Noah Kazis
Noah joined Streetsblog as a New York City reporter at the start of 2010. When he was a kid, he collected subway paraphernalia in a Vignelli-map shoebox.
Before coming to Streetsblog, he blogged at TheCityFix DC and worked as a field organizer for the Obama campaign in Toledo, Ohio. Noah graduated from Yale University, where he wrote his senior thesis on the class politics of transportation reform in New York City. He lives in Morningside Heights.
Recent Posts
Budget Deal Prevents MTA Collapse, But Keeps Fuse Lit on Debt Bomb
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The MTA doesn’t face an immediate crisis thanks to the budget deal struck by Albany’s leadership yesterday. But with the deal continuing to rely on debt to pay for the next three years of repairs and expansions, it doesn’t put the region’s transit system on firm financial footing either. Earlier this month, Senate Republicans issued a […]
With a Boost From Bike-Share, Cycling Surges on Mexico City’s Mean Streets
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This is the third in a series of reports about sustainable transportation policies in Mexico City. Last week, Streetsblog participated in a tour of the city led by the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy and funded by the Rockefeller Foundation. Previous installments covered pedestrian improvements and the city’s new bus rapid transit system. Mexico City never […]
Report Details How Onerous NYC’s Regressive Parking Minimums Really Are
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New research from New York University’s Furman Center [PDF] provides added evidence that New York’s parking minimums are forcing developers to provide unwanted automobile infrastructure, leading to less development, higher housing costs and more traffic. The new study expands on previous research from the Furman Center, extending the analysis from Queens to the other four […]
BRT Imposes Order on Mexico City Streets, Speeding and Greening Commutes
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This is the second in a series of reports about sustainable transportation policies in Mexico City. Last week, Streetsblog participated in a tour of the city led by the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy and funded by the Rockefeller Foundation. A previous installment covered pedestrian improvements in the city and a third will discuss […]
East Harlem CB Approves Protected Bike Lanes for First and Second Avenues
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East Harlem’s Community Board 11 last night approved, again, plans to build protected bike lanes and pedestrian refuge islands on First and Second Avenues. The vote comes after a lengthy public debate in which the community fought for the lanes and the board approved them, only to take back its support after local businesses protested. […]
Two-Way Bike Lane Will Cross Central Park Along 72nd Street
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This summer, cyclists will have a second path to safely cross Central Park. At a meeting of CB 7’s Parks Committee last night, Central Park Conservancy President Doug Blonsky announced that the Department of Transportation will paint a new two-way bike lane along 72nd Street all the way between Central Park West and Fifth Avenue, […]
How Mexico City Fought and Cajoled to Reclaim Streets for Pedestrians
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This is the first in a series of reports about sustainable transportation policies in Mexico City. Last week, Streetsblog participated in a tour of the city led by the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy and funded by the Rockefeller Foundation. Upcoming installments will cover the city’s transit expansions, particularly its new bus rapid transit […]
East Harlem Community Board to Take Final Bike Lane Vote Tomorrow
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After a long and circuitous path, the fate of protected bike lanes on East Harlem’s First and Second Avenues may be decided in a community board vote Tuesday night. First the city promised protected lanes and pedestrian refuge islands to the neighborhood along with Select Bus Service. Then it walked back that commitment, limiting new bicycle […]
Challenger Attacks Marty Golden and Senate GOP for Anti-Transit Stance
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Andrew Cuomo may have handed continued control of the State Senate to the Republican Party by allowing them to draw their own districts, but 2012 is still an election year. With the Senate leadership’s latest attack on transit funding, they aren’t making it any easier for their New York City candidates to win. In passing a […]
Quinn Deal Reduces Parking — and Housing — at St. Vincent’s Site
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Responding to requests from the community board and advocacy groups, City Council Speaker Christine Quinn did what neither the City Planning Commission nor Borough President Scott Stringer would: reduce the excessive number of parking spaces planned for the Rudin family’s redevelopment of the St. Vincent’s Hospital site. Originally, Rudin proposed building 152 spaces for 450 luxury […]
Orange County, New Rochelle, Wesley Hills Join Push for TZB Transit
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The calls for rapid transit on the Tappan Zee Bridge are coming from more places across the Hudson Valley. This week Orange County Executive Edward Diana joined his colleagues in Westchester and Rockland Counties to demand that bus rapid transit be built on the new Tappan Zee span. Local governments on both sides of the […]
Reforms to Parking Minimums on the Table for Many NYC Neighborhoods
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Last month, the New York Times gave some much-deserved attention to the parking reforms working their way through the Department of City Planning. In a pair of articles, real estate reporter Marc Santora revealed how efforts to reform the city’s outdated parking minimums, which promote driving and make housing less affordable, are progressing. (Santora unfortunately made […]