Glenn McAnanama
Lifelong New York City resident, except for a year in Copenhagen during college. Both experiences have taught me a lot about good (and bad) urban design. I grew up in Staten Island and also lived in Astoria Queens for 5 years. Now I live in Manhattan where I founded Upper Green Side (www.uppergreenside.org), a local environmental group on the Upper East & West Sides of Manhattan.
Recent Posts
City Bigs, Local Electeds Back Deal to Bridge East River Greenway Gap
| | 16 Comments
On Sunday, a group of city officials and East Side electeds made their case for a deal to close the gap in the East River Greenway, addressing a full auditorium at the Schottenstein Cultural Center on East 34th Street. The deal has several moving parts, but the major takeaway was that the Bloomberg administration and […]
Electeds Still Need to Hear From Pricing Supporters
| | 8 Comments
After nearly a year of personally advocating for congestion pricing, I shared my fellow Streetsbloggers’ frustration as the current round ended not with a decisive vote, but with the clock running out on a federal funding deadline. As this great New York political battle fades into memory, I hope future historians will not remember this […]
The Case Against Pull-in Angle Parking
| | 23 Comments
"Pull-in angle parking" on 97th Street between Central Park West and Columbus Avenue. The drive to create additional (free) parking for the benefit of New York City’s auto-owning minority takes many shapes and forms. Today, I’d like to take aim at a particular form of curbside parking: "pull-in angle parking." I’ve seen this type of […]
What Makes a Place Walkable?
| | 10 Comments
Bikes at Work has an interesting database that uses census numbers to show how many people walk to their jobs in cities, towns and villages across the US. A quick search for the highest walk-to-work locations for towns with over 1000 people yields the following results: Location POP % Walk to work Naval Academy, Maryland […]
Carbon Tax vs. Cap and Trade
| | 7 Comments
Congressional debate on climate change has revealed division among politicians on how to best regulate carbon emissions. From NPR’s Marketplace, we get a report on the sharp difference between leading Democrats in both houses, Sen. Barbara Boxer (CA) and Rep. John Dingell (MI) Boxer is quoted as preferring cap and trade, which seems to be […]
Central Park 66th Street Transverse Is Unsafe
| | 11 Comments
A Streetsblog reader brings us an update on the case of the cyclist killed last December in the Central Park Transverse, through information obtained via a Freedom of Information Act request. In the documents sent to Streetsblog, it shows that the motor vehicle "struck the bicyclist as both vehicles attempted to merge into the same path […]
Weiner on the Environment: Big Talk, Small Stick
| | 52 Comments
Where’s the beef? Under Rep. Anthony Weiner’s plan, vehicles, like the one above, would not be charged a fee to use New York City’s most heavily congested streets On Monday evening, just hours before the federal government’s announcement that it would give New York City $354.5 million to kick-start Mayor Bloomberg’s congestion pricing plan, Rep. […]
Thank You for the Extra Car-Free Hour, And…
| | 4 Comments
DOT Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan celebrates the extra Car-Free hour in Central Park with members of Upper Green Side and Transportation Alternatives Last week the Dept. of Transportation extended the car-free time on the West Drive of the Central Park loop one extra hour, from 7am to 8am. While this is far short of the goal […]
Lappin Describes Her Position as “Similar to Gov. Spitzer’s”
| | No Comments
A couple of weeks ago I nearly spit out my morning coffee over the front page of Metro NY when I read that my City Council member Jessica Lappin was opposed to Mayor Bloomberg’s congestion pricing plan. Dismissing residential parking permits as "a hunting license" Lappin said she was afraid of a "crush of cars" […]
86th Street: The Congestion Pricing Battle Line
| | 10 Comments
The 86th Street border of Mayor Bloomberg’s proposed congestion pricing zone is emerging as the northern front of an increasingly intense political battle. Last week, Upper East Side City Council Member Jessica Lappin worried that congestion pricing would bring a "crush of cars circling around 86th Street looking for parking spots." Over on the West […]
Are “Directional Miles of Bike Lanes” a Good Metric?
| | 32 Comments
Monday night I attended Manhattan Community Board 8’s pedestrian and cycling safety forum. There was an All-Star cast of panelists. Former DOT Commissioner Sam Schwartz, Manhattan DOT Commissioner Margaret Forgione and Director of Street Management and Safety Ryan Russo, Matthew Bauer of the Madison Ave BID, Traffic Enforcement Agents as well as other transportation experts. There were the usual complaints […]
Roosevelt Island Residents Want Pedestrian Access to QBB
| | 4 Comments
Roosevelt Island’s old connection to the Queensboro Bridge — elevator building, 1916-1956 On Wednesday, Community Board 8 in Manhattan unanimously approved a proposal for conducting a feasibility study to physically connect Roosevelt Island to the Queensboro Bridge pedestrian and bike path. The proposal was put forth by Ellen Polivy of the Roosevelt Island Residents Association (RIRA) and the […]