Eric Adams, On Two Wheels

Plus: some kind of discipline for the unmasked cops who pushed a commuter [FORWARD TO A FRIEND]( [VIEW IN BROWSER]( [DONATE]( [WNYC Politics Brief] Is New York City About To Get Its First Bike Mayor? Plus: The unmasked cops who shoved a subway passenger will face some sort of discipline. The MTA is testing out its ability to detect and stop a chemical attack in the transit system. And meet the godfather of weird subway videos. By James Ramsay --------------------------------------------------------------- 🚆 --------------------------------------------------------------- [Eric Adams on a CitiBike] Adams Campaign If Democratic mayoral candidate Eric Adams wins the general election next month — which is highly likely, given that Democratic voters outnumber Republicans seven-to-one in the city — he'll be the first mayor who's ever pledged to commute via bicycle on any regular basis. "If elected, you're going to see me on my bike all the time riding to and from City Hall," Adams said Tuesday, after receiving an endorsement from StreetsPAC, a political action group that advocates for a safer redesign of city streets. "I think if people start seeing their mayor on a bike, they'd be more encouraged to know that the streets are safe to ride their bikes," he added. While John Lindsay biked for exercise and Bill de Blasio hopped on two wheels for the [occasional photo-op]( no mayor has ever been a routine cyclist. (Ed Koch allegedly [learned how to ride a bike at Gracie Mansion]( right before a press conference announcing a new protected bike lane on 6th Avenue — which he promptly ripped out within a month.) On top of [his reputation as a cyclist]( Adams has also advocated for bike-friendly infrastructure, saying he'd install 300 additional miles of protected bike lanes in the city. Getting that done is its own challenge, especially when it requires convincing neighborhoods without bike lanes to redesign their streets and potentially give up parking spots. But Adams told Gothamist earlier this year that he'd deploy "[credible messengers]( from the Black community to show kids that biking is safe and achievable. "People connect bike lanes with gentrification," Adams said. "Bike lanes have received a bad rap because people believe it’s an indicator that they’re going to be displaced, and it’s not something that’s part of the overall build-out of their community." In announcing its endorsement, StreetsPAC (which endorsed Kathryn Garcia in the Democratic primary) also praised Adams for his attention to the general issue of street safety. "No elected official has shown up more often in more places since he became the borough president in Brooklyn for victims of traffic violence," said StreetsPAC president Eric McClure. "I know that because I've been in many of those same vigils. But he's been to a lot more than I have." Adams' Republican opponent, Curtis Sliwa, has criticized the Democrat for having picked up [15 reckless driving camera citations]( on his city-issued car. Sliwa also told the Daily News this week that he would close some bike lanes, saying his position is: "If you don’t use it, you lose it." — [Reporting by Elizabeth Kim and Jake Offenhartz]( --------------------------------------------------------------- 🚆 --------------------------------------------------------------- Unmasked NYPD Officers Who Shoved Subway Rider Will Face Some Kind Of Discipline [two cops push a passenger through a subway station exit] [Victoria Hall/Twitter]( The NYPD said the unmasked officers who were caught on camera Tuesday morning forcibly removing a subway passenger from a platform — after he repeatedly asked why they weren’t complying with the transit system's mask mandate — are going to face some kind of consequence. "Nobody’s getting fired over this incident, nobody’s getting suspended over this incident, but at the same time, I’m not in any way shape or form attempting to downplay that [behavior]," said NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea, who added that the officers' conduct was "absolutely inexcusable." [The video]( which was taken at the 8th Street station in Manhattan, shows a male officer shoving the commuter, Andrew Gilbert, through an emergency exit that a female officer opens. Gilbert can be heard asking for their badge numbers, and the male officer calls him "disruptive." Victoria Hall, who filmed the encounter, told Gothamist that she'd just been on the subway for over an hour, "hearing every five minutes I need to wear a mask... so when I got off the train, I saw the police officers without theirs, and Andrew asking them why not." Hall started to film Gilbert and the police when the officers were getting "aggressive," she said. "It's the law whether we like or agree, and police officers shouldn't be above the law. They should uphold it and set example for the rest of us," Hall said. "All [the male officer] had to do was say, 'You know, you're right, thanks for reminding me, I'll be more careful in future.' [But] he was so obnoxious, pretending