedback on this newsletter. Please email thoughts and suggestions to [leonhardt@nytimes.com](mailto:leonhardt@nytimes.com?subject=Opinion%20Today%20Newsletter%20Feedback). ADVERTISEMENT Contributing Op-Ed Writer [The Looming Digital Meltdown]( By ZEYNEP TUFEKCI Modern computing security is like a flimsy house that needs to be fundamentally rebuilt. Op-Ed Contributor [Cybersecurity Today Is Treated Like Accounting Before Enron]( By NATHANIEL FICK Our digital assets are too important for this. We need defensive policies and more uniform corporate governance. Op-Ed Contributor [On Stop-and-Frisk, We Can’t Celebrate Just Yet]( By PHILLIP ATIBA GOFF What happens to people after they get stopped? Op-Ed Contributor [Will Iran’s Protests Help the Hard-Liners?]( By NAZILA FATHI The recent demonstrations could cripple the moderate President Rouhani and cement the conservatives’ grip on power. The Stone [Can We Teach Ourselves to Believe?]( By AGNES CALLARD And what does ‘The Breakfast Club’ have to do with it? Editorial [New York Leaders Are Failing Its Subway Riders]( By THE EDITORIAL BOARD As construction companies and labor unions drove up costs, watchdogs — including governors and lawmakers — have done too little to stop it. Editorial [Jeff Sessions’s Endless War on Marijuana]( By THE EDITORIAL BOARD The attorney general’s new, more aggressive guidance will add legal confusion to an issue that many states are managing just fine on their own. LIKE THIS EMAIL? Forward it to your friends, and let them know they can sign up [here](. ADVERTISEMENT Sunday Review [Why 2017 Was the Best Year in Human History]( By NICHOLAS KRISTOF Here’s what’s more important than a Trump tweet. Sunday Review [Graceland, at Last]( By MARGARET RENKL For reasons I cannot explain, some part of me needed to go there. Sunday Review [The Alt-Right’s Asian Fetish]( By AUDREA LIM How the “model minority” myth blends with racist ideology. Letters [The Immigrants Who Deliver Health Care]( Tighter restrictions on immigration could create shortages in providing in-home care and elder care, readers note. SIGN UP FOR THE VIETNAM ’67 NEWSLETTER Examining America’s long war in Southeast Asia [through the course]( of a single year. FOLLOW OPINION [Facebook] [FACEBOOK]( [Twitter] [@nytopinion]( [Pinterest] [Pinterest]( Get more [NYTimes.com newsletters »](  | Get unlimited access to NYTimes.com and our NYTimes apps. [Subscribe »]( ABOUT THIS EMAIL You received this message because you signed up for NYTimes.com's Opinion Today newsletter. [Unsubscribe]( | [Manage Subscriptions]( | [Change Your Email]( | [Privacy Policy]( | [Contact]( | [Advertise]( Copyright 2018 The New York Times Company 620 Eighth Avenue New York, NY 10018