Posts tagged Urban Policy

  • Soho shoppers seek sidewalk space

    I’ve written before that SoHo streets could be enormously improved if we simply took away some parking (accommodating about 6 people per block) in favor of larger sidewalks (accommodating hundreds of people per hour per block).  Keep reading…

  • Closing the bowtie

    Times Square is one of the most crowded pedestrian areas in the city.  As I covered over a year ago, the Times Square Alliance, the local business association, suggested closing the cutover between Seventh Avenue and Broadway - the “bowtie”, to create additional pedestrian space between the two avenues. …  Keep reading…

  • Good riddance ugly planters

    Times Square is crowded.  At almost all hours, the sidewalks are full of pedestrians.  But that didn’t stop a bunch of buildings from installing large planters or other barriers after 9/11.  They ostensibly kept potential terrorists from driving up to the buildings, but more often (i.e. almost constantly) kept potential pedestrians from having room to…  Keep reading…

  • NYC BRT

    On Thursday, I was in the vicinity of 10th Avenue and 23rd Street, heading home.  Since 10th Avenue turns into Amsterdam and I live half a block from Amsterdam, I decided to try taking the M11 bus.  I knew traffic would be bad, and wasn’t in a rush, but getting past the Lincoln Tunnel was horrifically slow.  Keep reading…

  • Save Our Superblock

    One of the travesties of 1950s-era urban planning was the “superblock”, where cities disrupted the regular street grid to build large towers surrounded by windswept plazas.  Most of these superblocks are now recognized as mistakes, such as Boston’s City Hall Plaza, a huge barren space nearly empty all year round, and the World Trade Center superblock,…  Keep reading…

  • Bravo Gale

    For many reasons, some known, some not known, the New York City Department of Transportation is still mostly stuck in the SimCity Classic phase of urban planning thinking, closer to Robert Moses than Jane Jacobs.  While they did recently suggest, to the surprise of many observers, converting a segment of Willoughby Street in Downtown Brooklyn to be pedestrian-only, DOT Commissioner…  Keep reading…

  • Low rent for metal tenants

    I pay approximately $4.36 per square foot per month for my apartment.  But to park my car right outside, if I comply with alternate side parking rules, costs zero.    Keep reading…

  • Good ideas almost everyone wants

    The New York Times came out in favor of congestion pricing.  Local business leaders want it, activist groups want it… but Bloomberg still doesn’t.    Keep reading…

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