NY POST SENDS REPORTER AND CAMERAMAN TO CROSSWALK

This update is for September 14-15. Results of 16 weeks working in the crosswalk and behind the scenes are starting to pile in. On Tuesday morning, Sep 13, NY DOT installed APS buttons at our crosswalk. This is the least important thing we have demanded but it is a step in the right direction and shows that DOT is responsive and timely. Later that same day, Zinnia Maldando, a WCBS reporter, came to our crosswalk, took photos, and did interviews with me and some bystanders at the crosswalk.

Yesterday, I got a call from Reuvin Fenton, a staff reporter with the NY Post. He was down in the crosswalk with a photographer and asked me to come there for an interview. We had a long, wide-ranging interview and his photographer took lots of videos and still photos. This interview seemed like it had a little different focus than WCBS in the sense that the Post story seemed like it will be less about me and more about the need to do something to control the traffic on the roadways in Central Park. Reuvin said they planned to publish the story on Sunday.

I also followed up with the WCBS reporter, Zinnia Maldonado, today to see if they still planned to air their story today, Thursday, September 15. She said that her managers loved the story and wanted to promote it before airing it. Their promotions team will create content and then it will air, probably next week.

Last night I also attended an abbreviated NYPD Central Park Precinct Community Meeting where I gave Luis Moreira, Community Affairs Officer for the precinct, a copy of my spreadsheet showing the count of various traffic violations that occurred in our crosswalk on Sunday, September 4th during the 3-hour period beginning at 1:53 pm. During that period, 391 vehicles ran the red light while pedestrians were either in the crosswalk or approaching the crosswalk. 32 of these vehicles, mostly bikes, swerved into the jogger lane to find an opening in the pedestrian traffic so they could run the red light.

Today's photo is the NY DOT crew finishing up the installation of APS buttons in our crosswalk.