Photo: Getty Images
Who says the press doesn’t like good news? Mayor Bloomberg’s announcement today that he’ll force the city’s 13,000 yellow cabs to go hybrid by 2012 is, we’d say, splendid, sterling, superb. Some will argue he should have acted sooner; those people are small-minded. Some will say that this is all part of the grand scheme to raise Bloomberg’s national profile in service of his 2008 presidential run; those people are thinking too hard. This is simply a rare case of a good idea whose time has come. Not that there aren’t some politics at work: City councilman David Yassky, who was frustrated when the administration diluted his green cab proposal back in 2002, kept the issue alive. And by doing ecofriendly things that are under the city’s control, Bloomberg adds some momentum to the push for his 2030 sustainability package, whose biggest transformations require the action of state and federal officials. Next up: Look for a Bloomberg biofuel initiative. The mayor inherited a city where public schools still burned coal. He may leave one that smells like soy. —Chris Smith
Bloomberg Proposes Energy Efficient Taxi Fleet [NYT]
Related: Uncool New York [NYM]
