Recent Streetsblog NYC posts about “Gridlock” Sam Schwartz

If Gridlock Sam Was President…

By Ben Fried | Oct 28, 2008 | 2 Comments

A bit of pre-Election Day fun: Here’s a mock state-of-the-union speech drafted for the next President by "Gridlock" Sam Schwartz. Combining some ideas from Barack Obama’s platform with some that no candidate would utter during a presidential campaign, he lays out a plan for infrastructure investment and how to pay for it: The National Infrastructure […]

The Right Way to Double Park a Delivery Truck

By Ben Fried | Jul 15, 2008 | 22 Comments

This handy illustration, courtesy of DOT via "Gridlock" Sam Schwartz, should be in the training curriculum for every delivery driver who does business in New York. Streetfilms’ Clarence Eckerson, who came across this graphic last week, says his appeals to delivery drivers stationed in bike lanes are often met by the excuse that it is […]

T.A. Offers Reward for Park Slope “Post-Automobile Street” Designs

By Brad Aaron | Jul 7, 2008 | 10 Comments

9th St. and 4th Ave.: "A dangerous crossing that divides surrounding neighborhoods and inhibits street life." Transportation Alternatives is seeking proposals to reinvent the intersection of 9th Street and 4th Avenue in Park Slope. "Designing the 21st Century Street," a competition open to the general public, will reward the three most promising submissions with up […]

High Gas Prices Won’t Cure Gridlock

By Charles Komanoff | Jul 3, 2008 | 19 Comments

It’s the New Math: a dollar-a-trip rise in the cost of fuel for a car trip to Manhattan is cutting traffic almost as much as Mayor Bloomberg’s eight-dollar toll plan would have done. Too good to be true, right? But that’s the slant of the front-page headline in today’s Times, "Politics Failed, but Fuel Prices […]

SE Prospect Park Re-Design Includes Some Restrictions on Cars

By Ben Fried | May 22, 2008 | 7 Comments

Rendering of the preliminary design for Lakeside Center in Prospect Park. A new Prospect Park skating rink and recreational facility will come with a smaller parking lot and improved bike access, reports neighborhood blog Hawthorne Street. The plan to re-design the southeast area of Brooklyn’s flagship park, unveiled at a public meeting this Monday, will […]

God Said, “Let There Be Parking Placards.” And It Was So.

By Ben Fried | Feb 27, 2008 | 17 Comments

Only three days remain until 20 percent of government parking placards must be surrendered, but as Gridlock Sam wrote here last month, that should be just the beginning of placard reform. Case in point: Uncivil Servants featured a story last week of an Upper East Side synagogue that manufactures its own bogus placards while the […]

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