WHY WE FIGHT
From Gothamist, Aug. 11:
Cobble Hill Locals Mourn Death of
Beloved Oriental Pastry & Grocery Co-Owner
Cobble Hill shopkeepers and local residents are reeling from the sudden death of Muyassar Moustapha, who was fatally run over on Atlantic Avenue on Sunday night. Moustapha, 66, was a neighborhood fixture who for decades operated the Oriental Pastry & Grocery on Atlantic, just steps from where he was struck by a Mercedes driver after picking up ice cream at the Key Food across the street.
Moustapha's storefront remained closed yesterday, with its metal gate down and daily deliveries piling up on the sidewalk. The shop, which sells a wide variety of spices, snacks, and other Middle Eastern staples, has been a family-run business since it changed hands over 60 years ago, shortly after the Moustapha family immigrated from Syria to Bay Ridge. Muyassar was the middle of three brothers, Anis and Gary, who have a reputation for their neighborly generosity.
According to longtime Cobble Hill resident Al Shaia, a frequent patron of Oriental Pastry & Grocery, Moustapha was returning from a routine errand at Key Food when he was hit while crossing Atlantic Avenue. "He had heart trouble two years ago, so he always crossed at the light and he was always careful, even yelling at other people to use the crosswalk," said Shaia of Moustapha's alleged decision to jaywalk around 8:25 p.m. on Sunday.
A police source tells the Daily News that Moustapha was not in the crosswalk when he was struck, but an NYPD spokesman would not confirm that during a brief interview with Gothamist. The spokesman said no arrests have been made, but the investigation is ongoing.
Yanece Cotto remembers the Moustapha family's constant presence during her Muslim-American upbringing in the neighborhood. She now works at the Urban Outfitters next to Oriental Pastry & Grocery, and recalls Muyassar Moustapha as a "beautiful, wonderful person who would help you with whatever you needed."
The brothers who run Sahadi Imports across Atlantic Avenue, Charlie and Bob Sahadi, describe themselves as "very friendly competitors" with the Moustaphas. Though neither had heard news of the tragedy until they arrived at work on Monday morning, the owners were quick to share fond memories of the late Moustapha brother, who they said "was always right there for us whenever something came up, like if we needed to borrow something." Noting that both stores share a long history on this stretch of Atlantic Avenue, the Sahadis believe that "this is a wonderful street to be on, because everyone gives a damn about the other guy," citing Moustapha's particular role in fostering a neighborly climate on their block.
"I don't agree with some of the things Mayor de Blasio came up with, but if that car was driving at 25 miles per hour, this gentleman would not be dead today," said Charlie Sahadi when asked about the deadly traffic on Atlantic Avenue. "Everyone has their moments when they're in a hurry to get somewhere," added Bob, the younger Sahadi brother, "but then you ask yourself if it was really worth it, and the answer is that it definitely wasn't."
We will put it more forthrightly. Yet another hard-working New Yorker and pillar of his community senselessly gone forever because some self-centered idiot put saving a few seconds of precious goddam drive-time ahead of his life. Further evidence that the actual function of our automotive transport system is to cheapen the value of human life and turn people into flaming assholes.
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WHY WE FIGHT
From The Villager, Aug. 6:
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From Gothamist, Aug. 18:
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From the NY Times, Oct. 31:
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From 69 News, Allentown, PA:
Contradiction in struggle against NYC auto-cracy
First the good news. The Daily News reports Nov. 10 that Public Advocate Letitia James will introduce a bill making it legal for pedestrians to cross while the light is blinking (Outragroues that it isn't!) But simultanesouly, DNAInfo tells us that the NYPD is about to begin a "Jaywalking Ticketing Blitz in Queens." Perversely, this is portrayed as for pedestrians' "own protection" (Sic!) We are told: "The change comes days after an elderly woman was struck and killed by a bus while walking mid-block near Main Street and Kissena Boulevard—whose death was the catalyst for the meeting at the [109th] precinct, officials said." Fuck this Orwellian blame-the-victim bullshit. We continue to assert: Jaywalking is a human right. NOT ONE INCH TO THE TYRANNY OF THE AUTOMOBILE!!!
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From Gothamist, Dec. 7:
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Gothamist on Dec. 17 runs the utterly maddening story of Christen Conyers who was sent to jail for six months for riding his bicycle on the streets of New York. He was leaving his Harlem housing project to break his Ramadan fast at a local chicken joint back in June when he ran into a Black Lives Matter protest. "They told me to get on the sidewalk, but I was on my bike so that would have been illegal," Conyers told reporters during visiting hours at the Manhattan Detention Complex. "I wasn't part of the protest, although if I was that would have been my legal right." He was busted on a strong of ludicrous charges: felony assault of a police officer, resisting arrest, two counts of disorderly conduct, obstructing vehicular traffic, and harassment in the second degree. These were reduced at his arraignment to disorderly conduct, but he was still sent up the river for six months for violating conditions of his parole on a prior. What utter bullshit.
