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
Prospect Park Users: Thanks for the Road Diet, Now Let’s Make It Car-Free
| | 16 Comments
Brooklynites like the idea of reducing the number of motor vehicle lanes cutting through Prospect Park from two to one. They’d like zero even better. A crowd of roughly 150 gathered in the Prospect Park Picnic House last night to hear a proposal from the Prospect Park Alliance’s road sharing task force. As reported yesterday, the […]
Unhealthy “Foods”: Huge Whole Foods Parking Lot Will Discourage Walking
| | 19 Comments
The proposed Gowanus Whole Foods is moving forward after eight years of planning and debate, following a vote by the NYC Board of Standards and Appeals today. With it will come a 248-space surface parking lot: a semi-suburban design plunked down amidst some of Brooklyn’s most walkable neighborhoods. According to new research by University of […]
NYC Parking Requirements Make More Traffic, New Research Confirms
| | 2 Comments
Evidence continues to mount that New York City’s mandatory parking minimums encourage people to drive. New research from University of Pennsylvania planning professor Rachel Weinberger, set to be published in an upcoming issue of the journal Transport Policy, shows once again that providing guaranteed off-street parking spaces makes New Yorkers more likely to drive to […]
There’s Nothing Free About a Freeway Extension
| | No Comments
There’s a double standard in American transportation. Propose a transit project, or even some extremely cheap bicycle or pedestrian improvements, and you’ll be met with a chorus of skepticism from politicians or local media about the high cost. Propose a highway project and few will even bat an eye at the price tag. Can you name […]
Cincinnati Neighborhood Group: Bring on the Market-Rate Parking
| | No Comments
Across the country, everyone’s looking to San Francisco when it comes to parking policy. Big cities like Los Angeles and New York City are moving toward their own versions of the pioneering SF Park system, which sets meter rates based on the actual demand for parking spaces. It’s not just big city governments that see […]
Don’t Let Cuomo Greenwash His Cars-Only Tappan Zee Bridge
| | 8 Comments
Governor Andrew Cuomo may have axed plans ten years in the making to build transit across the Tappan Zee Bridge, but hey, at least he promised to consider turning the old structure into a park, right? During a cabinet meeting Wednesday, Cuomo promised to study turning the current Tappan Zee Bridge into a walkway across […]
DOT Proposes Five Ped Refuges For Hillside Avenue in Queens
| | 1 Comment
One of the most dangerous streets in Queens is slated for a safety upgrade, with the Department of Transportation proposing five new pedestrian refuge islands along Hillside Avenue [PDF]. The intervention is a relatively modest one, however, with no narrowing of the roadway and fewer pedestrian refuges than a previous proposal for the corridor. Hillside […]
Eyes On The Street: Cyclists Ticketing Cyclists
| | 32 Comments
Via Bowery Boogie, two photos of bike-riding NYPD officers writing up two other cyclists for running red lights at the corner of Bowery and Delancey. The Good: NYPD officers on bikes are not a sight you see every day. Bicycles can help police get around better in heavily congested areas and break down officers’ windshield […]
More Questions Than Answers in Cuomo Admin’s Tappan Zee Thinking
| | 7 Comments
A discussion of the plans for the new Tappan Zee Bridge by the state cabinet today makes clear one thing — that the Cuomo administration continues to race to construction as fast as possible — while leaving other facets more confused and contradictory than ever. The cost of the bridge, for example, remains unknowable. “The […]
Nashville Scrapped Parking Minimums Downtown. Why Can’t Brooklyn?
| | 3 Comments
Want to understand just how twisted the politics of parking are in New York City? Take a look at Nashville, Tennessee. Two years ago, Nashville scrapped parking minimums completely for its downtown, a fact called to our attention by blogger Charlie Gardner. The elimination of parking mandates in the area seems to have proceeded without […]
Cuomo Admin Silent as Media Questions Tappan Zee Fuzzy Math
| | 6 Comments
As advocates for transit on the Tappan Zee Bridge take to the airwaves, the media are starting to ask questions about the Cuomo administration’s ever-shifting and unexplained cost estimates for the project. Over the weekend, Crain’s called attention to the state’s hard-to-believe estimate of the cost of running a new bus rapid transit system across […]
In Speech, Vacca Promises Support for Select Bus Service, Pedestrian Safety
| | 35 Comments
In a speech this morning at NYU’s Rudin Center for Transportation, City Council Transportation Committee Chair James Vacca laid out his agenda for the coming year. His remarks focused on efforts to support Select Bus Service outside the Manhattan core and to improve pedestrian safety. Also on Vacca’s list were curbing placard abuse and enforcing […]