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
Infrastructure Bigs: To Compete, NYC Needs Congestion Pricing, Tolls
| | 12 Comments
Tolls at the Holland Tunnel. Now the Port Authority is looking for the next financing model. Image: Library of Congress. At a panel put on by the New School last week, some of New York’s biggest players in transportation and planning came together to discuss the future of the city’s infrastructure. They all seemed to […]
EDC Chief Seth Pinsky: Minimizing Parking “The Worst Thing We Could Do”
| | 27 Comments
Seth Pinsky, NYCEDC president. Image: NYCEDC. The NYC Economic Development Corporation’s predilection for suburban-style, parking-filled projects earned it last year’s Streetsie for worst city agency. Well, now we’ve got some more insight into what makes EDC tick. After an event at the New School last night, NYCEDC president Seth Pinsky told Streetsblog why his organization’s […]
Sustainable Streets Take a Hit in Bloomberg Budget Plan [Updated]
| | 2 Comments
Mayor Bloomberg released his budget proposal yesterday and, with a $4.93 billion deficit to deal with, there’s not much good news. Scanning the many gap-closing measures proposed for the Department of Transportation [start on page E-57 of this PDF], there are at least two significant developments for livable streets and sustainable transport — one bad […]
PlaNYC Report Takes a Restrained Approach to Promoting Electric Cars
| | 83 Comments
An electric car in London. Image: exfordy via Flickr. Last week, the Mayor’s Office of Long-term Planning and Sustainability released its newest report, "Exploring Electric Vehicle Adoption in New York City" [PDF]. In a breezy 22 pages, it lays out some strategies to maximize electric vehicle purchases by so-called early adopters in the next five […]
Eyes on the Street: Livable Streets a Mile High
| | 8 Comments
A little end-of-day action from the Streetsblog Flickr pool, courtesy of BeyondDC: Here’s Denver’s 16th Street Shuttle, also called the MallRide. Check out those three low-floor doors for easy-on, easy-off boarding and alighting. The MallRide travels up and down a mile-long pedestrian mall — the only vehicle allowed there — arriving every 90 seconds. It’s […]
Update From Delhi: Separated Bike Lanes Far From Guaranteed
| | 1 Comment
Delhi currently has separated cycle tracks along its BRT corridors. Image: BRT_Delhi/Flickr On Monday, we reported on Delhi’s decision to install bike lanes on all its major roads — an intriguing piece of news from a developing world metropolis where private motoring appears poised to potentially overwhelm the city’s streets. We noted that it seemed […]
Baby Steps Forward in Bedford Avenue Bike Lane Debate
| | 12 Comments
Last night’s bike lane debate. From left: Heather Loop, Lyla Durden, Caroline Samponaro, Isaac Abraham, and Baruch Herzfeld. Photo: Gothamist. The seemingly perpetual conflict in Williamsburg over bike lanes has seen a lot of twists and turns the last few years. The issue has surfaced in City Council elections, on the local community board, and […]
Delhi Turns to Bike Lanes to Tame World’s Most Dangerous Traffic
| | 2 Comments
Space is at a premium on Delhi’s streets. Photo: DaveBleasdale/Flickr Delhi, home to over 12 million people and the seat of India’s national government, is widely considered to have the most dangerous traffic in the world. As the Guardian wrote recently, traffic safety in Delhi basically consists of "good horns, good brakes, good luck." Nationally, […]
Electeds: Separated Bus Lanes Would Make East Side Plan Even Better
| | 4 Comments
From left to right: State Senator José Serrano, Assembly Member Micah Kellner, Assembly Member Jonathan Bing, Borough President Scott Stringer, and Council Member Jessica Lappin. East Side electeds continue to express support for the MTA and NYCDOT’s redesign of First and Second Avenues while pushing for a more complete corridor. In exchanges with Streetsblog this […]
Coming Soon: Ped-Friendly “Urban Umbrellas” for NYC Sidewalks
| | 23 Comments
Image: NYC Department of Buildings Walking through parts of New York can feel like walking through a tunnel. The city’s ubiquitous sidewalk sheds — typically blue scaffolding holding up green plywood to protect pedestrians from construction overhead — corral people into cramped, dark spaces wherever development or building repairs are underway. There are about 6,000 […]
LIRR’s Brooklyn Bunker: More Extreme Than NYPD Counterterror Guidelines
| | 36 Comments
Security barriers mar the Atlantic Terminal sidewalk. Image: Noah Kazis. Brooklyn’s new Long Island Rail Road terminal opened earlier this month to generally positive reviews for its airy interior. Outside the station? That’s an entirely different matter. The Brooklyn Paper called the "sarcophagus-sized slabs of stone" on the sidewalk — which nearly come up to […]
The 5 O’Clock Shutdown: What If Your Building Limits Bike Access?
| | 10 Comments
Image: NYCDOT Since the Bikes in Buildings Law went into effect last month, landlords and building managers have gone about complying (or not) in different ways. Some, like real estate mogul Larry Silverstein, are embracing bikes in the workplace. Others are dragging their feet and putting up obstacles for bike commuters who want to bring […]