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
Fitch Downgrades MTA Debt — Interest Payments May Eat More of Your Fare
| | 1 Comment
Yesterday, we reported on the MTA’s ever-mounting debt load. By 2014, a new analysis from the Regional Plan Association found, debt service could be taking up a full 23 percent of the agency’s operating budget. Already, that debt is starting to catch up with transit riders. As first reported by Transportation Nation’s Andrea Bernstein, Fitch, […]
First Avenue Bike Lane Designs Prove, Again, There’s No War On Cars
| | 7 Comments
Here’s a question for the tabloids: if Janette Sadik-Khan is really a “psycho bike lady,” why isn’t there a protected bike lane on First Avenue in midtown Manhattan? To ask the question is to answer it. Under Sadik-Khan, the Department of Transportation has been implementing more innovative and progressive policy than under previous administrations, but […]
CB 8 Committee May Not Love Cyclists, But Still Votes for Safer First Avenue
| | 18 Comments
On the Upper East Side, community board members are willing to vote for safer streets, so long as they can vent about cyclists beforehand. After a discussion that emphasized bad bike behavior, the transportation committee of Community Board 8 voted 9-2, with one abstention, to support the construction of a protected bike lane on First […]
Where Does Your Fare Go? Increasingly, To Pay Off MTA Debt
| | 15 Comments
In 2003, labor costs dominated the MTA’s budget sheets. Just under 73 percent of the transit agency’s operating budget, which pays for day-to-day spending but not system expansions or major repairs, went to workers, according to a new analysis by the Regional Plan Association and the Empire State Transportation Alliance. By 2014, however, labor’s share […]
CB 11 Committee, Joined By Mark-Viverito, Votes For East Harlem Bike Lanes
| | 7 Comments
The transportation committee of Manhattan Community Board 11 wants to see protected bike lanes on First and Second Avenues, which the city promised for East Harlem last year and then delayed. Joined by City Council Member Melissa Mark-Viverito, who spoke strongly in favor of the project, the committee endorsed plans to build protected lanes between […]
Has DOT Decided Against Designing a Safer Delancey Street? [Updated]
| | 32 Comments
Three concrete walls will soon surround the Manhattan entrance to the Williamsburg Bridge, as reported in Gothamist and the Villager. The construction, already underway and due to be completed at the beginning of next year, is part of a Department of Transportation effort to force cyclists coming down the ramp from the bridge to slow […]
Map It: How Bikes Can Fill Transit Gaps
| | 12 Comments
It’s no surprise that Williamsburg and Greenpoint proved to be an early epicenter of the recent bike boom. Few neighborhoods so physically close to the Manhattan core had such limited transit access, and bikes were a common-sense way to fill that gap. By the same logic, argues Charley Ferrari, the next great bike neighborhoods might […]
Post-Irene Open Thread 2: A Teachable Transportation Moment
| | 10 Comments
Sometimes the best way to understand the ordinary is to examine the extraordinary. Watching Hurricane Irene wreak havoc on the entire transportation system from North Carolina to the Canadian border brought certain patterns and questions into high relief. Here’s some of what we thought about while the power was down. Most striking to me was […]
Victory for Safe Streets: Judge Rejects Prospect Park West Bike Lane Lawsuit
| | 26 Comments
Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Bert Bunyan dismissed the lawsuit seeking to reverse the redesign of Prospect Park West yesterday, putting an end to a protracted, ugly chapter in the annals of NYC street safety improvements. The lawsuit, brought this March by a group of politically-connected opponents who failed to participate in the years of public […]
Cuomo Signs Complete Streets Bill, To Take Effect In February
| | 2 Comments
As he announced yesterday, Governor Andrew Cuomo signed the complete streets bill into law this afternoon. The law will require all major transportation projects — either those undertaken by the state DOT or funded and overseen by them — to consider all users, whether they are driving, cycling or walking. Depending on the context, that […]
Pay-By-Phone Coming To New York — Will Other Parking Innovations Follow?
| | 8 Comments
New York City drivers will soon be able to pay the parking meter using their cell phones, a technological advance common in European cities and spreading quickly across the United States. A year-long, 300-space pilot will roll out this spring with the possibility of a more widespread implementation after that. It remains to be seen, […]
Cuomo Will Sign Complete Streets Bill Into Law
| | 1 Comment
Governor Andrew Cuomo will sign complete streets legislation into law, his office announced in a press release today. Once signed, the law will require all major transportation projects in the state to consider all users, including pedestrians, cyclists and motorists. “New York’s roadways should safely accommodate all pedestrians, motorists and cyclists, and this legislation will […]