PlaNYC 2.0 Reactions: Paul Steely White, Transportation Alternatives

Streetsblog has been calling around to transportation advocates and experts, gathering reactions to yesterday’s release of the first major update to PlaNYC 2030 since the citywide sustainability initiative was launched four years ago. Here’s our first installment, with Transportation Alternatives director Paul Steely — we’ll be posting more reactions later this afternoon.

White told us he was encouraged to see the addition of a public health section in PlaNYC 2.0, and that the new plan will benefit from being less wonky than the original:

The continuation and expansion of Summer Streets and play streets bodes very well for public support. I think if there was a flaw in the first PlaNYC, it was too CO2- and policy-oriented. What this clearly does better than 1.0 is make the sustainability agenda more relevant and tactile for New Yorkers. I think the play streets in particular really jump out.

The inclusion of bike-share was also an encouraging sign that Bloomberg is serious about launching a public bike system, he said, but the mayor will need to do some serious follow-up:

They’re reiterating their commitment to roll out bike-share in 2012 and committing to keeping the yearly membership cheaper than a monthly Metrocard. As long as the state legislature doesn’t double the cost of a Metrocard, that’s a good thing.

The mayor needs to prove that he still cares. Will he attend summer streets and play street events? Will he back up bike-share when the going gets tough? Will he extend bike and ped improvements to East Harlem and other neighborhoods clamoring for their fair share of safety?

What’s lacking in the updated plan? White said the revision fails to reform the anti-urban tendency of the Economic Development Corporation and the Department of City Planning to push for excessive off-street parking:

There are parking garages sitting half empty that the city forced developers to build. Each of those parking structures represent millions of dollars that developers could have been required to upgrade local transit stations, or improve the streetscape. It’s not enough to study off-street parking policy. The city must overhaul its broken off-street parking policy before a tidal wave of new car ownership eclipses the plan’s other gains.

ALSO ON STREETSBLOG

PlaNYC Mastermind Rohit Aggarwala Leaving NYC

|
Rohit Aggarwala (better known as Rit), the lead author of PlaNYC 2030 and director of the Mayor’s Office of Long-Term Planning and Sustainability, is leaving the post he created from scratch, the Bloomberg administration announced today. Aggarwala will be stepping down in June to join his soon-to-be wife in California. Aggarwala was tapped in 2006 […]

Transportation Tidbits in This Year’s PlaNYC Check-In

|
To mark Earth Day on Monday, the de Blasio administration released its first PlaNYC progress report [PDF], the latest annual check-in on the citywide sustainability plan released in 2007. The report includes a few facts about the city’s progress on its transportation goals: DOT’s PARK Smart program, which sets the price of on-street parking in response […]

At Flushing Commons, NYCEDC’s Fuzzy Math Superceded PlaNYC Goals

|
Yesterday, Streetsblog looked at Flushing Commons, a mixed-use development in the heart of transit-rich downtown Flushing, where the New York City Economic Development Corporation has mandated suburban levels of parking. We asked the EDC why they required nearly 1,600 spaces in the development, and now we have an answer. It’s a revealing look at how […]

Ed Skyler Departs. Who Will Take Over NYC’s Street Safety Portfolio?

|
The Bloomberg administration announced this morning the departure of deputy mayor Ed Skyler, who will be taking a position in the financial industry, the Times reports. While Skyler isn’t quite a household name in livable streets circles, his portfolio made him an important mayoral advisor on sustainable transportation and street safety policies. As deputy mayor […]

PlaNYC 2.0 Reactions: Kate Slevin, Tri-State Transportation Campaign

|
Streetsblog has been gathering responses to yesterday’s release of PlaNYC 2.0. This is the third installment. Read the first and second parts. In a phone interview yesterday afternoon, Kate Slevin, executive director of the Tri-State Transportation Campaign, shared her first impressions of the city’s revised sustainability plan… On the diminished prominence of transportation compared to […]