Quality of Life
Streetsblog Basics
Living Near Shops and Transit Makes New Yorkers Less Fat
A new Columbia University study published in the American Journal of Health Promotion, yet again, links livable streets to improved public health. The study reports:
February 15, 2007
The Seed of a Revolution in Red Hook
How can we get drivers to respect the communities they are driving though? How can we make traffic slow down if we can't change the design of the street or the timing of the lights? How can a community reclaim its neighborhood streets?
February 12, 2007
Streetfilms: “A City Is a Means to a Way of Life”
At last October's Manhattan Transportation Policy Conference, convened by Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer, people from every neighborhood in Manhattan gathered to discuss a vision for the future of transportation in New York.
February 9, 2007
New York New Visions Tackles “Sustainable” New York Future
After Mayor Bloomberg's December announcement of his PlaNYC
initiative to prepare for a sustainable New York of 9 million people by 2030, New York New Visions, the group of architects and planners originally organized around Ground Zero rebuilding, announced it was expanding its scope to tackle the new challenge. Last night, in a stark white room in the basement of the American Institute of Architects building in Greenwich Village, a collection of almost equally stark white faces began reimagining the New York of the future.
February 6, 2007
Study: Kids Who Live Near Freeways Have Trouble Breathing
A new study to be published in the Feb. 17 issue of the Lancet makes a strong case for the link between proximity to vehicular traffic and poor lung function in children. An article on Medical News Today sums up the report, which is currently available online to Lancet subscribers.
January 30, 2007
New York City 2030. London Today.
On Thursday, as New York City's highest ranking transportation officials argued before City Council that the city's increasing traffic congestion and automobile dependence is "an indication of the vitality and the growth of the city of New York," London's Mayor Ken Livingstone was in Davos, Switzerland announcing that he aims "to make London the world's leading center for research and financial development on climate change." Livingstone said:
January 29, 2007
Are Port Authority’s Airport Expansionists Flying Blind?
The top brass over at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey are patting themselves on the back about the PA's plan to take over Stewart Airport near Newburgh, NY. "The region clearly needs additional capacity for air travel," Anthony
Coscia, the agency's chairman, was quoted as saying in the New York Times. "It's undeniable. This is intended to remedy exactly that
problem." If the deal goes through, Stewart, 60 miles north of New York City, will become the region's fourth major air hub.
January 25, 2007
The Known Unknowns of New York City’s Streets
Unlike New York, Copenhagen, Denmark's planners measure city streets for much more than "Vehicular Level of Service." This map, for example, quantifies stationary activities on a summer weekday in the city center. From Public Spaces Public Life by Lars Gemzoe and Jan Gehl, 1996.
January 23, 2007
Does Vehicular Chaos Push Families Out of NYC?
Streetsblog contributor Charles Komanoff had an excellent letter in the New York Times on Sunday in response to the article about Sara Robbins, the Brooklyn Heights woman tragically, horrifyingly killed by a private sanitation truck last month:
January 15, 2007
Public Health and Livable Streets: Making the Connection
Thirty years ago the health arguments against car-dependence were 90 percent about air pollution and 10 percent about physical inactivity. Now, with tailpipe pollution down and obesity and diabetes up, those percentages are reversed. The latest evidence is a valuable new report, Steps to Get New Yorkers Moving (PDF file), from the Public Health Association of New York City.
January 11, 2007