he couldn't hear Andrew 'through your mask.'" Gilbert told Gothamist that based on the police commissioner's response, he doesn't expect much to change. "When these officers are quietly given a slap on the wrist, it will send a message to all of the other corrupt cops out there that there are no consequences for breaking the law and abusing the public, just like every other case in the past has empowered them," he said. "At some point, this is going to have to change if we want to live in a society of law and order." — [Reporting by Stephen Nessen]( --------------------------------------------------------------- 🚆 --------------------------------------------------------------- Here's What Else Is Happening Researchers this week have been shooting non-toxic gases into the subway system to test our ability to detect and mitigate a "chemical-biological event." The Department of Homeland Security, along with the MTA, NYC Emergency Management, and MIT, is conducting the study at 120 locations both above and below ground, including platforms at Times Square and Union Square and inside the Oculus. The MTA emphasized that this work poses no health risks to the public. ([Gothamist]( Gov. Kathy Hochul is requiring the MTA to release more internal data, and in formats that are easy for the public to read. While the MTA does release data such as real-time train service — which allows third parties like Google to tell you when the next train is coming — the bill signed by Hochul this week will require the transit agency to share more ridership and spending figures. It'll also force the MTA to put this information in spreadsheets, rather than PDFs, thus making it easier for journalists to report the information they're looking for. ([Gothamist]( The NYPD says a third of the grand larcenies in the subway system this year have occurred when thieves robbed someone who was drunk and asleep on the train. "Lush workers," as they're known by police, are professional thieves who make their living by riding the trains at night and discreetly picking the pockets (or cutting pockets) of riders who are passed out drunk. "It’s not a large amount of people doing this, but they are very good at their craft," said NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea. Lush workers have a storied past in the city going back to at least the 1930s. ([NY Daily News]( Just two years after Gov. Andrew Cuomo spent $4 million on a "transformation" plan that was largely focused on cutting jobs, the MTA is scrambling to hire enough people to keep the trains and buses running. State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli noted last month that Cuomo's transformation plan cut 2,300 maintenance and operations jobs, but only 300 administrative positions, thus setting up the bus and subway systems to have service delays due to staff shortages. Now, the MTA seems to realize its mistake and is looking to reverse course. "We have to focus on our mission, which is transportation, not transformation," acting MTA chair Janno Lieber said yesterday. ( [THE CITY]( NJ Transit's board has approved a $40 million project to replace the old signals at the crucial Hoboken yard. NJ Transit president Kevin Corbett said yesterday that while it's not the "sexiest" repair work, it should please commuters because "there's nothing worse than when you’re looking to jump on the PATH or the ferry and you’re waiting for five minutes to come into the yard because of a signal problem." The work is expected to be done by the end of 2025. ([NJ.com]( Meet the guy behind the SubwayCreatures Instagram account. Rick McGuire, a former reality TV producer who's since turned the popular Instagram account into his full-time job, says he gets dozens of submissions each day of photos and videos of curious stuff happening underground — animals eating pizza, weirdly sexual behavior, commuters in costumes. "There’s a part of me that’s completely desensitized," he said. "I have to think, 'What would a normal person think of this?'" Also, yes: When he licenses a video to a paying media outlet, the original submitter gets a cut. ( [The New York Times]( --------------------------------------------------------------- 🚆 --------------------------------------------------------------- And Finally: Get In [a picture of an ad on the back of an MTA bus]( [Gabe Mollica/Twitter]( --------------------------------------------------------------- 🚆 --------------------------------------------------------------- Support WNYC + Gothamist Make a donation to support local, independent journalism. Your contributions are our largest source of funding and pays for essential election coverage and more. [DONATE]( [Facebook]( [Facebook]( [Twitter]( [Twitter]( [Instagram]( [Instagram]( [WNYC]( [WQXR]( [NJPR]( [GOTHAMIST]( [WNYC STUDIOS]( [THE GREENE SPACE]( Copyright © New York Public Radio. 160 Varick Street, New York, NY 10013 All rights reserved. [Terms of Use.]( Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your [preferences]( or [unsubscribe]( from this list