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
Private Trash Hauler Critically Injures Woman at Essex and Delancey
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A private sanitation truck driver hit a pedestrian at the intersection of Essex and Delancey Streets yesterday afternoon, dragging her under the truck. She was transported to Bellevue Hospital in critical condition with severe trauma to her legs, according to the NYPD. The NYPD press office reported that both the woman and the truck driver […]
Eyes on the Street: Midtown Pop-Up Café an Instant Attraction
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Pop-up indeed! A reader sends along this photo of the new pop-up café on 44th Street, just west of Third Avenue. The local community board just approved the café in March, while one local resident, convinced that Midtown is an “inappropriate location” for more public seating, was still fighting to block it last month. Now […]
DCP Likely to Propose Lower Parking Minimums for NYC’s “Inner Ring”
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In its recent update of PlaNYC, New York’s long-term sustainability plan, the city committed itself to the proposition that “requiring too much parking to be built in a dense city like New York can encourage driving, contribute to congestion, and unnecessarily raise the cost of new development.” That was a major breakthrough given the Department […]
NYPD Bike Blitz Cheat Sheet Tells Cops to Enforce Bogus Traffic Laws
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Sometime between the ticket one cyclist received for turning right on red into Central Park and the ticket another received for riding with a bag slung over her handlebars, it became abundantly clear that NYPD’s “Operation Safe Cycle” is not really about safer cycling. Instead of applying the NYPD’s vaunted data-driven policing techniques to encourage […]
Mayor’s Budget Includes Parking Meter Rate Hike, Red Light Cam Expansion
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Mayor Bloomberg’s budget proposal, which was released today, still includes a plan to increase parking meter rates across the city, a plan which the City Council scuttled once in January. The transportation budget also includes an increase in revenue from an expansion of the city’s red light camera program. The biggest budget fights are sure […]
Behind the Scenes of a Marcia Kramer Hit Piece
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Ever wondered what goes into the making of a Marcia Kramer hit piece, those nearly-perfected hatchet jobs on whatever DOT safety improvement is on her radar that week? We got to watch Kramer in action at Wednesday’s transportation committee meeting as she gathered footage for her most recent attack on the city’s plaza program. We’ve […]
The Untold Story of DOT’s Plaza Program: It’s a Hit
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You wouldn’t know it from opening the newspaper or turning on the television, but yesterday’s City Council hearing on pedestrian plazas actually showed how widespread support for the plazas are. Only two council members appeared to be at all opposed to the plaza program — though of course those two have dominated the headlines — […]
Mugging for TV, James Vacca Turns Transpo Committee Into Kangaroo Court
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When James Vacca called a hearing of the City Council transportation committee to discuss the DOT plaza program yesterday, what was he trying to get out of it? For many neighborhoods, the plaza program offers the best and only chance of expanding their limited supply of public space, and most of the council members who […]
Bending to East Side Traffic, DOT Limits Plan for Faster Buses, Safer Cycling
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Not so long ago, it was common to hear NYCDOT staff say their job was “to keep the traffic moving.” Engineers working from “the motorist’s viewpoint” ran the show, much like they did in the 1950s. Those days are thankfully over. Today’s DOT prioritizes safety and sustainability and has compiled a lengthy track record of […]
DOT’s Annual Scorecard Confirms: Most New Yorkers Don’t Shop and Drive
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NYCDOT’s annual scorecard, the Sustainable Streets Index, adds more information about how New Yorkers get around every year. In addition to regular statistical snapshots of the city’s transportation system, like transit ridership or traffic speeds culled from GPS devices in taxis, this year’s version adds neighborhood travel profiles. Compiled from interviews in eight neighborhoods, these […]
CB 8 Transpo Committee Endorses Washington Avenue Safety Improvements
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DOT’s plans to redesign two Prospect Heights intersections to improve safety earned the endorsement of Brooklyn Community Board 8’s transportation committee last Tuesday. The plan also includes an “optional” painted bike lane along Washington Avenue between Eastern Parkway and Atlantic Avenue [PDF]. The biggest changes are in store for the messy five-spoke intersection of Washington, […]
Count It: First and Second Avenue Redesigns Are a Success
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With results like these, it’s hard to understand why the city isn’t rushing to complete the redesign of First and Second Avenue all the way up to 125th Street. According to DOT’s presentation to its community advisory council Wednesday night, both the bus improvements, which go the length of the corridor, and the protected bike […]