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
Leroy Comrie Weighs in on New Jamaica Bus Lanes
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With thousands of bus riders per hour traveling each direction on Archer Avenue, DOT’s proposed bus improvements for Downtown Jamaica are some of the most important street redesigns on the table right now. But previous bus improvements in this part of Queens have been politically vulnerable — a proposed Select Bus Service route along Merrick […]
Judge Sides With City Over NBBL in Preliminary Procedural Question
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In the opening round of the court case against the Prospect Park West bike lane, the city says that the judge sided with its lawyers on the procedural question at stake in today’s hearing. Said a spokesperson for the city’s Law Department, which is representing the defense in the case: Today’s court appearance mainly covered […]
No Verdict on PPW Lawsuit Today
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The opponents of the Prospect Park West bike lane had their first day in court today. Attorneys for both sides argued privately at the bench of Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Bert Bunyan for around five minutes. Afterwards, each side would only say that they would be back in court on June 22. We’re following up with […]
UWS Shows Support for Car-Free Park, But Broader Campaign Is Lacking
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Last night’s unanimous votes in support of a summer-long car-free Central Park by Manhattan Community Board 7’s parks and transportation committees moved the ball forward for advocates of car-free parks. With no movement at the mayoral level on the issue, any successful push will have to come from the bottom up. Similar statements of community […]
Submit Your Pics of the Best and Worst of NYC’s Transit System
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We often describe the importance of transit in numbers, like the fact that 54 percent of New York City households don’t even own a car. But even the most convincing stats can get a little dry. To help capture what the subways and buses mean to a city where the transit system is the closest […]
DOT’s Jamaica Plan: Unclog Queens Transit Hub With 1.4 Miles of Bus Lanes
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We missed these when they were first released in late March, but DOT has come out with its preliminary recommendations for improving bus service in downtown Jamaica [PDF]. The plan calls for adding roughly a mile and a half of new bus lanes and beefing up an equal amount of existing lanes. It would also […]
Hunter Planners: Expand the Bike Program, Beat the Bikelash
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DOT needs to accelerate the build-out of the city’s bike network in working-class neighborhoods outside the center city, say graduate students in the Hunter College urban planning department. They argue that expanding the geographic focus of the bike program would not only improve access to safe cycling for underserved neighborhoods, it might just help overcome […]
Do 12 American Regions Have Better Transit Access Than NYC? Doubtful.
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Does the New York City region really rank only 13th in the nation in providing transit access to jobs? Has it truly been bested by a top five of Honolulu, San Jose, Salt Lake City, Tucson and Fresno? That’s what a new report from the Brookings Institution claims, but don’t worry New Yorkers, there are […]
Vacca Watch: Pre-Bike Hearing Chatter Between Transpo Chair Staffer, NBBL
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City Council Transportation Committee chair James Vacca has made headlines for his inquisitorial hearings on DOT’s bike and plaza programs. And it looks like his office was batting around ideas with street safety opponents before the first of those hearings last December. Email correspondence obtained by Streetsblog from Marty Markowitz’s office indicates that a Vacca […]
NYC’s First 20 MPH “Slow Zone” Coming to Claremont Section of the Bronx
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The speed limit will be reduced from 30 miles per hour to 20 miles per hour in the Claremont neighborhood of the Bronx, Mayor Bloomberg and DOT Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan announced today, fulfilling a promise laid out last year in the city’s pedestrian safety action plan to pilot a 20 mph zone in one New […]
Support a Safer Passage Across the Greenpoint Avenue Bridge
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Last July, the DOT announced plans to calm one of the most dangerous intersections in Queens, at the foot of the Greenpoint Avenue Bridge. Greenpoint Avenue is only two lanes wide on either side of the bridge, but as the road crosses Newtown Creek, it widens to four lanes and the bike lane on the […]
DCP Official: Parking Minimums Buy Support for Upzonings
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We reported yesterday that Department of City Planning Sustainability Director Howard Slatkin recently announced that his agency “believe[s] there are opportunities to lower parking requirements” in a ring of neighborhoods around the Manhattan core. This would be an important step forward in overhauling decades-old policies that lead to more traffic and less affordable housing. Importantly, […]