Quality of Life
Streetsblog Basics
Bicoastal Garbage Disposal Practices
Via a Streetsblog tipster: In Valley Village, Calif., near L.A., people leave their trash in the bike lane for the convenience of the sanitation crews.
January 11, 2007
Making Hell’s Kitchen Less Hellish
Monday night was the first meeting of the Ninth Avenue Renaissance project. About 130 neighborhood stakeholders filled the gym at the Holy Cross School in Midtown to begin a process to transform Ninth Avenue from a dysfunctional, traffic-choked, polluted highway into, what organizer Christine Berthet says should be "a neighborhood Main Street" for Hell's Kitchen and Clinton.
January 10, 2007
Playable Streets
The New York Times has a story today about efforts underway to develop a creative new playground near the South Street Seaport. The city has been working with David
Rockwell interior designer for Nobu and the Mohegan Sun Casino, on a playground that eschews traditional playground aparati in favor of foam blocks,
water, cardboard tubes, burlap bags, ramps, climbing nets and, most interesting, "play workers" to attend to the facility and guide kids through it. Gothamist, as always, provides a nice synposis.
January 10, 2007
Streetscape Aesthetics vs. Pedestrian Safety
A sacrifice we were willing to make: Until 1922, much of Park Avenue was, in fact, a park. Looking north on Park Ave at about 50th Street. That's Saint Bartholomew's Church on the right.
January 4, 2007
Small Step for Pedestrians & Cyclists; Giant Leap for NYC
The Department of Transportation's recently announced streetscape renovation at the Bedford Avenue L subway station in Williamsburg, Brooklyn marks the first time ever in New York City that car parking spaces have been removed to make way for bicycle parking.
December 22, 2006
New German Community Models Car-Free Living
The Vauban Department of Transportation gets to work. Schritt Tempo: Walking Speed.
December 22, 2006
Chicago Cracks Down on Drivers Who Threaten Pedestrians
In just the last ten days here in New York City a 7-year-old boy was killed in the crosswalk by a trucker trying to beat a red light in Brooklyn, a young woman on the Upper East Side and a Brooklyn Heights law professor were crushed to death by private sanitation trucks, and a 12-year-old boy was mowed down by a hit-and-run driver in Queens. The list goes on. Yet, none of these horrible killings of innocents on the streets of New York City merited even a mention from Mayor Bloomberg or any other high level city official. Apparently, in America's safest big city, this is just business as usual.
December 19, 2006
Holiday Book Recommendations Open Thread
Some of us at Streetsblog headquarters were talking about putting together a sidebar listing of recommended books to reinforce the commentary you find on the blog. I put together a few brief recommendations of five of my favorites, but we're also interested in learning what you've all been reading and what you'd suggest to others, so treat this as an open thread on livable streets-related books now that we're in the midst of the holiday gift-buying season.
December 18, 2006
Rethinking Soho
A Porsche, an ambulette, Paul Steely White, Bruce Schaller and a vendor compete for street space in Soho
December 14, 2006
Futurama 2030: Bloomberg Outlines Ambitious 10-Point Agenda
Only a couple of hundred yards from the rusting remains of the 1964 World's Fair, Mayor Michael Bloomberg laid out his own vision for the future of New York City this morning. In a speech entitled "New York City 2030: Accepting the Challenge," the mayor introduced a broad plan for creating a sustainable city "making room for 900,000 new residents, upgrading aging infrastructure, cleaning up pollution, and coping with the effects of global climate change."
December 12, 2006