Quality of Life
Streetsblog Basics
Pedestrian-Only Fifth Avenue: Tonight, a Three Hour Test
Tonight is the Museum Mile Festival. From 6:00 to 9:00 pm, twenty-three blocks of Fifth Avenue from 82nd Street to 105th Streets will be closed to traffic for the event billed as "New York's Biggest Block Party." Admission to the museums is free and there are all kinds of events, workshops and street performances.
June 13, 2006
The 96th Street Sidewalk Nibblers
Enjoy the new Clarence Eckerson film, "The Sidewalk Nibblers."
June 8, 2006
Car Fight
Last night's public hearing on the proposed NASCAR track on Staten Island turned into a melee. Union members, many of whom were apparently shipped in by the developer, shouted down and physically intimidated community people who had come out to voice concerns about the project. New York 1 showed video last night of one particularly huge union guy throwing Staten Island Councilmember Andrew Lanza into a headlock and wrestling the microphone out of his hands. The scene looked more like a drunken bar fight than a community meeting. NY1 hasn't put the video on its web site [Update: Here is the NY1 footage. Pretty incredible], but ABC 7 caught some of the action and put it online. The NYPD rolled in and shut down the meeting after just a half an hour.
April 28, 2006
555 Hudson Street
Jane Jacobs lived at 555 Hudson Street when she wrote "The Death and Life of Great American Cities." I happened to be in the neighborhood yesterday afternoon and I saw this bouquet of flowers and card on the front door. The card reads, "Jane Jacobs, 1916-2006. From this house, in 1961, a housewife changed the world."
April 27, 2006