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
Which Bike Amenities Do You Value Most? Take the Survey
| | 2 Comments
If you ride a bike in New York and have five minutes to spare, one Streetsblog reader is looking to hear from you. Brendan Shera, a master’s student in Columbia’s urban planning program, is writing his thesis about what kinds of infrastructure NYC cyclists prefer to use. Is secure parking more important to you than […]
Sadik-Khan: NYC Will Try Out Bolder Bus Improvements, But Not Now
| | 12 Comments
With the redesign of First and Second Avenues moving through the public review process, hundreds of regional transportation experts gathered at an NYU conference today to discuss the future of bus rapid transit in the New York region. Representatives from NYCDOT, the MTA, and the federal government all envisioned BRT as part of New York’s […]
Good Transit Saves American Households $1,575 Per Year
| | 3 Comments
To be really thrifty, invest in transit, new research shows. Image: Marshall Astor via Flickr. High quality transit in large American cities is saving households an average of $1,575 per year, according to new research by Victoria Transport Policy Institute director Todd Litman [PDF]. That’s not even counting indirect benefits like reducing congestion or improving […]
Fun Facts About the Sad State of Parking Policy
| | 13 Comments
Surface parking stretches halfway to the horizon in the heart of downtown Wichita, Kansas. Image: Wichita Walkshop via Flickr. If you haven’t checked out the ITDP parking report we covered yesterday, it’s a highly readable piece of research, walking you through parking policy’s checkered past and potentially brighter future. In addition to describing six cases […]
The Next New York: How NYC Can Grow as a Walkable City
| | 12 Comments
In the last eight years, Amanda Burden's Department of City Planning has rezoned 20 percent of New York along relatively transit-oriented lines, while simultaneously promoting quasi-suburban projects at prominent sites and maintaining parking minimums that erode the pedestrian environment. In other words, the planning department is promoting growth in the right places, but enabling the wrong kind of development.
So in the next four years, will New York's planners adopt more sustainable practices or continue the status quo?
Twenty-One NYC Reps Back Brodsky’s Student Fare Falsehood
| | 15 Comments
On Friday we noted that Assembly Member Richard Brodsky’s latest anti-transit argument — that "the actual cost of free and discounted student fares is close to zero" — doesn’t hold water. A letter from Brodsky addressed to MTA CEO Jay Walder calls for reinstating student MetroCards, laying blame for the program’s potential elimination at the […]
Public Advocate de Blasio Open to Bridge Tolls to Fund Transit
| | 4 Comments
Yesterday, Public Advocate Bill de Blasio organized volunteers to campaign for student MetroCards at 20 subway stations across the city. We were encouraged by his decision to focus attention on legislators in Albany, and we had one big question: What funding solutions does the public advocate envision for the recession-battered MTA and the millions of […]
The Next New York: How the Planning Department Sabotages Sustainability
| | 18 Comments
The Argyle, a new arrival on Brooklyn’s Fourth Avenue, is close to transit but cedes the ground floor to parking rather than retail or even a stoop. Parking requirements throughout New York compromise walkable development. Image: Brownstoner. This is the second installment in a three-part series on the reshaping of New York City and its […]
NYPD Admits Error in Pedestrian Death, Says Chases Off-Limits
| | 13 Comments
Karen Schmeer. Image: New York Times The NYPD is no longer denying its involvement — or error — in the January 29 car chase that ended with the death of Karen Schmeer on the Upper West Side. At a meeting of the 24th Precinct’s community council, Deputy Inspector Kathleen O’Reilly laid out the police’s official […]
Shaping the Next New York: The Promise of Bloomberg’s Rezonings
| | 7 Comments
The Department of City Planning has mostly zoned for growth near transit, as in its plan for downtown Jamaica (left). Where the city has encouraged growth far from transit, however, car-oriented developments have followed, like Schaefer Landing in Williamsburg (right). This is the first installment in a three-part series on the reshaping of New York […]
School Bus Kills Four-Year-Old Boy in Borough Park
| | 7 Comments
A school bus on Amrom Altman’s block. Image: Google Street View. A yeshiva bus hit and killed a four-year-old boy in Borough Park this morning, the Times reports. According to witnesses, the child, Amrom Altman, was running after his school bus when he slipped on ice. The driver didn’t see Altman and continued to drive […]
Congestion Pricing Can Help Save Working NYC Families $2,300 Per Year
| | 2 Comments
Without congestion pricing, fare hikes will hit New York’s many transit-using families hard. Image: Ed Yourdon via Flickr. Without bold action from legislators to fund transit, middle-class New York families will have to spend $2,300 more per year to get around the city even as the quality of the service they’re paying for declines, according […]