WHY WE FIGHT
Here we go again. New York's PIX reports :
But the headline was "MTA bus driver arrested in deadly Brooklyn crash." This was not a crash. This was an eldery pedestrian getting squashed like a bug.
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An apparently homeless woman with a toddler in her car plowed into pedestrians on the crowded Las Vegas Strip Dec. 20, killing one and injuring dozens. The driver, Lakeisha Holloway, was said to be a drifter who had arrived in Las Vegas days earlier. (NBC)
Meanwhile, the youth in the so-called "affluenza" case, Ethan Couch, is reported to have fled the country with his mother—just before a scheduled court hearing that could have transferred his case to adult court, possibly resulting in prison time. Couch came under fire this month after a video surfaced on Twitter that appeared to show him playing drinking games, which would violate his 10-year probation sentence. When his probation officer came around to check in on him, the house was abandoned. (NYT, Dec. 22)
We asked when Couch received probation despite having killed four if his too-rich-to-know-better defense would inspire a too-poor-to-know-better defense. Let's see what happens to Lakeisha Holloway. The psychological pressures of being a homeless single mom strike us as a far more legitimate defense than being a spoilt brat.
Cannabis behind Staten Island traffic fatality? Um, no...
But the latest in New York City's workaday traffic fatalities (there were 242 in 2015, according to the Mean Streets blog) is the case of middle-aged Stanley Marshall, who was riding his bike on Staten Island's Richmond Ave. when he was run down by a motorist who pulled out of a parking lot. The headline in the Daily News reads: "Man, 59, killed while riding bicycle by stoned driver on Staten Island." The motorist, Lisa Martini, admitted to police: "I was just pulling out from getting my food and I guess I hit something. I smoked a little bit of weed around 2:30."
But in the next paragraph down is a continuation of the quote: “I take buspirone for my anxiety problem and sometimes Xanax,” she added. Martini was swaying, and had bloodshot eyes, body tremors and poor coordination, the complaint said.
Now, pot, as we all know, can cause bloodshot eyes. But body tremors and poor coordination? Every toker knows that is not part of the cannabis high. However, RxList website informs us side effects of Xanax include "dizziness" and "poor balance or coordination." And buspirone? Expect "dizziness... nervousness, lightheadedness, drowsiness, blurred vision," according to RxList.
Martini is a 9-11 widow (her husband was an FDNY lieutenant killed in the Twin Towers collapse), so we're not here to give her a hard time over her substance use. But let's not allow this incident to become more fodder for anti-cannabis propaganda. However counterintuitive it may seem (for people who don't actually use cannabis), a 2011 study found a reduction in traffic fatalities in states that had legalized medical marijuana. The conjecture was folks were turning to legal cannabis instead of alcohol. The study's authors were quick to emphasize that their research doesn't "prove" that cannabis impairs driving less than alcohol. But anybody who has used both knows that is the case. And we'll bet the same can be said of pot as compared to Xanax and buspirone .
More to the point: It is the domination of the city's streets by toxin-belching death machines that is really responsible for traffic fatalities—and everyone accepts that as completely "normal." You've got to give New York's Mayor Bill de Blasio credit for his Vision Zero program that at least aspires to get the human roadkill down to nothing before he leaves office. But what is the critical issue here? That Lisa Martini was high on cannabis? Or that she was driving an automobile? If anyone asks me, I say: ban cars, legalize pot!
From Global Ganja Report
Google self-driving car strikes bus on California street
In a charming convergence of tow of the most sinister trends on the planet—car culture and robotocracy—AP reported Feb. 29: "A self-driving car being tested by Google struck a public bus on a Silicon Valley street, a fender-bender that appears to be the first time one of the tech company's vehicles caused a crash during testing." Gee, we can hardly wait for self-driving cars to become ubiquitous....
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From CBS New York, Feb. 28:
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From Lower Hudson Journal News, Feb. 27:
The car century was a mistake. It's time to move on.
That's actually the encouraging title of a Feb. 29 opinion piece in the Washington Post by J H Crawford, author of Carfree Cities and Carfree Design Manual, and publisher of Carfree.com. The opening paragraphs:
At least such ideas are no longer completely taboo...
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Talk about a license to kill. Gothamist on March 18 reports on the maddening case of Cindy Klumb, a Pratt Institute art instructor who was critically injured in a hit-and-run—and says cops let the assailant go after he flashed his badge. Klumb and her lawyer have yet to get the NYPD to turn over its footage from nearby surveillance cameras.
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From AP, March 19: