Recent Streetsblog NYC posts about Quality of Life

A Brooklyn Parking Lot Becomes a Neighborhood “Living Room”

By Aaron Naparstek | Aug 15, 2007 | 5 Comments

Paint a Parking Lot, Put Up a Paradise A StreetFilm by Nick Whitaker Running time: 2:45 StreetFilms has some excellent video coverage of the Dept. of Transportation’s launch of its Public Plaza Initiative in Brooklyn’s DUMBO neighborhood last week. The before-and-after images are particularly compelling. What once nothing more than a parking lot and illegal […]

The Cars That Ate New York

By Jason Varone | Aug 14, 2007 | No Comments

Adam J. Schwartz, who has a really interesting looking exhibit up at the Brooklyn History Society called Up From Flames, sends along this rather intense photo of a bike crash in Bushwick. As one commenter noted after seeing the photo, "Looks like a faulty bicycle." Another commenter replied, "Looks to me like a faulty traffic […]

Tonight: Traffic-Calming Mural Preview & Fundraiser

By Aaron Naparstek | Aug 13, 2007 | 3 Comments

In the Gowanus section of Brooklyn, a group of teenagers is transforming a drab, cinder block wall into a three-story mural to memorialize three children killed on dangerous Third Avenue and to remind motorists to drive safely. The mural is being organized by Transportation Alternatives and Groundswell Community Mural Project and painted under the guidance […]

In the Shadow of the Queensboro Bridge

By Aaron Naparstek | Aug 10, 2007 | 10 Comments

Life Near the Queensboro Bridge A Streetfilm by Nick Whitaker Running time: 3:44 Sarah Gallagher of the Upper Green Side introduces us to life on the neighborhood streets on the Manhattan side of the Queensboro bridge. Talking with store owners and others in the area, Streetfilms’ Nick Whitaker learns that expensive rent isn’t the only […]

City Launches “Public Plaza Initiative” at DUMBO Pocket Park

By Aaron Naparstek | Aug 10, 2007 | 21 Comments

Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan launched New York City’s new Public Plaza Initiative with the opening of a new pocket park in DUMBO yesterday. "A short time ago, this was a barren parking lot," Sadik-Khan said. "But people immediately filled up this space as the green came in. That speaks to the hunger and demand that […]

Paint a Parking Lot, Put up a Paradise

By Aaron Naparstek | Aug 9, 2007 | 1 Comment

New York City Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan unveiled DOT’s new Plaza Initiative in DUMBO, Brooklyn today. The press conference took place at the Pearl Street Plaza, a triangular pocket park that only a few weeks ago served as a parking lot and illegal dump. This afternoon the Plaza was filled with people eating lunch, taking […]

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