Recent Streetsblog NYC posts about Urban Design

Pay Phones May Be a Bad Call for City

By Sarah Goodyear | Aug 17, 2007 | 14 Comments

An article in today’s New York Times looks at the city’s most prominent — and profitable — form of street furniture, the pay telephone: The phone kiosks generate $62 million in advertising revenue annually — and last year the city got $13.7 million of the take, triple what it pulled in from calls. Over all, […]

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 […]

Video Shows Dangers of Upper East Side Bike Plan

By Aaron Naparstek | Aug 14, 2007 | 50 Comments

The City’s plan to stripe a bike lane across the Upper East Side continues to generate "controversy." I put that word in quotes because, well, check out the video above and see for yourself what all the fuss is all about. The video was filmed on a beautiful Saturday afternoon at about 2:00 pm, theoretically, […]

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 […]

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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