Quality of Life
Streetsblog Basics
Brooklyn to Bloomberg: Include Local Stakeholders in Planning
Below is a letter from the Park Slope Civic Council to Mayor Bloomberg and local elected representatives regarding the City's plan to transform Sixth and Seventh Avenue's into one-way streets. It's lengthy but it's worth a read (and full disclosure: I'm a trustee of the Civic Council):
March 8, 2007
DOT’s Park Slope Plan Requires Community Board Support
Crain's reporter Erik Engquist gets some more information about the Department of Transportation's plans to convert two Park Slope Avenues into one-way streets. DOT's press office is now saying:
March 7, 2007
Old Gray Lady Gets on the Bandwagon
The New York Times came out advocating for progressive transportation policies in its Sunday City section editorial, saying that the departure of DOT Commissioner Iris Weinshall presents "a great opportunity to take bold action on a vexing quality of life and health issue: traffic congestion."
March 5, 2007
The Iris Weinshall Legacy: Queens Boulevard
"What became clear to me in this discussion was that the engineers were thinking from the motorists' viewpoint." -- Iris Weinshall, New York Newsday, April 29, 2001
March 2, 2007
DOT to Propose Radical New Traffic Plan for Park Slope
Park Slope's Fifth Avenue: a pedestrian- and bike-friendly, two-way, neighborhood Main Street.
February 28, 2007
No Parking Slope
The B67 bus veers around a double-parked van blocking a car parked in front of a fire hydrant as a Bugaboo-pushing nanny strolls by Councilmember David Yassky and Transportation Alternatives director Paul Steely White calling for more sensible parking policy this afternoon in Park Slope, Brooklyn.
February 27, 2007
3 Peds Hit on 9th Ave. 2 Dead. Mayor Mike: Where Are You?
Like Third Avenue in Brooklyn, Manhattan's Ninth Avenue is emerging as one of New York City's new "Boulevards of Death." This afternoon, the Clinton / Hell's Kitchen Pedestrian Safety Coalition, the community group that has been organizing the Ninth Avenue Renaissance project, broadcast the following news and call to action:
February 26, 2007
Streetfilms: Intersection Intervention
As people living in the neighborhoods around Downtown Brooklyn are learning the hard way, New York City government's installation of pedestrian safety and traffic calming measures is remarkably slow and expensive. Even as children are dying while crossing the street in potentially preventable crashes, and even with projects approved and funded, New York City's bureaucracy appears to be organizationally unable to move faster than a snail's pace when it comes to installing fine-grained, spot-by-spot pedestrian safety and traffic calming measures.
February 23, 2007
How to Improve Travel Times and Transit Capacity?
Earlier this week, I received a request in writing from Gary Altman, the Legislative Counsel of the City Council to testify at a hearing on March 1st. The topic of this oversight hearing is: How do we achieve the PlanNYC2030's Sustainability Goal to Improve Travel Times by Adding Transit Capacity for Millions More Residents, Visitors and Workers? For reference here is the presentation on congestion (warning pdf) put out by the PlanNYC2030 folks.
February 22, 2007
Eyes on the Street: Snow Days
When there isn't snow on the ground where does all the black stuff go?
February 21, 2007