Jason Varone
Jason Varone battles the streets everyday during a 9 mile commute on his bicycle from downtown Brooklyn to the Upper East Side. In addition to his efforts on Streetsblog, he is an artist making work related to the environment and technology. Examples of his work can be found at www.varonearts.org.
Recent Posts
Grand Army Plaza, Reinvented
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Last Saturday, the opening of the Design Trust for Public Space’s "Reinventing Grand Army Plaza" exhibit quickly transformed the plaza, normally devoid of any street life, into a vibrant public space. Visitors were welcomed with live music, a dance performance, food and exhibition tours. This photo set on Flickr has over 400 shots from Saturday’s […]
“My Next Vehicle Will Be a Bicycle”
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Like media outlets everywhere, CNNMoney.com is reporting with greater frequency on rising fuel prices, with headlines like "Six fixes for pricey gasoline" and "Bad news for Detroit: Miles per gallon." In a recent online poll, the financial website asked a question that is surely on the minds of many Americans: "The next vehicle I buy […]
Cartoon Tuesday: No Rebate Required
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While car makers resort to their own gas gimmicks to move outdated and inefficient stock, more and more bikes are rolling out of cycle shops from Bismarck to the Bay Area. Even those in the auto business are making the switch: Mark Krenz, 48, is giving it a try. The Bismarck auto-parts store manager recently […]
Cartoon Tuesday: Bike to Work Day
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Bike to Work Day is Friday, May 16. Check Transportation Alternatives’ Bike Month site for events.
Cartoon Tuesday (Wednesday Edition): This American Lifestyle
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Related: "Crisis" Mode AAA Urges Panicked Drivers to Take Transit Americans Turn to Prayer at the Pump Chuck Schumer and Hillary Clinton: Where Is the Leadership?
Eyes on the Street: Gansevoort Plaza Open for Business (Updated)
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The view of Gansevoort Plaza looking west. Less than a month ago, the Meatpacking District’s Gansevoort Plaza was a chaotic free-for-all for vehicles. Today it sports a large pedestrian space lined with planters and bollards. The Open Planning Project’s Lily Bernheimer snapped these photos showing the new seating and street furniture in action, two weeks […]
Jessica Lappin: Congestion Pricing Advocate
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This recent constituent e-mail shows that Council Member Jessica Lappin’s lukewarm support for congestion pricing seems to have turned into full-fledged support now that the proposal has no chance of being implemented (taking a page out of Assemblywoman Joan Millman‘s book). In Lappin’s defense, she did vote for pricing when it came before the council. […]
Cartoon Tuesday: Pricing Post-Mortem Edition
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Also particularly germane today is this CARtoon by Andy Singer, the first of what we plan to make a regular series on Streetsblog. Singer is a Minnesota-based cartoonist known in the livable streets universe for skewering car culture in strips like this one.
Plan B: Reallocating Street Space To Buses, Bikes & Peds
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In a piece from the March issue of Outside Magazine that seems especially relevant today, Tim Sohn writes about public space reform in New York City. His article is accompanied by an illustration of what the future of our city could look like: complete streets with dedicated bus and bike lanes, traffic calming gardens, and […]
Share Your Experience as a New York Bicycle Commuter
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Attention New Yorkers who bike to work: Mathew Ides, a masters student at Hunter College Department of Urban Affairs & Planning, is surveying bike commuters in the city to see how they view the built environment. You can take the survey here. Ides has also set up a website, Hubs and Spokes, to provide more […]
2008: Year of the Bicycle?
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Ahead of this week’s National Bike Summit in Washington, DC, syndicated columnist Neal Peirce wonders if 2008 will be "bicycling’s best year since the start of the auto age." He writes about developments promoting the bicycle as a legitimate form of transportation around the world, many of which have been featured right here on Streetsblog: […]
We Are Breathing Oil in Our Big Cities
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In three different studies presented at the American Association for the Advancement of Science‘s annual meeting in Boston last weekend, researchers "provided mounting evidence that air pollution can both increase the risk of cardiovascular disease in the long-term and induce heart attacks within hours of traffic exposure." While the studies have yet to be released […]