Recent Streetsblog NYC posts about Public Space

T.O.D. in Brooklyn: Turning Parking Lots into Housing

By Aaron Donovan | | 12 Comments
Some reading ahead of tomorrow’s big Transit-Oriented Development forum at NYU… Public attention is focused on Atlantic Yards and condo towers under construction or planned from DUMBO to Long Island City, but the Brooklyn real estate boom is having subtler but equally profound effects on neighborhoods just outside the radar, and these changes are tremendously beneficial from a regional planning perspective. […]

Foreign Correspondent: Bogotá’s Lack of “Vibrancy”

By Aaron Naparstek | | 10 Comments
Before Enrique Peñalosa took over as Mayor of Bogotá, Colombia, this thriving downtown plaza was a decrepit, crime-ridden, traffic-congested slum. Peñalosa cleared out the old shacks, banned private motor vehicles, launched the Transmilenio bus service, created the plaza, and returned this public space to his city’s people. Granted, the neighborhood pictured above clearly lacks the First […]

Life on Crutches in NYC

By Glenn McAnanama | | 8 Comments
For the last month, since I broke my ankle, New York has ceased to be the same place for me. At least in terms of getting around the city, the landscape has been dramatically transformed. Week 1 was spent in relative isolation at my parents house on Staten Island where they were nice enough to […]

Downtown Brooklyn Traffic Calming Project: Ten Years On

By Aaron Naparstek | | 5 Comments
March 1996: Residents in Brooklyn Heights, Cobble Hill, Carroll Gardens, and Boerum Hill are tired of their streets absorbing overflow from the nearby Brooklyn-Queens Expressway. Neighborhood groups have tried repeatedly to convince the City to protect the neighborhoods from rush hour through traffic. So far, the City has done nothing but promise further study. DOT […]

The Bronx is Burning Bicycling

By Aaron Naparstek | | 3 Comments
In the aftermath of last weekend’s 5,000 rider Tour de Bronx, I thought it might be worth revisiting the the Department of City Planning’s August 2006 Bronx Harlem River Bicycle and Pedestrian Study. The study identifies a number of specific ways to carve out space for cyclists and pedestrians and help neighborhoods of the South Bronx get better connected to […]

Flushing Meadows: Park or Parking Lot?

By Aaron Naparstek | | 2 Comments
Streetsblog doesn’t manage to get out to Queens all that often these days, so it’s good to know that The Park Watchdog is keeping an eye on Flushing Meadows Park. Here is what he sees: Cars. Lots of them. Parked all over the grass.  The Dog’s general thesis: When Robert Moses handed over Flushing Meadows park in 1967 to […]
Show More Stories