Recent Streetsblog NYC posts about Quality of Life

Illinois Adopts “Complete Streets” Into Law

By Jason Varone | Oct 17, 2007 | 8 Comments

The National Complete Streets Coalition reports on an important victory for the livable streets movement in Illinois. A new law mandates that the principles of complete streets must be incorporated into all new projects and construction, effective immediately. In near-unanimous votes, the Illinois House and Senate have overridden a gubernatorial veto to adopt a statewide […]

The World’s Greenest, Most Livable Cities

By Jason Varone | Oct 8, 2007 | 9 Comments

Writing in this month’s Reader’s Digest, Matthew Kahn, an environmental economist at UCLA’s Institute of the Environment, analyzed data from 141 nations and ranked the planet’s greenest, most livable places. While Northern European nations like Finland, Norway and Sweden fared well, the United States performed poorly in several categories, ranking #107 in Greenhouse gases, #106 […]

Doubts About DOT Congestion Prescription in Jax Heights

By Sarah Goodyear | Oct 3, 2007 | 1 Comment

Community activists in Jackson Heights have been complaining about congestion at the corner at 73rd St. and 37th Ave. (right) for years. A major traffic study of the area is underway, but according to a DOT spokesman, the department didn’t want to wait to implement "short-term initiatives" that could ease the problem. Problem is, some […]

DOT Minds the GAP

By Aaron Naparstek | Oct 2, 2007 | 9 Comments

With city workers pouring concrete in the background (and StreetFilms’ cameras rolling), New York City Department of Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan announced pedestrian and cyclist improvements for Brooklyn’s Grand Army Plaza yesterday. The plan calls for 11,000 square feet of new, landscaped pedestrian islands, a separated bike path, new crosswalks and pedestrian signals. The redesign […]

Fresh Direct Responds to Environmental Critics

By Aaron Naparstek | Oct 2, 2007 | 39 Comments

FreshDirect, the company that has built a grocery empire, in part, by using New York City’s free, public streets as their virtual warehouse, sent out an e-mail yesterday to let customers know of five new environmental initiatives the company is undertaking. While the company’s non-union truck drivers may still be double-parking, creating traffic congestion […]

Meat Market Plaza is Open for Business

By Aaron Naparstek | Sep 27, 2007 | 7 Comments

The interim redesign of Ninth Avenue and 14th Street is done. Tables, chairs, planters and some of those giant granite blocks from DOT’s Bridges Division have been set out as multipurpose bollard-bench-tables atop a gravelly, earth-tone pavement surface. What was very recently one of the longest and most hectic pedestrian crossings in Manhattan, and no […]

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