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
New Scorecard From DOT: Driving in Decline, Safety Improvements Work
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In 2008, transit ridership continued to increase while auto traffic declined. Image: NYCDOT. NYCDOT released the second Sustainable Streets Index this week, its annual scorecard on green transportation and street safety. This year’s edition has a few new features, including case studies of 12 projects across the city and some nifty GPS data from taxis. […]
Better Bus Service in Jeopardy Thanks to Shelly Silver and Assembly Dems
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Chances to improve service on New York City’s dedicated bus lanes appeared to narrow yesterday, when Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and his Democratic conference rejected bus lane enforcement cameras in the chamber’s draft budget. Camera enforcement is one of the linchpins in the city’s strategy to put the "rapid" in Bus Rapid Transit. Without it, […]
State Senate Undermines Better Enforcement for New Bus Lanes
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The New York State Senate has proposed diluting the bus lane enforcement provisions in the governor’s draft budget, a maneuver that threatens the effectiveness of new corridors in the city’s fledgling rapid bus network. Bus lanes planned for the B44 corridor in Brooklyn would miss out on camera enforcement under the Senate’s budget resolution. Image: […]
LES Bike-Ped Improvements Sail Through Manhattan CB 3
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New bike lanes leading to and from the Williamsburg Bridge encountered almost no opposition from Manhattan Community Board 3. Two weeks after NYCDOT revealed a package of pedestrian and cyclist improvements for the Lower East Side, the full membership of Community Board 3 voted overwhelmingly to approve the plans. There was only one "no" vote […]
Smart Parking Policy Makes a Difference, Even in Livable Streets Utopias
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The evidence keeps mounting that smart parking policy is an essential tool in the fight to curb traffic. A new study of two German neighborhoods indicates that managing the supply of parking can make streets more livable, even in places that already have great infrastructure for transit, walking, and biking. Eliminating mandatory parking minimums, the […]
How London Is Saving Lives With 20 MPH Zones
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One of London’s 20 mph zones, with physical traffic calming measures and the speed limit prominently displayed. Image: ITDP-Europe via Flickr. When Mayor Bloomberg announced that the new pedestrian spaces in Midtown are here to stay, he made special note of the safety improvements on Broadway, which he called "reason enough to make this permanent." […]
Queens Community Board 7 Meeting on Flushing Commons Development
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Queens Community Board 7 will meet to discuss, among other things, the development of the Flushing Commons project in Downtown Flushing. The already parking-filled project is expected to be pressured to add even more spaces.
Albany’s Selective Theft of Transit Funding: Only NYC Pays
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Earlier this month we described how Albany made off with more than 100 million dollars in dedicated transit taxes that should have gone to the MTA, using revenues collected from the New York City region to plug the statewide deficit. So we wondered, what’s happening to the state’s other transit authorities? It turns out that […]
Upper East Side Workshop Kicks Off New Street Safety Campaign
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"You can’t control what you can’t measure," the saying goes. So to get a better grip on street safety on Manhattan’s East Side, Transportation Alternatives started by collecting better data about local traffic collisions and injuries. Last night, a group of Upper East Siders used that information to begin imagining what a safer neighborhood might […]
At Flushing Commons, NYCEDC’s Fuzzy Math Superceded PlaNYC Goals
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Yesterday, Streetsblog looked at Flushing Commons, a mixed-use development in the heart of transit-rich downtown Flushing, where the New York City Economic Development Corporation has mandated suburban levels of parking. We asked the EDC why they required nearly 1,600 spaces in the development, and now we have an answer. It’s a revealing look at how […]
Parking Overkill in Flushing: NYCEDC Made It Happen
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It’s not every day that a New York City real estate executive name-checks Donald Shoup, but one developer admiringly referred to the dean of progressive parking policy while explaining his project to Streetsblog. If not for the New York City Economic Development Corporation and mis-directed political pressures, says TDC Development President Michael Meyer, the huge mixed-use […]
Bill Targeting Drivers With Suspended Licenses Gains Steam
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Last January, Alexander Aponte struck and killed nine-year-old Ibrihim Ahmed in Ozone Park while driving with a suspended license. He was charged with a misdemeanor — driving without a license — that carried a maximum penalty of $500 and/or 30 days in prison. The Queens DA’s office said prosecutors couldn’t levy more serious charges unless […]