Jose Martinez @jmartineznyc.bsky.social

Reporting on transportation at THE CITY (@thecity.nyc) • Previously at NY1, The New York Post, New York Daily News, The Journal News

Message or email me: JMartinez(at)thecity.nyc

HOW’S HE DOING? On Mayor Mamdani after his first 100 days as Hizzoner.

After the next 100 days, maybe we’ll do a follow-up story on how many people *still* mangle the guy’s last name.

W/ @smaldo.bsky.social & @katiehonan.bsky.social www.thecity.nyc/2026/04/09/zohran-mamdani-100-days-rent-affordability-child-care/
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NOT EASY BEING GREEN: Just 539 “Boro Taxis” left on NYC streets — ⬇️ 98% from 2015: TLC data
🍏 💰 🍏
“I had a lot of hope,” one green cabbie sez. “But now I will say that turning green was maybe the worst decision I ever made.”

NEW in @thecity.nyc w/Kennedy Sessions www.thecity.nyc/2026/04/09/green-cab-boro-taxi-drivers-hail-uber-lyft/
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🌸 CELEB SIGHTINGS 🌸

From this past weekend in Central Park (w/ a 🐕‍🦺 BRUNO 🐕‍🦺 cameo)
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🌺 💮 NYC IN FULL BLOOM 💮 🌺

My colleagues Haidee Chu and the aptly named Lilly Sabella mapped out all the 🌸 hotspots - it’s good stuff, as they say in the trade.

Check it out, check it out, check it out in @thecity.nyc www.thecity.nyc/2026/04/08/spring-cherry-blossom-magnolia-cranapple-map-blooming-flowers-parks/
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High-ranking sauces can now confirm that I was on the schools beat for two weeks before Sept. 11, 2001 — and that I was lousy at it!
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Nope, wasn’t me. Had to have been the other Jose Martinez.

(Gotta love random PR emails).
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⭐️ SUBWAY CELEB SIGHTING ⭐️

New(ish) fare gates at the 125th Street station on the A, B, C and D.
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⭐️ 🤖 CELEB SIGHTING 🤖 ⭐️

First week at THE CITY and @danmorrison.bsky.social spots a Waymo on the Bowery. That’s needle in a haystack stuff there.
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ROBOT RIDES UNPLUGGED: Permit expires for testing of autonomous vehicle tech on NYC streets
⏹️ 🤖 🚗
Waymo had tested eight cars in parts of Manhattan and Brooklyn since last summer
🚗 🤖 ⏹️
Its driverless vehicles now operate in 10 U.S. cities. NEW in @thecity.nyc www.thecity.nyc/2026/04/06/waymo-driverless-cars-testing-roads-autonomous-vehicle/
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⭐️⭐️ CELEB SIGHTING ⭐️⭐️

BRUNO, that rarest of 🐕‍🦺🐰 breeds, spotted in Central Park this morning.
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We’re in *seven years* at THE CITY.

Grateful for our readers, our supporters — and the colleagues who have helped make this job the best of my career.
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“I’m out of breath and I have asthma,” Cola Capers, 65, said after taking the station stairs up to 161st Street shortly before one surface-level elevator went back into service. “But maybe I’ll be using the train more now.”

📸 by ⭐️shutterbug @alexkrales.bsky.social 📸
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E-4: On eve of Yanks' home opener, subway elevators to No. 4 line platforms at 161st St. still out of service for weeks
🛗 ⚾ 🛗
Three others are back in business on big elevator replacement that started in late 2024.
⬆️ ♿ ⬇️
NEW story in @thecity.nyc www.thecity.nyc/2026/04/02/yankee-stadium-accessibility-subway-161-station-elevators-closed/
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(FORMER) HIZZONER DIZZONER: Eric Adams gone, but cronies keep getting in trouble with Feds

The Angry 😡 Cowboy 🤠 @gregbsmithnyc.bsky.social
keeps the hits coming on the ex-mayor’s crew

🌐 WORLD EXCLUSIVE 🌐
in @thecity.nyc www.thecity.nyc/2026/04/01/zhan-johnny-petrosyants-eric-adams-insurance-fraud/
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"A lot less traffic, a lot cleaner air and a lot of other good stuff.”

