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
34th Street Has Changed Before, And It Can Change Again
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In the media hyperventilating over plans for 34th Street that led up to last night’s cancellation of the pedestrian plaza between Fifth and Sixth Avenues, the biggest constant was the fear of change. An editorial in the Observer on Tuesday summed up the strange preference for the status quo: “From river to river, 34th Street […]
EPA: Energy Efficiency Is About Location, Location, Location
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Where we live has an enormous impact on energy use, according to new research commissioned by the EPA. The report, “Location Efficiency and Housing Type — Boiling It Down to BTUs” finds that Americans use far less energy if they live in an apartment building in a transit-oriented neighborhood than if they live in a […]
Budget Woes Force MTA To Cut More Than Half of All LI Bus Lines
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Nassau County’s unwillingness to pay for its own buses is ending in disaster for Long Island Bus riders. The MTA has announced that it plans to cut 25 of the 48 LI Bus lines and axe weekend service on two more. “It’s absolutely devastating,” said the Tri-State Transportation Campaign’s Ryan Lynch. He noted that as […]
Despite NY Post Report to Contrary, Stringer Supports BRT for 34th Street
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The Post’s unhinged crusade against the 34th Street Transitway appears to be bleeding over from the editorial page into news content. The paper ran a story yesterday strongly implying that Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer opposes plans for separated bus lanes along 34th Street (headline: “Beep blasts 34th St. plan”), while in reality, Stringer seems […]
Think New York Needs Complete Streets? Take the PBS Poll
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Complete streets legislation remains a top priority for street safety advocates in Albany, and PBS ran a nice feature last week on the issue. It starts at the 4:45 minute mark in this clip. The program, New York NOW, has also made complete streets the subject of their weekly poll, and the two choices lay […]
Albany Lacks Leadership on Transit as Time Runs Out on MTA Capital Funding
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The MTA is still staring down a $10 billion hole in its capital plan, and the consequences of that deficit continue to roll closer. Unless money is found by the end of the year, transit expansions like the Second Avenue Subway will slow down and important maintenance will be left undone. But despite the approaching […]
There Is No War On Cars
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“The city’s war on automobiles has just gone aerial,” screamed the New York Post in a recent story about speed cameras. A Daily News op-ed in support of safety improvements proclaimed “the battle against cars has saved lives.” The Times matter-of-factly declared last month that “New York City has gone out of its way in […]
Construction Begins on Permanent Pike Street Redesign
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When DOT installed four pedestrian plazas and a protected bike lane along the median of Pike and Allen Streets in 2009, the results were impressive. Traffic injuries dropped 40 percent at the pedestrian malls; at the intersection of Allen and Delancey, injuries dropped 57 percent. As impressive as those results are, the Pike and Allen […]
NYC Asks Banks For Ideas on Parking Privatization
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New York City is moving forward with possible plans to privatize its on-street parking to some degree. An RFP released last week by the city’s Economic Development Corporation asks investment banks to submit their best ideas for privatizing city assets. Parking tops the list of assets the city is interested in contracting with the private […]
In Anti-Bike Lane Case, Gibson Dunn Strays From Pro Bono Standards
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Jim Walden is a partner at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, the kind of white shoe firm where lawyers represent major corporations at rates of nearly a thousand dollars per hour. His name has been popping up on Streetsblog recently because he represents a politically-connected group attempting to undo the redesign of Prospect Park West. According […]
Parking Requirements Force Affordable Housing Project to Shrink
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Parking minimums continue to stymie the creation of affordable housing in New York City, according to an architect who frequently designs those projects. When a rezoning suddenly put parking minimums in effect for an affordable housing project in the Bronx, Richard Ferrara of DeLaCour & Ferrara Architects was forced to cut apartments out of the building. […]
What Does the Future Hold for New York’s Transit Infrastructure?
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Last night, the Museum of the City of New York hosted a panel discussion about the future of large-scale transportation projects in the region. Hosted by New York Times reporter Michael Grynbaum, the panel — the RPA’s Jeff Zupan, MTA Capital Construction’s Michael Horodniceanu, the General Contractors Association’s Denise Richardson, and the Pratt Center’s Joan […]