Posts by David Alpert — Founder
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Picking on planners
I’m reading two books about urban planning, Donald Shoup’s groundbreaking work on parking policy The High Cost of Free Parking, and Cato Institute planning critic Randal O’Toole’s The Best-Laid Plans: How Government Planning Harms Your Quality of Life, Your Pocketbook, and Your Future whose agenda is apparent from its title. Keep reading…
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Byron Brown on cities in politics
Echoing many of the same points I just made in my last post is this AlterNet interview with Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown, who argues that the early primaries in non-urban states diminishes the discussion of urban issues: Keep reading…
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What’s wrong with empowering cities?
Discussing the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, Illinois Republican and NPV supporter Kirk Dillard said, “I’ve studied a myth among some Republicans that this empowers cities. The statistics do not bear that out.” Wait, Kirk, what’s wrong with empowering cities? Do all Republicans, or even Illinois Republicans, feel that cities should… Keep reading…
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“All I want for New Year’s is free parking”
When asked what they wished for in the New Year, many neighborhood leaders replied world peace, better public schools, and free parking. Free parking? Yes, Cleveland Park ANC Commissioner Richard Rothblum listed those very items (fortunately, in that order). In the latest Dupont Current (which unfortunately has no online archives except June 2007), a variety of neighborhood… Keep reading…
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NYC will crack down on placard abuse
A year-long campaign by TA and other livable streets activists has paid off in a very short time: the Bloomberg Administration (which, lately, has been very good on transportation issues not involving the Yankees), is restricting the number of parking placards and stepping up enforcement. Keep reading…
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Can NYC build me a personal garage too?
As even more lurid details emerge of New York’s $340 million giveaway for Yankees parking—that’s right, entirely for parking—we learn that 70 million will go entirely to build a free garage reserved for Yankees and their guests, with no revenue ever being collected to pay back the city; that the total amount the team is paying the city for rent will decrease;… Keep reading…
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The blank wall today
We can at least excuse the awful blank street-facing blank walls of New York buildings like Manhattan Plaza or the Atlantic Center mall because, when these buildings were built in the 1970s, nobody knew better. Keep reading…
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Local parks need local government
When you hear the words “national park” you might think of Yosemite or Ellis Island or any of the historic monuments like Concord’s Minuteman National Historical Park at the Old North Bridge where the “Shot Heard ‘Round The World” was actually heard. Keep reading…
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Ward 3 Vision
A community coalition pushing for smart growth in the upper Wisconsin Ave corridor (Tenleytown to Friendship Heights) and elsewhere in DC’s far Northwest ward 3. Keep reading…