East Village
Streetsblog Basics
City Shows Off Plan to Reclaim Astor Place for Pedestrians [Updated]
Plans to transform another asphalt tangle into a great public space are moving forward at Astor Place, and Curbed has the details. With significant street space being reclaimed for pedestrians, the plan should serve as a new gathering place in the East Village and make the neighborhood safer for walking.
January 7, 2011
Select Bus Service Debuts on Manhattan’s Busiest Bus Route
Select Bus Service is up and running along First and Second Avenues, bringing rapid bus enhancements to the second busiest bus line in New York City. Though riders will need some time to adjust to the new system, many are already praising the faster service.
October 11, 2010
Reading Between the Lines on East Side’s Missing Bike Lanes
Select Bus Service remains on track to debut on October 10, confirmed NYC DOT and the MTA at a meeting of the project's Community Advisory Committee last night. Bus service improvements along the corridor are as crucial as ever and will be bolstered by camera enforcement, which DOT announced would be in effect starting in November. The changes that take effect in 25 days, however, won't be the full complete streets package originally promised. Above 34th Street, bike lanes and pedestrian refuge islands were unceremoniously stripped from the plan some time this spring.
September 15, 2010
Eyes on the Street: The Nascent First Avenue Bike Lane
It's not finished yet, but some segments of the First Avenue bike lane are quite rideable. I used about eight blocks of it this weekend.
July 12, 2010
Even Below 34th Street, Gaps Appear in Plan for Protected Bike Lanes
Yesterday brought another disappointing development in the city's plan to re-design First and Second Avenues. While upgraded bike routes are still guaranteed below 34th Street -- a far cry from what was presented to the public -- even that portion will not be a continuous protected route.
June 10, 2010
East Side Re-Design Moves Ahead, But Full Bike Corridor Is on Hold
The re-design of First and Second Avenues has been a complex project to judge since the initial plans were unveiled earlier this year. From the beginning, it's been the most ambitious re-envisioning of a major corridor we've seen in New York City to date: 250 blocks of faster bus service and safer traveling for cyclists and pedestrians. But it has not met the high expectations of New Yorkers who held out hope for a truly high-performance busway and a continuous, protected bicycle corridor.
June 7, 2010
What’s Good for Green Transport Is Good for Business in the East Village
Wherever parking spaces are replaced with infrastructure for sustainable transportation, you can usually find a local merchant yelling about how it will destroy his livelihood. With the redesign of First and Second Avenue bringing safer biking and faster buses to their neighborhood, five NYU undergrads set out to measure what local merchants stand to lose or gain. Their findings suggest that protected bike lanes and Select Bus Service are going to be good for business in the East Village.
June 1, 2010
Upper East Side Workshop Kicks Off New Street Safety Campaign
"You can't control what you can't measure," the saying goes. So to get a better grip on street safety on Manhattan's East Side, Transportation Alternatives started by collecting better data about local traffic collisions and injuries. Last night, a group of Upper East Siders used that information to begin imagining what a safer neighborhood might look like.
March 17, 2010
East Village Bike Shop Manager Speaks on NYPD Bust
Yesterday we reported that police have shut down the Busy Bee bike shop in the East Village for criminal possession of stolen property. In a phone call with Streetsblog last night, store manager Joe Malewich said he's not sure what his staff could have done to prevent the three arrests which resulted in the store's closure.
February 24, 2010
Police Shut Down Bike Shop Suspected of Selling Stolen Property
Are police starting to take bike theft seriously? In the East Village, officers with NYPD's Civil Enforcement Unit have shut down a bike shop on East 6th Street as the result of what one officer characterized as an ongoing undercover investigation.
February 23, 2010