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
NYC Open Data Law Will Sort Out NYPD’s Jumbled Traffic Crash Data
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When the City Council passed Jessica Lappin’s Saving Lives Through Better Information bill last year, traffic safety and open government advocates cheered. Under the law, the NYPD is required to provide monthly data on both traffic crashes and traffic summonsing, shedding light on the hazards of city streets and what steps police take to protect […]
Can Staten Island’s North Shore Become NYC’s Next Great Neighborhood?
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Staten Island’s North Shore is one of the city’s great sites of opportunity. The neighborhoods along the Kill Van Kull are twice as dense as the rest of Staten Island, but lack any transit option beyond the bus. There are historic town centers at St. George and Port Richmond, but car-centric planning deadens street life. […]
CB 11 Transpo Committee Votes 7-0 for East Harlem Protected Bike Lanes
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Protected bike lanes once again won big support in East Harlem. After Community Board 11 first endorsed protected lanes for First Avenue and Second Avenue by a vote of 47-3, then rescinded that support in the face of business opposition, the board’s transportation committee has put the complete street redesign back on the path to […]
Are Council Members Ready to Pay for Their MTA Wish List?
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The New York City Council doesn’t like the MTA’s budget. And really, who would? Fares and tolls are scheduled to rise in 2013 and again in 2015, bus lines cut in 2010 aren’t scheduled to ever come back, and the MTA is assuming net zero increases for transit worker compensation. It’s a product of worldwide […]
Better Lighting Arrives on 13 Blocks of Hudson River Greenway
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Cyclists riding after dark on the Hudson River Greenway have long complained about the insufficient lighting on two stretches of the heavily-trafficked path. The “Cherry Walk,” between 102nd and 125th Streets, is made truly treacherous by the combination of an unlit pathway and the glare of oncoming highway traffic. Nearly as bad, though, are the […]
After NIMBY Speed Bump, East Harlem Bike Lanes Back Up For Vote
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Tomorrow night, protected bike lanes and pedestrian refuges for First and Second Avenue bike lanes are again on the agenda of East Harlem’s Community Board 11. The board, along with City Council Member Melissa Mark-Viverito and State Senator José Serrano, had called for protected bike lanes in their neighborhood since 2010, and voted 47-3 in favor of […]
Flushing Transpo Project Boosted Safety While Curbing Congestion
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It might not be as bold or attention-grabbing as the overhaul of Times Square and Herald Square, but a set of changes made to New York City’s third-busiest pedestrian intersection is having its own quiet success. In Downtown Flushing, a 2010 project that expanded sidewalks, daylighted dangerous intersections, and introduced numerous turn restrictions is boosting […]
Canadian Web TV Producers School Police on How to Catch Bike Thieves
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Bike theft in New York City is so famously bad that Kryptonite names their top-of-the-line lock after the Big Apple. Because bike theft generally goes unreported, hard data on just how rampant the problem is can be hard to come by; a 1992 Transportation Alternatives study found that, on average, every cyclist in the city […]
Support For Neighborhood Slow Zones Keeps on Growing
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Interest continues to grow in the Department of Transportation’s slow speed zones, which place 20 mph speed limits on residential streets. One month after the application deadline for the program, community boards across the city continue to pass resolutions in support of slow zones. In February, Streetsblog wrote about applications or expressions of interest from Mt. […]
Thruway Authority’s Tappan Zee “Fact-Check” Sets Cuomo’s Pants on Fire
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Looks like the Cuomo administration is starting to feel the heat for taking transit out of plans for the new Tappan Zee Bridge. A press release yesterday from the Thruway Authority shows the agency looking a bit defensive about its transit-free bridge, which has been criticized by an ever-growing number of Hudson Valley residents, municipalities […]
Hawaiians Know: Friends Don’t Let Friends Listen To Randal O’Toole
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There are few things we enjoy more than a good smack-down of the anti-transit faux libertarian Randal O’Toole, except perhaps a good show of people power in support of sustainable transportation. Luckily, a new post from Network blog Say Yes to the Honolulu Rail System has both: The Hawaii News Now report on last night’s […]
Yonkers, Greenburgh, Dobbs Ferry Vote Unanimously For Tappan Zee Transit
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Last night, hundreds of Rockland County residents gathered at the Palisades Mall to tell the Cuomo administration that a transit-free replacement Tappan Zee Bridge isn’t acceptable. In Westchester, too, support for transit across the bridge is running high. Three more local governments have passed unanimous resolutions supporting Tappan Zee transit: the city of Yonkers, the […]