Angie Schmitt
Angie is a Cleveland-based writer with a background in planning and newspaper reporting. She has been writing about cities for Streetsblog for six years.
Recent Posts
Parking Madness Final Four: Niagara Falls vs. Louisville
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Only three cities are left in the running for the Golden Crater in Parking Madness 2016. Today’s matchup will determine which insane parking will take on Federal Way, Washington, in the championship match. Read up on the case for these two semi-finalists and vote below. Niagara Falls Niagara Falls is stunning, isn’t it? This is downtown, just a few […]
DC Used to Fly the Skull and Cross-Bones to Mark Each Traffic Death
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My, how things change. It’s always revealing to go back and look at how Americans responded to traffic deaths before they were regarded as an unavoidable aspect of everyday life. The era when the loss of lives to traffic violence was regarded with widespread shock and revulsion has almost faded from living memory. Here’s a glimpse of […]
Parking Madness Final Four: Federal Way vs. Dallas
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Villanova is taking on UNC tonight, but the main event is here on Streetsblog, with the first Final Four match of Parking Madness 2016. Streetsblog readers have narrowed this year’s field of 16 down to four parking abominations in these cities: Niagara Falls, Louisville, Dallas, and Federal Way, Washington. Your votes will determine who gets into the […]
Associated Press Cautions Journalists That Crashes Aren’t Always “Accidents”
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When negligence is claimed or proven, avoid accident, which can be read as exonerating the person responsible. #ACES2016 — APStylebook (@APStylebook) April 2, 2016 The Associated Press has tweaked its guidance for journalists about when to call traffic collisions “accidents.” Street safety advocates, spearheaded by New York City’s Transportation Alternatives, have been pushing police and media organizations to drop the […]
What If We Measure Streets for Walking the Way We Measure Streets for Cars?
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“What you measure is what you get,” the saying goes. In transportation, the dominant metrics are all about moving motor vehicle traffic, so America has built a transportation network that moves a lot of cars. Our streets may be dangerous, expensive, and inefficient, but they do process huge volumes of motor vehicles. A quintessentially American transportation metric — […]
Even Places With No Congestion Are Widening Highways
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For every transportation agency trying to innovate and update policies for the 21st century, there are several thoughtlessly widening highways like it’s still 1956. Case in point: Ohio DOT, which wants to widen three highways in the Cleveland region. Tim Kovach has been poring over the global urban congestion rankings produced by Tom Tom, the GPS company. TomTom says that out of […]
Parking Madness Elite Eight: Wilkes-Barre vs. Louisville
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The final spot in the Final Four is up for grabs today, as we conclude the second week of the 2016 Parking Madness tournament. So far, parking craters in Dallas, Niagara Falls, and Federal Way, Washington have advanced to this elite stage of the competition. In today’s matchup, a waterfront parking crater in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, goes up […]
Citing Safety Problems, Federal Officials Assume Control of San Jose Streets
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When something goes wrong and people get hurt on a train, national transportation safety officials swoop in immediately to root out the source of risk and prevent future loss of life. How surprising and refreshing to see them apply the same scrutiny to the road system as well. Network blog Systemic Failure is carrying a press release […]
Parking Madness Elite Eight: Dallas vs. Muncie
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We’re down to six remaining contenders in this year’s Parking Madness tournament after the grey expanse of Niagara Falls, New York, blew out the competition from Rutland, Vermont, claiming the second slot in the Final Four. Today’s pairing: a Texas-sized disaster and a Midwestern moonscape. Only one will advance. Dallas Dallas’s Fair Park is a 275-acre complex near downtown that is home to the state […]
Did Portland’s New Parking Mandates Force Housing Costs Up?
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There was a window a few years ago when Portland allowed developers to construct large apartment buildings without any parking. But even in Portland there’s pressure to subsidize cars at the expense of housing affordability. In 2013, city leaders decided to require at least one space per five units in buildings with 30 or more apartments. Larger buildings […]
Parking Madness Elite Eight: Rutland vs. Niagara Falls
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Every year Streetsblog asks readers to judge the Parking Madness competition — your votes winnow down 16 parking scars in a single-elimination tournament until we crown the “Golden Crater.” Yesterday, Federal Way, Washington, clinched the first Final Four spot. The second will go to either Rutland, Vermont, or Niagara Falls, New York. Rutland Submitter Andrew Fusco says the struggling-but-lovable town of Rutland, […]
Anthony Foxx Wants to Repair the Damage Done By Urban Highways
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Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx is offering a surprisingly honest appraisal of America’s history of road construction this week, with a high-profile speaking tour that focuses on the damage that highways caused in black urban neighborhoods. Growing up in Charlotte, Foxx’s own street was walled in by highways, he recalled in a speech today at the Center for American Progress. Building big, grade-separated roads through […]