Quality of Life
Streetsblog Basics
“Don’t Block the Box” Bill Clears Albany
With 2800 agents able to enforce rules against blocking the box, drivers may soon take these signs seriously.
June 23, 2008
Hell’s Parking Lot
If there's one thing a neighborhood overrun by traffic doesn't need, it's more public parking garages. But that's exactly what New Yorkers who live by the mouth of the Lincoln Tunnel will get if the City Planning Commission allows current development patterns to continue.
May 30, 2008
It’s Man Vs. Car in NYC and Tim Robbins is “The Rectifier”
Granted, I always secretly hoped that Tom Hanks would play the Aaron Naparstek role in "Honku: The Movie" but Tim Robbins' new film "Noise" is, without question, the early runner-up for Streetsblog's 2008 Movie of the Year:
May 15, 2008
Atlantic Yards or Atlantic Lots?
With development projects across the city threatened by an uncertain economy, critics of Bruce Ratner's Atlantic Yards project believe that a slowdown in construction could burden Prospect Heights with decades of blight. A slide show by the Municipal Art Society, called "Atlantic Yards or Atlantic Lots?," offers a bleak look into the future, like this rendering of neighborhood blocks destroyed for "temporary" surface lots that would accommodate some 1,400 cars.
May 7, 2008
Streetfilm: A Pedestrian Paradise in Melbourne
Streetfilms' Clarence Eckerson recently made the journey to Melbourne, Australia, where he found a "new world city" redesigned for people-oriented development and mobility. Writes Clarence:
May 6, 2008
Après Congestion Pricing, It’s Time to Look at the Paris Model
Amsterdam Ave. and 76th St. with street space reallocated to walkers, bikes and buses.
April 15, 2008
Streetfilms: “Lounging on High” in Wodonga, Australia
David Engwicht is a livable streets philosopher and author. Creator of the Walking School Bus, Mental Speed Bumps
and many other innovative ways of taming traffic and increasing
pedestrian safety, he has taken on “the challenge of a lifetime” to
revitalize the downtown district of Wodonga, a small city in Australia
often referred to as “Struggle Town” in comparison to its sister city
Albury just across the Murray River.
March 26, 2008
Citizens Hammer NYPD Commissioner Kelly on Street Safety
Police Commissioner Ray Kelly at Baruch College last week
March 25, 2008
Envisioning a More Livable Columbus Avenue
As a candidate for a livable streets makeover, Columbus Avenue is a no-brainer. A block from Central Park, it is home to the American Museum of Natural History and sports a string of active ground floor businesses, but the street itself is a classically car-oriented corridor: three moving lanes sandwiched between two parking lanes. The Columbus Avenue BID has been working with Project for Public Spaces to make the street itself more of a destination -- to create a walkable, transit-oriented "spine" running from the museum to Lincoln Center on Broadway.
March 18, 2008