Recent Streetsblog NYC posts about Quality of Life

Pedestrian Burdens: Send Us Pics of the Parking Garages Killing Your Street

By Noah Kazis | Nov 10, 2011 | 14 Comments

Get your cameras ready, Streetsbloggers. It’s time to show Department of City Planning Director Amanda Burden what city-mandated parking garages are doing to the streets in your neighborhood. In most of New York, it’s illegal to build anything of a certain size without a certain amount of parking, thanks to 1960s-era mandates in the city […]

Rezoning to Encourage Street Life on Brooklyn’s Fourth Avenue

By Noah Kazis | Jun 22, 2011 | 7 Comments

When the Department of City Planning put forward its rezoning of Park Slope in 2003, one of the earliest of the now 111 rezonings under Mayor Bloomberg and City Planning Commissioner Amanda Burden, it was intended to help turn Fourth Avenue into “a grand boulevard of the 21st Century.” The sought-after residential development has started […]

MAS Survey: New York City Is Livable But Not Everyone Benefits Equally

By Noah Kazis | Oct 21, 2010 | 3 Comments

New Yorkers think their city is very livable, a new survey conducted by the Municipal Art Society shows, but livability isn’t equitably distributed across the five boroughs. To make the city truly livable, said panelists today at an MAS conference, New York needs to figure out how to bring its best features to all neighborhoods. […]

NYC’s Car-Free Majority Deserves a Share of Defunct Bus Stops

By Ben Fried and Noah Kazis | Jul 16, 2010 | 10 Comments

Photo: cyclosity/Flickr When the MTA service cuts took effect last month, 570 bus stops around the city suddenly became a collective no-man’s land. Buses weren’t pulling up to the curb anymore, creating an irresistible vacuum for motorists. If you belong to a neighborhood message board or listserve, you may have come across a few dispatches […]

How Do You Get New York’s Street Fairs Past Fried Dough?

By Noah Kazis | Jun 17, 2010 | 10 Comments

A typical New York street fair. This one’s on the Upper West Side, not that it makes a difference. Photo: Ed Yourdon/Flickr Every summer, New Yorkers face a dire shortage of tube socks. Or so you’d assume if you walked through the city’s 300-odd street fairs. Though some fairs are cherished local institutions, the majority […]

Jackson Heights Neighbors Band Together to Win Car-Free Street Expansion

By Noah Kazis | May 24, 2010 | 11 Comments

Jackson Heights residents and Council Member Daniel Dromm (bottom left) marched to Queens Community Board 3 to call for expanding the car-free 78th Street Play Street. Photo via Jackson Heights Green Alliance Nearly 200 Jackson Heights residents marched on their community board last Thursday night to support the expansion of car-free public space in their […]

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