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
Pedestrian Refuges Provide Simple Safety Fix for Roosevelt Island Bridge
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At the foot of the Roosevelt Island Bridge, DOT is showing off how a few simple improvements can turn a dangerous intersection into a safer one. It’s not a flashy redesign — just a pair of pedestrian refuges and improved crosswalks — but it’s a good example of the street safety improvements that are becoming […]
GOP Budget Would Slash Transpo Spending, Entrench Oil Dependence
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House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan's plan would slash transportation spending and prioritize highways. Photo: Christian Science Monitor. With the release of House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan’s budget proposal yesterday, right wing calls for massive cuts to transportation spending are now enshrined in the GOP leadership’s fiscal plan. Ryan singled out transportation as an […]
New York’s Car Ownership Rate Is on The Rise
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Car-free households broken down by Assembly district. Red areas indicate where car ownership has gone up, blue areas where it has decreased. Click on each district for more information. Fewer New Yorkers are driving to work than they did a decade ago, according to Census data Streetsblog reported on last December. But that same data […]
JSK: Plaza Program Will Expand; Gridlock Sam: Backlash Nothing New
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Last night’s Municipal Arts Society panel, “Shared Streets: Making It Work,” mainly covered familiar ground for those who have been following the city’s efforts to repurpose its streets over the last four years. Participants touted the improved bus speeds along Select Bus Service routes, the safety gains where protected bike lanes have been installed, and […]
Pedestrian Seriously Injured Crossing Brooklyn’s Fourth Avenue
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A driver struck and injured a pedestrian crossing Brooklyn’s Fourth Avenue near President Street yesterday evening around 6:35 p.m., according to the FDNY. The pedestrian was crossing midblock, according to Transportation Alternatives Executive Director Paul Steely White, who was at the scene a few minutes after the crash. The pedestrian tripped and fell into the […]
With No Separated Busway on 34th Street, What’s Next for BRT in NYC?
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The walkback of the city’s plans for 34th Street from a physically separated transitway to a package of painted lanes and bus bulbs was unquestionably a defeat for bus riders on the extremely congested street. While features like off-board fare payment, scheduled to go into effect this summer, will provide a speed boost to buses, […]
New Traffic Monitoring Toolkit Can Get You Started on Street Safety Activism
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Just about every New Yorker knows off the top of their head exactly what the most dangerous intersections in their neighborhood are (for me, it’s got to be the western end of 125th Street). But what most New Yorkers don’t know is what to do about it. Now, thanks to Transportation Alternatives’ new Neighborhood Traffic […]
Van Driver Kills Carroll Gardens Pedestrian Crossing Columbia Street
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A van driver hit and killed a woman in her 50s as she crossed Columbia Street at around 7:40 this morning, according to an article in the Carroll Gardens Patch. The crash took place near the intersection of Columbia and Summit Street. The driver stayed at the scene, and while police are still investigating the crash, […]
Correction: No Forensic Audit Required By Budget Bill
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On Tuesday, we reported the state budget included a requirement for a forensic audit of the MTA. That information was incorrect. The document we took that information from was the State Senate’s one-house version of the budget bill, not the final version approved by the full legislature. The budget bill that ultimately made its way […]
Jim Brennan, Marty Golden Aim to Slow Transit Raids
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Since 2009, Albany has stolen roughly $260 million dollars from dedicated transit funds in an attempt to plug the state government’s enormous deficits. Those cuts have wreaked havoc upon the MTA’s budget, precipitating major service cuts and fare hikes. Now, however, some legislators are trying to help put an end to those raids. A new […]
Final Budget Deal Does Not Add to Cuomo’s Transit Raid [Updated]
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The final budget agreement reached by Albany leadership will not make additional cuts to transit funding, a state budget division spokesperson confirmed this afternoon. Negotiations with the legislature did not ultimately change the total amount of transit funding from Andrew Cuomo’s executive budget, which raided $100 million from dedicated transit funds. During budget negotiations, it […]
SoHo’s Rejected Pop-Up Cafés Won’t Appear Elsewhere
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Last Thursday evening, Manhattan Community Board 2 voted down five of six approved pop-up cafés in their neighborhood, choosing parking spaces over public seating. In the wake of that defeat, we were hoping that, as with Midwestern governors sending their high speed rail dollars to California, their loss would be someone else’s gain. Would those […]