Such as new refrigeration units on trucks at the Hunts Point Produce Market. The South Bronx has long had among the highest rates of highest respiratory ailments in the U.S.

NEW in @thecity.nyc www.thecity.nyc/2026/04/01/congestion-pricing-electric-refrigeration-asthma-bronx-air-pollution-mta/
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In accordance with Transit Reporter Code Title XI, Chapter VII, Section III, @davecolon.bsky.social & @fractenberg.bsky.social are going low.
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Sauces are confirming that NYC Roadway Dining Szn begins April 1 - no joke.
🚘 🥞 🍔 🥟 🚘
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WHERE’S THE 311? As complaints about conditions on Rikers surge, thousands of calls fade in ‘black hole’

Good stuff, as they say in the trade, from @reuvenblau.bsky.social & Kennedy Sessions in @thecity.nyc www.thecity.nyc/2026/03/31/rikers-311-calls-complaints-jail/
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News of Do’s jump to Empower came during a confirmation hearing for his replacement at TLC.
🚕 🚘 🚕
One, uh, HAIL OF A SAGA. From March 12: www.thecity.nyc/2026/03/12/david-do-empower-ride-share-taxi/
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The lawsuit follows years of tangling between TLC and Empower.

The tech company even agreed to hire the most recent TLC commish — who then decided to *not* take the job.

From March 20: www.thecity.nyc/2026/03/20/empower-david-do-tlc-taxis/
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EMPOWER PLAY: City sues controversial ride-hailing app that’s not playing by @nyctaxi.bsky.social rules

NEW story in @thecity.nyc www.thecity.nyc/2026/03/27/empower-lawsuit-nyc-cease-desist-yazam/
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NEED A LIFT? MTA sez more wheelchair-lift training on way for Express Bus ops
🚍 ♿️ ⬆️ 🚍
“Some of them will be honest and tell you, ‘I haven’t done this in a while, so just give me a minute.’

NEW story in @thecity.nyc: www.thecity.nyc/2026/03/27/express-bus-wheelchair-lift-driver-training/
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🚨🚨🚨 BREAKING 🚨🚨🚨

The esteemed @davecolon.bsky.social — the transit scribe famously labeled “Dave Cologne of Street Blogs with the Knicks Situation” — wants you to know he is *not* “America’s Reporter.”

Seems Mr. Cologne prefers “America’s Sweetheart.”
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Here’s our latest on the Second Avenue Subway, its next phase & the Trump administration.

I urge you to read the quotes from the E. Harlem biz owners affected by construction — but who are banking on the line extension.

Thank you always for reading @thecity.nyc! www.thecity.nyc/2026/03/23/mta-second-avenue-subway-q-extension-plans/
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Anyhow, Brian’s colorful 💩 quote was in our story from a week ago — when the MTA sued the Trump administration over $ for Second Avenue Subway work.

Here’s a link to that March 17 story: www.thecity.nyc/2026/03/17/mta-lawsuit-hochul-trump-second-avenue-subway/
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That includes the 2019 moment when Larry “Not A Regular Reader of THE CITY” Schwartz wasn’t thrilled with a story I wrote on an MTA subway meltdown.

Hopefully, it turned him into a regular reader — we’d only been around a few months at that point!
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It’s always fun when @thecity.nyc gets name-checked inside the MTA boardroom.

Thank you, Mr. Brian Fritsch of @pcac.org
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Rendon said he is “all for” the MTA extending the Q line to East Harlem.

But he’s worried whether his pizzeria can survive years of being next to a construction site — and behind fencing.

“The thing is it’s really hurting me right now,” he said.
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At a pizzeria next to the work site for the future 106th Street stop on the Q, owner Ediberto Rendon says his business is “in survival mode.”

“My regulars know I’m here, but I don’t get new customers.”
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The MTA outlined plans Monday to keep the expansion of the Second Avenue Subway to East Harlem on track — even as it battles the Trump administration in federal court over funding for the $7 billion project.

NEW in @thecity.nyc www.thecity.nyc/2026/03/23/mta-second-avenue-subway-q-extension-plans/
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