# Dangerous Intersections, School Vote Chaos, and a Big Get: Senator Cory Booker

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-montclair-pod-7145507/dangerous-intersections-school-vote-chaos-and-a-big-get-senator-cory-booker
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-montclair-pod-7145507/dangerous-intersections-school-vote-chaos-and-a-big-get-senator-cory-booker.md
Podcast: [The Montclair Pod](https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-montclair-pod-7145507)
Published: 2026-03-12T12:23:02+00:00
Episode link: https://shows.acast.com/the-montclair-pod/episodes/dangerous-intersections-school-vote-chaos-and-a-big-get-sena
Audio file: https://sphinx.acast.com/p/open/s/6753786ea8461f164e67bf3a/e/69b21dfed308577aad96ab3c/media.mp3
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JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/the-montclair-pod-7145507/episodes/dangerous-intersections-school-vote-chaos-and-a-big-get-senator-cory-booker
Duration seconds: 5066

## Resource

This week on The Montclair Pod , we bring you one of our most important episodes yet. We tackle a deeply emotional and urgent issue: street safety. NPR's David Folkenflik joins us to share the heartbreaking story of losing his mother to a preventable traffic collision right outside his Upper Montclair home, followed by a conversation with Montclair’s new Complete Streets Director, Jacob Nieman. Then we sit down with Senator Cory Booker to discuss his new legislation, independent media, and his time under a state monitor in Newark. Plus, we break down the district-wide school lockdown, the results of the massive school referendum (and the lawsuit trying to stop it), and Mike shares a brilliant YMCA membership hack. The Tragic Reality of Street Safety We sit down with NPR media reporter and longtime resident David Folkenflik , who experienced the unthinkable in October 2023 when his mother was killed crossing the street outside his house. He shares his warnings about Montclair's dangerous intersections, the aggressive driving culture plaguing our residential neighborhoods, and the frustration of warning the town before tragedy struck. We follow this up with a discussion featuring Jacob Nieman , Montclair’s new Complete Streets Director, about how the town plans to fix a broken system. We Booked Booker! Senator Cory Booker joins the pod! In Part 1 of our interview, we talk about the power of independent local media, his new bill to raise the standard deduction to $75,000 for families, and his experience dealing with a state educational monitor back when he was Mayor of Newark. Local Beat: Lockdowns, Lawsuits & The YMCA Hack It was a chaotic week in Montclair schools. We cover the terrifying district-wide lockdown sparked by a threat to the high school. We also dive in…

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## Transcript

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