Recent Streetsblog NYC posts about Quality of Life

What’s Really Dangerous for Kids? Hint: It Has Four Wheels and a Tailpipe.

By Sarah Goodyear | May 5, 2009 | 11 Comments

Photo by pawpaw67 via Flickr. When she wrote a column for the New York Sun last year about letting her nine-year-old ride the subway on his own, Lenore Skenazy was pilloried by many as an irresponsible mom. She stuck to her guns, though, and started a blog dedicated to "sane parenting", advocating the idea that […]

DOT: Nine New Public Plazas in the Works

By Brad Aaron | May 1, 2009 | 5 Comments

Before and after: Fulton St. and Marcy Ave. Image via DOT. DOT has announced its selections for round one of the NYC Plaza Program, which invites non-profits throughout the boroughs to propose the development of new public spaces. According to DOT, applicants were chosen based on organizational and site-specific criteria, with special consideration given to […]

SeeClickFix: Is “Little Brother” the Next Big Thing?

By Matthew Roth | Mar 25, 2009 | 6 Comments

SeeClickFix users report Union Street gridlock The next generation of community-driven reporting of quality-of-life issues — like potholes, graffiti, garbage buildup, or broken street lights — is SeeClickFix, software that enables users to populate a map with cases that are then forwarded to the responsible city agency. Much like a 311 system, SeeClickFix is predicated […]

The New Gansevoort: Pedestrian Godsend, Nightclubber Nuisance

By Ben Fried | Jan 15, 2009 | 26 Comments

A DOT team received a mix of gratitude and derision at Tuesday’s public forum about recent pedestrian improvements in the Meatpacking District, which attracted an audience of about 100 people to the Housing Works offices on West 13th Street. It was an interesting window onto the competing interests now vying to shape what has been, […]

Having a Kid Doesn’t Mean Having a Car

By Sarah Goodyear | Nov 6, 2008 | 12 Comments

Bus Chick’s "Chicklet" is happy to take public transit. One of our favorite recent discoveries on the national transpo blogging scene is Carla Saulter, a third-generation Seattleite who documents her transit-going life in a blog called Bus Chick for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. A lot of people who do without cars before they become parents think […]

Obamites: “Yes We Can!” NYPD: “Traffic First”

By Aaron Naparstek | Nov 5, 2008 | 24 Comments

Jan Gehl and Enrique Penalosa often talk about the important role that public space plays in a healthy, functioning democracy. I was reminded of that last night as joyous Brooklynites took to the streets for spontaneous celebration following Barack Obama’s election victory. This was the scene at the intersection of Fifth Avenue and Union Street […]

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