Recent Streetsblog NYC posts about Amanda Burden

The Next New York: How NYC Can Grow as a Walkable City

By Noah Kazis | Feb 22, 2010 | 12 Comments

In the last eight years, Amanda Burden's Department of City Planning has rezoned 20 percent of New York along relatively transit-oriented lines, while simultaneously promoting quasi-suburban projects at prominent sites and maintaining parking minimums that erode the pedestrian environment. In other words, the planning department is promoting growth in the right places, but enabling the wrong kind of development. So in the next four years, will New York's planners adopt more sustainable practices or continue the status quo?

The Next New York: How the Planning Department Sabotages Sustainability

By Noah Kazis | Feb 19, 2010 | 18 Comments

The Argyle, a new arrival on Brooklyn’s Fourth Avenue, is close to transit but cedes the ground floor to parking rather than retail or even a stoop. Parking requirements throughout New York compromise walkable development. Image: Brownstoner. This is the second installment in a three-part series on the reshaping of New York City and its […]

Shaping the Next New York: The Promise of Bloomberg’s Rezonings

By Noah Kazis | Feb 18, 2010 | 7 Comments

The Department of City Planning has mostly zoned for growth near transit, as in its plan for downtown Jamaica (left). Where the city has encouraged growth far from transit, however, car-oriented developments have followed, like Schaefer Landing in Williamsburg (right). This is the first installment in a three-part series on the reshaping of New York […]

Smart Growth Leader Tells Planning Commission: NYC Can Do Better

By Noah Kazis | Jan 5, 2010 | 12 Comments

According to the Smart Growth Manual, "It is the planner’s role not to incentivize driving, but to create a transit and pedestrian experience that makes not driving a pleasure." New York may be the most transit-rich city in the nation, but that doesn’t mean big changes to the city’s planning policies aren’t necessary. That’s the […]

In Third Term, Bloomberg Must Align All Agencies With PlaNYC

By Ron Shiffman | Nov 19, 2009 | 2 Comments

We continue our series on the next four years of New York City transportation and planning policy with today’s essay by Ron Shiffman. Co-founder of the Pratt Center for Community Development and a professor at the Pratt Institute’s Graduate Center for Planning, Shiffman served on the City Planning Commission from 1990 to 1996. Read previous […]

Gehl-O-Rama: City Agencies Take Lessons From Copenhagen

By Ben Fried | Nov 17, 2008 | 1 Comment

After evaluating downtown streets, city staff reported their findings on public life. Photo: Shin-pei Tsay. Before hitting the "World Class Streets" launch Thursday night, Jan Gehl addressed about 70 staffers from DOT, City Planning, and NYCEDC, part of a day-long exercise that introduced participants to the Danish planner’s site evaluation methods. Commissioners Amanda Burden and […]

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