Vision Zero Doubts After Tragic Bus Crash and Other Sept. 19 Campaign Headlines

“The delays include some hot-button issues, like whether he’ll keep the city’s controversial historic monuments and where he’ll put new city jails, and some arcane ones — such as when he’ll release a report on Orthodox yeshivas and how he’ll overhaul the city’s convoluted property tax system. Each of those decisions stands to alienate large swaths of city voters, and none appears likely to be resolved before Nov. 7.”

“Transportation Alternatives, one of Mayor de Blasio’s top boosters of his Vision Zero street safety agenda, criticized the city’s slow pace of upgrading Northern Blvd., where a speeding tour bus smashed into an MTA bus turning from Main St. at 6:18 a.m. Monday. Three people were killed, including the tour bus driver from Dahlia Group, and 16 people were injured.”

“Integrated domestic violence courts, or IDVs, aim to lessen the burden of the legal system on victims of domestic violence, as well as their families. IDVs were introduced into the New York criminal justice system in 2003; the New York City Criminal Justice Agency, a nonprofit service provider, found that, between 2007 and 2009, domestic violence convictions in IDV courts were considerably higher than in criminal courts. Domestic violence cases in regular criminal courts usually do not end in convictions, leaving victims without at least some semblance of justice.”

“A long-simmering feud over street vendors commandeering too much sidewalk space has become even more charged after video of a heated exchange between State Sen. Jose Peralta and a fruit seller went viral. While the video has been viewed more than 178,000 times on Facebook, brick-and-mortar store owners nearby say the clip doesn’t show the whole story. The senator, they say, was just trying to help with a years-long problem brewing on a crowded block of Roosevelt Avenue.”