Michael Bloomberg
Streetsblog Basics
New Law Encourages DOT to Set Traffic Reduction Targets
Yesterday, Mayor Bloomberg signed into law Intro 199, a bill requiring New York City's Department of Transportation to collect and monitor data specifically aimed at helping the city "to reduce automobile traffic and encourage more sustainable means of
transportation vital to combating congestion, pollution and improving the
City’s long term economic health." The new law could signal a significant change for a city agency that has typically measured its own performance based on how many potholes it fills, street lamps it fixes and how well it keeps motor vehicle traffic flowing through the city's over-burdened street grid.
June 4, 2008
Has Time Run Out on the Parking Placard “Crackdown”?
Chinatown, December 2007: As good as it gets?
May 27, 2008
Dick Gottfried Blames Bloomberg for Pricing Non-Vote
Care of the Politicker, here's 38-year incumbent Assembly Member Dick Gottfried explaining to the Chelsea Reform Democratic Club, whose endorsement he wants for his re-election bid, how democratic Shelly Silver's house is in comparison to the state Senate. All things considered, it's a jaw-dropping spiel.
May 20, 2008
MTA Reaches Deal for Hudson Yards… Again
A rendering of the Related Companies' proposal, courtesy of Curbed.
May 19, 2008
Anti-Pricing Lawmakers Dismayed by Potential Backlash
State legislators who opposed congestion pricing are shocked -- shocked! -- that the New York League of Conservation Voters may hold them accountable for their positions on one of the most important environmental initiatives in recent history.
May 5, 2008
25,000 Fewer (Official) Parking Placards for City Employees
It took a little longer than expected, but the City is significantly shrinking the pool of parking placards available to public employees. The total number of placards allocated to certain departments -- most notably NYPD -- has been reduced from roughly 80,000 to about 55,000, as reported by the Times, News, and Post this morning. The police will have 21,474 fewer placards to distribute, a 33 percent reduction.
May 1, 2008
Car-Free Parks: Now More Than Ever
It was on last year's Earth Day that Mayor Bloomberg unveiled his far-reaching plans to make New York City more sustainable, with congestion pricing as one of the centerpieces. For some reason, making Central and Prospect Parks car-free did not make the list of 127 announced initiatives. With congestion pricing off the table for now thanks to some profiles in fecklessness in Albany, the Bloomberg administration has more reason than ever to remedy that oversight.
April 21, 2008
Streetfilm: The Mayor and the Model Plant a Tree
Q: What do the Ninth Avenue Cycle Track, Michael Bloomberg, Clarence the Purple Traffic Calming Wizard and Tyra Banks have in common?
April 18, 2008
Randi Weingarten Still Doesn’t Get It
Back in January United Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten protested Mayor Bloomberg's mandate to reduce the number government parking placard handouts. In a letter to the mayor, Weingarten called the move "deeply troubling," and claimed that taking free parking away from teachers -- who, unlike tens of thousands of other government employees, "are not abusers of parking permits" -- would keep "the best and the brightest" from accepting jobs in city classrooms. (What this says about transit-using teachers, who must pay for TransitChek cards even as the best and brightest drive and park for free, is anyone's guess.)
April 16, 2008