••• Two takes on Bill de Blasio’s plan to “seek legislation that would eliminate the [admission] test completely. Instead, he’d guarantee automatic admission to Stuyvesant—and the seven other specialized high schools in the city—for the top students at every middle school, regardless of their abilities.” Since you asked, I think it’s a typically craven attempt to please everyone. What’s the point of an elite school if you water it down with less-accomplished students? —New York Times (and here)

••• “A federal appeals court has breathed new life into a suit against the Battery Park City Authority by rescue, recovery and cleanup workers who were made sick by exposure to toxins while laboring in the community in the weeks and months following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.” —Broadsheet

••• “The 13-year-old son of tough-as-nails actor Harvey Keitel was attacked in Tribeca on Tuesday by two teenage bullies, police sources said.” —New York Post

•••”A wayward falcon on Wednesday morning swooped into the Financial District, where it fowled up police efforts to cage it by flying away, witnesses said.” —New York Post

••• Charles posted a depressing report from Streetsblog about the NYPD’s opposition to placard reform:

In testimony before the City Council transportation committee today [June12], NYPD Director of Legislative Affairs Oleg Chernyavsky batted away efforts by city council members to reform the system. Intro 942, proposed by Council Member Peter Koo, would task the Department of Transportation with coming up with a “comprehensive plan” for the distribution and use of city-issued placards.

“The department believes in reforming the parking permit system,” Chernyavsky said. “However, we are concerned with this legislation as it leaves the determination of how many parking permits the NYPD requires to another agency.” He expressed further “concern” that such a plan would limit the number of permits the NYPD can issue.

Chernyavsky also opposed the three other placard-related bills on the agenda.

Intro. 927, which would create an electronic tracking system for city-issued placards, would pose a “security” risk by putting NYPD information in a database outside of the agency’s control. It would also entail “a significant amount of work,” he said. Intro. 932, which would revoke the placard of any driver caught misusing their placard three or more times in a year, should be “best left to the agency’s internal disciplinary process.” And Intro. 314, requiring NYPD to compile quarterly placard abuse reports “cannot currently be accomplished with our existing capabilities.

In other words, leave everything up to NYPD, and don’t expect any transparency whatsoever.

Neither Chernyavsky nor NYPD Traffic Enforcement District Commanding Officer Deputy Chief Michael Pilecki offered insight into how the bills could be amended to support their purported goal of placard reform.